Fresh off the back of her incredible performance at Glastonbury Festival, Afrobeats sensation Ayra Starr joined Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie on Capital XTRA this morning, where she admitted that she is ‘surprised’ by the reaction to her brand-new album, The Year I Turned 21, and how much people have ‘related’ to it. Ayra also revealed that trying jellied eels was the biggest culture shock she has experience while in the UK, and she shared the details of how she was locked inside a lift last year, causing her to miss a show in Manchester!
Key
Ayra Starr – AS
Shayna Marie – SM
Leon Edwards – LE
Afrobeats star Ayra Starr says that she is ‘surprised’ by how many people have related to her new album following her Glastonbury Festival performance
RB: “Talk to us. First of all, Glastonbury – You just shut it down! How did you enjoy being on the main stage?”
AS: “Crazy, I was so excited for Glastonbury. Just being on that stage, I remember I was like, ‘Wow!’ But you know, I feel like the tour – the Chris Brown tour – really prepared me, for when I was like, ‘I just want to have fun, so why not?’ Just show them Aftrobeats and how it is just about enjoying yourself.”
RB: “Not too long ago you joined us when you released ‘Commas,’ that was before the album was out. Since then, the full project is out.”
AS: “Have you listened to it?”
RB: “Yeah man, there’s a couple of big tunes on there, you know. What’s been the reaction to the album?”
AS: “The outro – ‘The Kids Are Alright’ – I didn’t expect people to relate so much to it. So the song, I didn’t expect people to relate to it so much; I feel like people sent me messages and be like they lost their parent, they lost their loved one, and it made them cry, and it was really beautiful to see.”
SM: “Last September was the original date for the release of the album – Are you happy things turned out the way they did?”
AS: “Definitely. Definitely. I recorded the last song three days before we picked songs for the album. So if I didn’t have that much time to be in my feelings, to be on my bed – my mother’s bed – you know, being in my room with my brothers shouting downstairs and my niece crying, I felt like I needed to be in my zone. Yeah.”
SM: “You mentioned a little bit earlier, of course, Chris Brown being on tour and that kind of prepared you for Glasto – How was the tour?”
AS: “It was eye-opening! Eye-opening. Let me tell you guys, I learnt so much. I learnt so much, even about like stage, engineering, lighting. Like, I’ve never seen anything like that before and just doing that type of show – massive! Like, he is such an amazing performer – like, wow! Every show I was watching, every single day, I was backstage with the engineers, they would give me Chris’, like, exactly what he was singing. I would hear everything, I was seeing what was happening, I was seeing how the show was a lot of work. A lot of work!”
Ayra Starr admits that trying jellied eels has been her ‘biggest culture shock’ while in the UK
RB: “You’ve travelled all over the world, Ayra. You said in the US the biggest culture you’ve experienced is the food portion size. What is the biggest culture shock in the UK?”
AS: “I feel like the UK is very similar to Nigeria; so the culture is not that different. I think it’s the food. The UK food – not like Chinese, or Nigerian or Italian food – British food. There’s one thing I had, I can’t remember, it was like jellied eel?”
SM: “They made you eat jellied eel?”
RB: “You’re eating stuff that we don’t even eat.”
AS: “They were like, ‘This is the staple!’”
SM: “Haha! Nah, they tricked you.”
AS: “Jellied eel!”
SM: “Sue, sue somebody, Ayra! Sue them!”
AS: “The video never came out.”
Ayra Starr reveals that she ‘prayed’ after getting stuck in a lift and missing a show in Manchester
SM: “Ayra Starr, one word for you: Elevators. You got stuck in an elevator last year in Manchester. What happened?”
AS: “It’s like the stuff that happens in the movies. For real. Like, I had a show and we’re stuck in the elevator for like an hour. Like, somebody was vaping.”
SM: “Oh my God.”
RB: “So other people were in there?”
AS: “Yeah, it wasn’t just me! It was me and my entire team, so nobody could move up to the show and be like, ‘Oh, Ayra’s being late.’ Nothing; we didn’t have no internet, nothing. Because when I got off and I saw the show has ended, people breaking the doors, ‘we’re angry!’ like, ‘Ayra Starr!’ I’m like, ‘hey, I’m the victim here!’ 30-minutes in, everyone started to sing, you know, ‘let’s pray, I think we should pray!’”
