Ayra Starr on her secret relationship and teasing Stevie Wonder
There's resilience, and then there's Ayra Starr.
Two weeks before the release of her new album, Starrgirl, the Nigerian singer posted a photo from hospital, after undergoing "major surgery".
"I was hoping it would be a quick recovery, but it was more complicated than they expected," she told fans, external, without disclosing the nature of the procedure.
Within seven days, she was back in the dance studio, rehearsing for forthcoming performances with a large bandage strapped across her stomach. TV appearances, fan events and live performances followed.
"I'm healing," she told the US breakfast TV show, Today. "I have strength today. I'm so happy I was able to even be here today and be able to do this."
It's a display of the tenacity and ambition that's defined Starr's career to date.
Discovered singing covers on YouTube at the age of 18, she became the first African woman to win best international act at the Mobo Awards, and the first Nigerian woman to surpass one billion video views on YouTube.
In 2024, she was the first Afrobeats artist to play Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage – and finished her set by declaring she'd return as a headliner. Last year, she modelled for Di Petsa at London Fashion Week, closing their show in a white lace two-piece, flanked by an angel.
So it's hardly a surprise that Starr pitches up to our interview with a sort of celestial confidence. She's given to grand proclamations like "I'm unstoppable", or "I will exist in multitudes". But somehow, she never sounds arrogant or conceited.
Behind the move was a desire to explore new influences and expand her sound. So you get a track like Where Do We Go, which marries a sashaying Afrobeats rhythm to a hypnotic electronic pulse.
"Like, the rebel I am, I love to juxtapose," she says.
"I don't like being normal and boring. So the idea of writing a heartbreak song on a beat like that, where you can dance to it, was just very enticing. I love things like that."
The lyrics were inspired by a secretive relationship "that was stuck in a rut but I kept coming back to it".
We've all been there. It's all too easy to settle for an imperfect partner because they're a comfortable and familiar presence.
Starr admits the thought of starting over with someone else filled her with fear.
"You're back to square one, and somebody's asking for your favourite colour again.
"I'm like, 'Oh my God! Can we, like, not do that?'"
The problem with staying in the relationship, however, was the way it affected the rest of her life.
"You keep accepting things lower than your standard, and that influences every single thing in your life - because when you let yourself go, romantically and emotionally, it affects you physically, and the music, and all of that.
"So even though I enjoyed [the romance] while it lasted, I picked my priorities and what was most important to me. And that relationship wasn't as important as the music... or anything else."
The story could act as a metaphor for the entire album. After the runaway success of her breakout single, Rush, and her second album, The Year I Turned 21, Starr was beginning to feel trapped by other people's expectations.
"Just like any other pop artist, passive listeners get attached to the songs they know - the popular songs.
"Then you're stuck between creating for the passive listeners and creating for your core fans who want you to do more.
"So that can limit you, because you stop thinking as an artist and start thinking about making music just for consumers.
"But I'm not meant to conform. It's just not who I am. I will rebel against every single preconception and every stereotype."
So she's ditched the teenage angst of her debut, but also the poise of its follow-up. This is an album about walking to her own rhythm, as Starr grows into autonomy and womanhood.
On Misunderstood, she laughs at the people who told her she'd "never make it on her own"; while the laid back groove of Treasure allows Starr to pause and savour her success.
"Give me some fun / Pure enjoyment / Take a photo of me," she sings in Yoraba.
The most infectious song on the album is Ms Paper, which takes a detour into Bouyon – a Dominican music characterised by high tempos and frantic percussion. It was recorded almost by accident at the end of a session with French-Congolese star Theodora on a hot and sticky February night in LA.
They'd actually finished working for the day, and had just polished off a boozy dinner of Congolese food when inspiration struck.
"The AC in the studio wasn't working, so everybody's delirious, everybody's sweating, everybody's drunk," Starr says.
"At one point we're probably taking off tops. I changed outfit twice because I was drenched in sweat."
It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but when you play it back, you can practically see the steam rising from your speakers.
Live snippets of the song have already gone viral, suggesting Starr has another hefty hit on her hands. At the same time, she's faced criticism in Nigeria from people who feel she's diluting her musical heritage by chasing a more global sound
"People have a certain template they think I should follow, and it's like, you cannot tell me how to dream," she says.
"I'm able to honour my culture, but also try new things, because that's who I am."
Starr answers her critics, in a roundabout way, on her album cover - where she pairs a club-ready gold dress with a traditional gele headwrap.
Reporting from BBC News contributed to this story.
