Nigerian musician Ayra Starr has revealed how her mother inspired her to take action by telling her that she will pursue music.
In a recent interview with Billboard, the Grammy-nominated performer recalled how her mother had agreed to let her pursue music as long as she completed formal schooling first. Starr was able to enter the university at the tender age of 14 as a consequence.
Narrating the story she said: “I got into the university at 14. My mum insisted that if I wanted to do music, I would have to finish school first. Usually, a lot of people in Nigeria finish secondary school at 15 or 16. I knew that if I waited till I was 15 before completing my secondary school, I wouldn’t be able to be a teenage pop star. And I wanted to be a teenage pop star. So, I joined my elder brother and we wrote JAMB, what you guys called SAT here.”
Completely determined to become the young popstar, teenage Starr wrote her exams and her results were satisfactory enough for her mother.
“To be honest, the result wasn’t crazy to get me onto all these Ivy League schools but it was enough to pass by. It was enough for my mum. I got admitted into a good school. My course was for three years. It was International Relations,” she said.
The singer alos told the host that her mother used music to “blackmail” her to do things she didn’t want, including relocating to Lagos.
“I feel like my mum has been using music to blackmail me since I was a child,” she continued in between laughter. “She was like, ‘If you want to do music, you have to do this.’ When she suggested we relocate to Lagos from Benin Republic, I declined initially, but she convinced me that Lagos is the land of music. And immediately after my graduation, I started doing music covers online and that same year I got signed.”
