Ayra Starr’s concert was certainly one of the highlights of this early summer. The crowd was stretched far as the eye could see, and getting around was a miracle—it was like being in a can of sardines, with everyone pressed up against each other. Record attendance? The rain had stopped a few minutes before the start of this memorable show, as Mother Nature guessed it was time to let festival-goers enjoy their long-awaited moment.
After a brief introduction by her DJ, who admittedly wasn’t very good, she took to the stage accompanied by her four dancers. Short hair, necklaces covering her neck, a costume with a sexy bodice inside, in short, the Nigerian diva was ready to blow her audience’s mind.
Given the scorching heat, she took off her jacket at the end of the second song, showing off her bodice. She was joined by a drummer, a guitarist and a keyboardist, all there to turn up the heat on an evening that will live long in the memory of festival-goers.
“Montreal, are you okay?” she asks, addressing the crowd, something she doesn’t do much during the show, except to get them to sing along.
The lighting changed according to the song, while a screen showed images of the singer from behind. All of her hits have been featured, including her most recent hit “Gimme Dat,” on which she featured Wizkid, and “Bloody Samaritan” and “Fashion Killer,” which appear on her album 19 & Dangerous.
The queen of Afrobeats (she shares the imperial throne with Burna Boy) also showed us her dancing talents with her lascivious choreography and her famous signature twerk.
After a few songs from his repertoire, the DJ returned to the stage to entertain the crowd with American pop songs, a major faux pas of the evening, as Ayra stood close behind him. Usually, these interludes are to allow the artist to take a break or have a costume change, but not here. We felt like we were in an open-air discotheque.
Fortunately, this break didn’t last too long, as the talented dancers, who also contributed to the show’s success, returned first on their own, closely followed by Ayra, back to finish off the crowd.
In this portion of the evening, we were treated to tracks from her most recent album, The Year I Turned 21, such as “Woman Commando” on which she collaborated with Anitta and Coco Jones with passages in Spanish, before moving on to “Last Heartbreak Song” with Giveon, another highlight of the evening.
She couldn’t have ended the evening without giving us the hit “Rush,” during which she asked the crowd to turn on their cell phone lights. The Place des Festivals was absolutely luminous on Tuesday July 1st, in the image of the Nigerian global… Starr.
Photo: Emmanuel Novak-Bélanger
