Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe (born 14 June 2002), known professionally as Ayra Starr, is a Beninese-born Nigerian singer. She began a fashion career at the age of 16 with Quove Model Management before deciding to pursue a career in music. After covering several songs by popular artists on Instagram, she posted her first original song on her page in December 2019. This brought her to the attention of record executive Don Jazzy, who signed her to his record label Mavin Records.
In early 2021, Ayra Starr achieved mainstream recognition with her eponymous debut extended play and its hit track “Away”, which spent two consecutive weeks at number four on Nigeria’s TurnTable Top 50 chart; the song also peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Top Triller Global chart, paving the way for the release of her first full-length mixtape, 19 & Dangerous (2021). Categorized mainly as Afropop and R&B, the mixtape received favourable critical reception and spawned two top forty hits in Nigeria. The lead single “Bloody Samaritan” peaked atop the Top 50 chart, becoming the first solo song by a female artist to reach the number-one position. Starr debuted on the Pandora Predictions chart, and on 28 August 2021, was ranked number three on Billboard’s Next Big Sound.
Ayra Starr would later achieve mainstream international recognition in 2022, with the release of her song “Rush”. The song charted in several territories, including Switzerland, Ireland and the United Kingdom, where it peaked at Number 24.
With the song, Ayra became the Youngest African Female Artist to surpass 100 Million views on a single video on YouTube, and also the first to do so within 5 months. She also set a new record by becoming the only Nigerian Female Artist to have charted a solo song on UK Official Singles Chart.
