Raving afrobeats star Ayra Starr has revealed how love for music got her into the university at 14.
According to the songstress, she bagged a degree early because her mother insisted that she must graduate before pursuing her music career and she wanted to be a teenage pop star.
She disclosed this in a recent interview with American media giant Billboard News.
Starr recounted: “I got into the university at 14. I feel like my mum has been using music to blackmail me since I was a child. 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.
“She insisted that if I want to do music, I would have to finish school first. Usually, a lot of people in Nigeria finish secondary school at 15, 16.
“I knew that if I waited till I’m 15 [before completing my secondary school], I won’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 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. And immediately after my graduation, I started doing music covers online and that same year I got signed [to Mavin Records label].”
