Cotonou, BJ · afrobeats · afropop

Ayra Starr

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Mavin Records star with a sharp pop instinct and a delivery that cuts straight through the mix — Gen-Z afrobeats with global-chart ambition already realized.

Ayra Starr, born Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe in Benin and raised in Cotonou and Lagos, comes from a Yoruba family with roots in Kwara State. She is the second of five children and made music with her older brother growing up. She finished second on the children's talent show Maltina Dance All and later studied international relations and political science in Cotonou.

She signed to Don Jazzy's Mavin Records while still a teenager, after he heard a song she had posted to Instagram in 2019 and invited her to record at Mavin Studios in Lagos. Her music sits at the pop end of afrobeats, drawing on R&B, neo-soul and the alte scene, with lyrics that often deal with independence and self-possession.

Her self-titled debut EP topped Nigeria's iTunes and Apple Music charts in 2021, and its single 'Away' reached the national Top 50. She broke through further with 'Bloody Samaritan' from her debut album 19 & Dangerous, which became the first song by a solo female artist to top Nigeria's Top 50 chart, and she was ranked third on Billboard's Next Big Sound list that year.

She went on to reach wide international audiences with 'Rush', which charted in Switzerland, Ireland and the United Kingdom and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best African Music Performance; her collaborations have extended her reach well beyond West Africa. Her second album, The Year I Turned 21, followed in 2024, with a third, Starr Girl, arriving in 2026.

On stage she works with a clear, forward vocal and a strong visual sense, and she is among the most prominent of the younger generation of Nigerian pop artists.

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