Nigerian Afrobeats superstar Ayra Starr is getting her hair blow-dried when she casually mentions that she has a plane to catch in an hour.
It is less than 48 hours before release day, and our conversation has already been moved around to accommodate her recovery from surgery (the specific reason for which she has not disclosed). Somewhere between answering questions, getting ready, and preparing to travel, Starr admits she initially felt pressure to “push, push, push” before accepting that “I can’t do anything more than my body will allow me.”
There’s often plenty of chatter about whether the younger generation of pop stars has the appetite for the traditional grind of superstardom. Watching the machinery moving around the 24-year-old Nigerian singer suggests something more complicated. Despite being in recovery, Starr made time for our conversation, hosted listening parties in New York and Los Angeles, and still managed to do an early outing on the “Today” show. She has simply gotten very good at making the grind look effortless.
Starr’s third studio album, “Starrgirl,” is out today (Aug. 14), and poses some answers to questions like, What does it look like when you move to NYC, trust in yourself more, and remove the noise and expectations from yourself, your environment, and, most of all, the internet? The new collection of songs finds Starr experimenting with new sounds while keeping a foundation in the Afrobeats that brought her to global attention, and it’s her voice that is the throughline. The album is stacked with features from Zayn Malik, Leon Thomas, fellow Grammy nominee Wizkid, Kwn, Rema, Danny Ocean, Theodora, and more.
