The Ingenuity of Ayra Starr’s Afropop – The Republic: Serious Journalism from an African Worldview

Three identical women with long brown hair pose against a blue sky backdrop, embodying an African worldview. They wear cropped tops and orange pants. One woman stands with hands above her head, while others flank her sides, creating a scene reminiscent of an Afropop music video.

Ayra Starr clearly treats ‘21’ as a key milestone worth capturing, savouring, and documenting in all its glory. On The Year I Turned 21, she is committed to exploring the highs of being young and carefree, on ‘Lagos Love Story’ and ‘Bad Vibes’, as well as the lows, on songs like ‘21’ and ‘Last Heartbreak Song.’ The Year I Turned 21 captures the contradictory feelings and emotions, which often come with growing older and stepping into a new era of adulthood.  

Ayra Starr sits comfortably in the joy and light of…