“How my mother used music to blackmail me” – Singer Ayra Starr

• Ayra Starr revealed that her mother used the promise of music to get her to pursue her academics, even when she was just 14 and didn’t reach the required cut-off mark for her school admission
• She also revealed that that her mother used music to “blackmail” her to do things she didn’t want to do, especially relocating to Lagos.

Nigerian singer Ayra Starr opens up on how her mother used music to blackmail her.

The rising star opened up about the manipulation tactics her mother employed in order to push her into pursuing things she feels are good for her.

In a recent interview with Billboard, the Grammy-nominated singer recalled how her mother had agreed to let her pursue music as long as she completed formal schooling first.

“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”.

“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.

Ayra Starr told the host how her mother used music to “blackmail” her into doing things she did not want to do, such as moving to Lagos.

“I feel like my mum has been using music to blackmail me since I was a child,” she said 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.”