Nigerian singer Ayra Starr’s warm reception of her LGBTQ fans at a recent event in Brazil has sparked controversy online.
During her performance at the C6 Festival in São Paulo on Friday, LGBTQ fans were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions, including “We Are Your Sabigays” and “We [love emoji] You Ayra.” The LGBTQ fans’ reference to themselves as “Sabigays” is a homage to Ayra Starr’s nickname, Sabi Girl.
After the event, one of the LGBTQ fans with the X handle @miketrindade shared photos from his meeting with Ayra Starr with the caption, “Today I met my Starrrrrr [crying, praying, and love emoji] @ayrastarr.” The post soon went viral, with fans, especially Nigerians, expressing mixed feelings. Ayra Starr also reposted it via her Instagram story.
Here is our compilation of some of the reactions on X:
@GeorgeDanso97: “Truth to be told. A homophobic musician will never break out in America or anywhere in the Western world. Those gays carry streams, buy tickets, everything. They run the game. Unless you are homophobic secretly.”
@AGRF9: “The moment the gays start stanning you, it’s officially over: You are in for a long career. If you check very long and resistant female careers such as Madonna, Beyoncé, Mariah, Nicki etc., just to name a few, you will notice their careers were/are heavily supported by women and gays. These people will support you till the end of time.”
@DemoOFUK: “If Ayra can capitalize on their [LGBTQ] market and put some ‘rainbow’ lyrics in one of her songs, she will be a global menace with this community behind her. Bruh, all I am saying is the need for inclusion. Why y’all triggered? In all walks of life, there is the need for inclusion. Even in Netflix movies, we see it these days. Tf wrong with y’all? It’s Sabbath day, boy.”
@harrisonJNIOR: “She don’t need it [support of LGBTQ]. If she does, she’ll get them and lose Nigerians.”
@NGeeNius: “This is rubbish. She doesn’t need this unnatural set of people. She already is a rising star. So she doesn’t need to capitalize on Jack.”
Ayra Starr is a Nigerian singer and songwriter who started her career in fashion at 16 with Quove Model Management. She later shifted to music, covering popular songs on Instagram before releasing her first original track in December 2019. This caught the attention of record executive Don Jazzy, who signed her to Mavin Records.
