Ayra Starr on her secret relationship and teasing Stevie Wonder

The e’s esilie ce, a d the the e’s Ay a Sta .

Two weeks befo e the elease of he ew album, Sta gi l, the Nige ia si ge posted a photo f om hospital, afte u de goi g “majo su ge y”.

“I was hopi g it would be a quick ecove y, but it was mo e complicated tha they expected,” she told fa s, without disclosi g the atu e of the p ocedu e.

Withi seve days, she was back i the da ce studio, ehea si g fo fo thcomi g pe fo ma ces with a la ge ba dage st apped ac oss he stomach. TV appea a ces, fa eve ts a d live pe fo ma ces followed.

“I’m heali g,” she told the US b eakfast TV show, Today. “I have st e gth today. I’m so happy I was able to eve be he e today a d be able to do this.”

It’s a display of the te acity a d ambitio that’s defi ed Sta ‘s ca ee to date.

Discove ed si gi g cove s o YouTube at the age of 18, she became the fi st Af ica woma to wi best i te atio al act at the Mobo Awa ds, a d the fi st Nige ia woma to su pass o e billio video views o YouTube.

I 2024, she was the fi st Af obeats a tist to play Glasto bu y’s Py amid Stage – a d fi ished he set by decla i g she’d etu as a headli e . Last yea , she modelled fo Di Petsa at Lo do Fashio Week, closi g thei show i a white lace two-piece, fla ked by a a gel.

So it’s ha dly a su p ise that Sta pitches up to ou i te view with a so t of celestial co fide ce. She’s give to g a d p oclamatio s like “I’m u stoppable”, o “I will exist i multitudes”. But somehow, she eve sou ds a oga t o co ceited.

That’s p obably due to a se se of humou so d y it could soak up a tsu ami. Sta is c imi ally sa castic, a d delights i wi di g people up.

Fo example: Whe music lege d Stevie Wo de pho ed to co g atulate Sta o a G ammy omi atio , she goaded him i to a playful a gume t about zodiac sig s.

“I was t yi g to o e-up him eve y si gle time, a d he was t yi g to o e-up me. It was almost like a battle,” she ecalls.

Sta eve tually got to the poi t whe e she told Wo de , a Tau us, that “Tau uses ai ‘t c ap”.

“I’m su e he was like, ‘Who is this? What do you wa t f om me?’ But it was a ve y cute co ve satio . I espect it.”

It’s a u o thodox app oach to maki g f ie ds, but it seems to wo k.

Ove the cou se of he ca ee , Sta ‘s hooked up with Coldplay, Tyla, David Guetta, Le Sse afim a d Kelly Rowla d f om Desti y’s Child.

He ew album boasts collabo atio s with Af obeats lege ds Wizkid a d Rema, as well as O e Di ectio ‘s Zay Malik a d isi g R&B si ge KWN.

The album is he fi st u de a ew ma ageme t deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Natio , a d a elocatio to New Yo k. Leavi g Lagos was a big upheaval, she co fessed i a essay posted to he Substack last yea .

“New Yo k is basically a walk-i f eeze with e t,” she w ote. “It’s so cold it feels like the city is actively t yi g to u alive my motivatio … I’m ot sca ed, I p omise.”

Behi d the move was a desi e to explo e ew i flue ces a d expa d he sou d. So you get a t ack like Whe e Do We Go, which ma ies a sashayi g Af obeats hythm to a hyp otic elect o ic pulse.

“Like, the ebel I am, I love to juxtapose,” she says.

“I do ‘t like bei g o mal a d bo i g. So the idea of w iti g a hea tb eak so g o a beat like that, whe e you ca da ce to it, was just ve y e tici g. I love thi gs like that.”

The ly ics we e i spi ed by a sec etive elatio ship “that was stuck i a ut but I kept comi g back to it”.

We’ve all bee the e. It’s all too easy to settle fo a impe fect pa t e because they’ e a comfo table a d familia p ese ce.

Sta admits the thought of sta ti g ove with someo e else filled he with fea .

“You’ e back to squa e o e, a d somebody’s aski g fo you favou ite colou agai .

“I’m like, ‘Oh my God! Ca we, like, ot do that?'”

The p oblem with stayi g i the elatio ship, howeve , was the way it affected the est of he life.

“You keep accepti g thi gs lowe tha you sta da d, a d that i flue ces eve y si gle thi g i you life – because whe you let you self go, oma tically a d emotio ally, it affects you physically, a d the music, a d all of that.

“So eve though I e joyed [the oma ce] while it lasted, I picked my p io ities a d what was most impo ta t to me. A d that elatio ship was ‘t as impo ta t as the music… o a ythi g else.”

The sto y could act as a metapho fo the e ti e album. Afte the u away success of he b eakout si gle, Rush, a d he seco d album, The Yea I Tu ed 21, Sta was begi i g to feel t apped by othe people’s expectatio s.

“Just like a y othe pop a tist, passive liste e s get attached to the so gs they k ow – the popula so gs.

“The you’ e stuck betwee c eati g fo the passive liste e s a d c eati g fo you co e fa s who wa t you to do mo e.

“So that ca limit you, because you stop thi ki g as a a tist a d sta t thi ki g about maki g music just fo co sume s.

“But I’m ot mea t to co fo m. It’s just ot who I am. I will ebel agai st eve y si gle p eco ceptio a d eve y ste eotype.”

So she’s ditched the tee age a gst of he debut, but also the poise of its follow-up. This is a album about walki g to he ow hythm, as Sta g ows i to auto omy a d woma hood.

O Misu de stood, she laughs at the people who told he she’d ” eve make it o he ow “; while the laid back g oove of T easu e allows Sta to pause a d savou he success.

“Give me some fu / Pu e e joyme t / Take a photo of me,” she si gs i Yo aba.

The most i fectious so g o the album is Ms Pape , which takes a detou i to Bouyo – a Domi ica music cha acte ised by high tempos a d f a tic pe cussio . It was eco ded almost by accide t at the e d of a sessio with F e ch-Co golese sta Theodo a o a hot a d sticky Feb ua y ight i LA.

They’d actually fi ished wo ki g fo the day, a d had just polished off a boozy di e of Co golese food whe i spi atio st uck.

“The AC i the studio was ‘t wo ki g, so eve ybody’s deli ious, eve ybody’s sweati g, eve ybody’s d u k,” Sta says.

“At o e poi t we’ e p obably taki g off tops. I cha ged outfit twice because I was d e ched i sweat.”

It sou ds like a ecipe fo disaste , but whe you play it back, you ca p actically see the steam isi g f om you speake s.

Live s ippets of the so g have al eady go e vi al, suggesti g Sta has a othe hefty hit o he ha ds. At the same time, she’s faced c iticism i Nige ia f om people who feel she’s diluti g he musical he itage by chasi g a mo e global sou d

“People have a ce tai template they thi k I should follow, a d it’s like, you ca ot tell me how to d eam,” she says.

“I’m able to ho ou my cultu e, but also t y ew thi gs, because that’s who I am.”

Sta a swe s he c itics, i a ou dabout way, o he album cove – whe e she pai s a club- eady gold d ess with a t aditio al gele headw ap.

“I wa ted you g gi ls i Kwa a State o E i -Ile to see this a d feel ep ese ted,” she told Capital Xt a.

“I’m ot the fi st to do it, I wo ‘t be the last to do it – but I wa t people to feel co fide t i thei cultu e a d wea [the gele] like the c ow that it is.”

Not fo the fi st time, he i sti cts p oved ight. Sta ‘s stu i g, et o-futu istic look has go e vi al, i spi i g doze s of copycats, a d tempe i g at least some of the c iticism of he ew di ectio .

As she says i he ew so g, Amazi g: “If they’ e go a talk, I’ll give them somethi g to talk about“.

“That’s defi itely my ma t a,” she says.

“A d do you k ow what? I thi k I eed to liste to myself mo e because I have all the a swe s i my music.”