Dunlevy: Jazz fest turns into giant Nigerian pop party for free outdoor blowout

Montreal Gazette

02-07-2025

'Montreal, can you hear me?' bellowed the DJ who came out to warm up the crowd just past 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. 'Who's ready for Ayra Starr? There are two rules: you gotta sing or you gotta dance. You can't do neither, alright?'
It was the midpoint free outdoor blowout at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and like her name implies, Starr is a star. The 23-year-old, Grammy-nominated Nigerian Afrobeats singer, born Sarah Oyinkansola Aderibigbe, is one of many artists in the surging music genre that is taking over the globe. The proof was in the massive, multicultural crowd that filled the festival site on Tuesday night.
'Look at the density,' jazz fest co-founder André Ménard marvelled, pointing to the throngs of young people extending all the way down Jeanne-Mance St. to Ste-Catherine.
'C'est jam-packed,' said Evenko media relations manager Christine Montreuil.
The rain held off and much fun was had by all. In the crowd an hour before showtime was Rogeyatou Kanteh. A native of Gambia, the 28-year-old has been in Canada for just over a year, moving between Montreal and Ottawa. She had come down to the jazz fest site 'just to have fun.'
'It's important to be outside and refresh your brain,' said Kanteh, who noted Starr is 'not my kind of artist, but I know I will enjoy it. She's an R&B artist; I enjoy Afrobeats, but I'm not familiar with her songs.'
Jevenson Dominique, 32, and his friend Steven (who preferred to give only his first name), 25, didn't hesitate to declare themselves Starr-struck.
'We like her style,' Steven said.
'I love Afro music,' Dominique explained. 'And she's hot,' he added, with a chuckle.
The two were waiting for a crew of about 10 people to join them. In the peer group of the two Haitian-Québécois men, Starr's free performance was an event.
'She's the crush of our friends,' Steven said.
'It's exciting,' offered Dominique, who hadn't seen Starr perform before. 'We're looking forward to it.'
Maezie Holubowicz-Levington, 19, and Lucie Mitima, 20, know each other from a downtown brasserie chain they work at.
Mitima arrived in Montreal in January from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she discovered Starr's music on YouTube and TikTok.
'She sings well,' Mitima said.
'She's pretty, too,' Holubowicz-Levington mused, adding that the two friends had come down 'to spend time together.'
'To feel good, dance and sing if we have to,' Mitima riffed.
They pretty much had to.
Starr took the stage at 9:40 p.m. with a beckoning look and a shake of her hips as she shimmied into her smoothly funky hit Fashion Killer. Flanked by four male dancers and backed by an air-tight band, she controlled the stage like a pop star on par with Beyoncé, Rihanna or any other modern American chart-topper.
And if you have any doubt that that's where she's headed, know that Starr is signed to Republic Records in North America, home to Taylor Swift and Lorde, among others.
She turned and shook her behind for the audience, drawing cheers during Control.
Her moves garnered roars of approval throughout the night. Fans pulled out their phones to record the action during Bloody Samaritan, while Starr cooed and grooved to the bumping club beat.
She stuck around for the first few minutes of a DJ interlude to shake her money maker with her beat-maker, a smile on her face as she sang the words to the dance hits he dropped, including David Guetta's Titanium feat. Sia, which elicited a massive singalong from the crowd.
Starr bantered with the audience upon her return.
'Everybody's good?' She asked, reading signs held up by fans in the front, including 'My first concert' and 'Do you want to be my copine?'
She led a chant of 'Away, away, away ah-ah' during her 2021 single Away. And the crowd went wild in the final stretch for her hits All the Love, Commas and Rush.
In the grand list of jazz fest moments, this was one to remember: the night the Montreal International Jazz Festival turned into a giant, jubilant Nigerian pop party.