11th June, 2024
By Nehru Odeh
Ayra Starr is over the moon and basking in the glow of the fame the release of her sophomore album, “The Year I Turned 21” has engendered.
“What it feels to be more than twenty-one. I’ve never known, I’ve never tried, never loved, ” the chorus of that title track says.
Still, she knows what it feels like to be a star, as her name implies. And she has the bragging right to celebrate her stardom, her second outing on the international music scene, and savour the euphoria as well as the limelight it inspires. Yet the beat goes on.
Ayra is certainly hogging the limelight, though this is not the year she turned 21. The year she turned 21 was the year she cemented her solidity as an artiste: what with her Grammy nomination, becoming the most streamed female artiste on Spotify Nigeria in 2023 and her hit single “Rush” now hitting 352 million views on YouTube.
And with Rihanna already signifying interest to work with her, nothing indeed can be better. And she is at the moment reaping the fruits of the seeds she had sown the previous years.
“My biggest celeb story is Rihanna,” Ayra, was quoted as saying on meeting Rihanna for the first time.
Yet her fans can’t get enough of her. Her fans can’t stop asking for more like the Dickensian Oliver Twist. And as she turns 22 in three days time, the lady born Oyikansola Sarah Aderigbigbe, but who is now a star, is not in a rush and has nothing else to prove.
Not only has she literally made a name for herself and shone as a star, (the name she gave herself), the Queen of Afrobeats Tiwa Savage is standing solidly behind her, rooting for her and has confirmed that she is indeed a star.
“She looks amazing. She’s extremely talented. She’s a star, ” Tiwa said about Ayra in an interview with Kiss FM(UK) recently.
“It feels amazing seeing artist like Ayra Starr say that I inspired them. Ayra Starr’s music is so good and I don’t just love her but I’m obsessed with her. Seeing how successful Ayra Starr is makes me emotional because when I started, I got criticîzed a lot for dressing too sęxy and that my lyrics were too risquę.
“I like Ayra Starr and she is doing great but she isn’t dressing that well, she needs to wear shorter skîrts. She’s talented and beautiful and I really love her. It’s not everyday that you inspire someone,” Tiwa averred.
She needs to wear shorter skirts? That Tiwa’s oft-quoted speech, which went viral on the internet on its release, elicits some nagging questions: Why is Tiwa so obsessed with Ayra? Is it because of the common fetish they have for short skirts and dressing seductively? Is it because they both are in the confederacy of short skirts or does it go beyond that?
Tiwa Savage and Ayra Starr are a generation apart. Yet they are twin friends. Despite the huge age difference between them – the former is 43, while the later is 22 – there is palpable chemistry between them.
Yet despite the huge generational difference, despite their age differences, despite the fact that one preceded the other on the music scene, both artistes vibe on a level playing ground.
Seeing the two artistes vibe to Tiwa’s hit single, “Stamina”, on TikTok, which went viral last year, one would not be wrong to say that both artiste have collapsed their age and generational differences and set them aside.
Still, what makes both of them vibe to each other? What makes Tiwa gets so crazy over Ayra. The answer simply lies in the cliche, birds of a feather flock together.
Aside from being both females doing marvelously well on the music scene, Tiwa and Ayra share some uncanny similarities. A strange similarity connects the two artiste and perhaps that explains the bond between them.
Tiwa has never hidden her admiration for the successes Ayra has recorded on both the local and international music scene. And the fact that they are connected by their links with Mavin Records also makes Tiwa have a soft spot for her. “Seeing how successful Ayra has become, makes me emotional,” Tiwa said in that interview.
Tiwa sees Ayra as a younger version of her self, her clone. She sees her as one who shares the same craziness, the same craze for skirts and the same propensity for dressing seductively, as well as the same bashing for doing so. Yet both of them are unfazed by the vitriolic criticisms they have received so far.
“If I see Ayra Starr wearing a short skîrt, I’ll be like “Make it shorter. She needs to wear shorter skirts’, ” Tiwa said, giving a thumbs up to her.
And Ayra, like Tiwa, doesn’t give a damn about the condemnation she has received so far. “How I dress or how I live my life is nobody’s business, I no send anybody.”
“If you’re not my pastor, you’re not Jesus, and you’re not my mother, so you can keep your opinion about me to yourself. I don’t wanna know and I don’t give a dãmn because no matter how much you talk, I’m not gonna change my dressing and lifestyle, ” Ayra said, as though she were channelling Tiwa, who is wont to say the same thing under normal circumstances.
Success they say has many fathers while failure is an orphan. For two consecutive years, 2022 and 2023, Ayra was the most streamed female artiate on Spotify Nigeria. And Tiwa was the second most streamed female artiste on Spotify Nigeria in 2023.
Seeing the successes Ayra has recorded on the local and international scenes, her Grammy nomination, her hit single “Rush” garnering more than 352 million views on YouTube, why won’t Tiwa be obsessed with her?
One thing indeed leads to the other. And just as Shelley Bysshe Shelley, the English romantic poet, sings in his famous poem, “Ode to the West wind”, “if winter comes, can spring be far behind?