Because her tour schedule often takes her thousands of miles away from her hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, singer-songwriter Ayra Starr tries to bring a piece of home with her wherever she goes.
That piece is her brother, who is a musical person himself.
“My family is definitely part of my tour rider,” Starr says with a laugh in the latest episode of Herbal Tea & White Sofas. “My brother is a songwriter — and is my best friend — so he has to be with me.”
When it comes to food for her rider, Starr selects quick, savory meals like ramen noodles — and as she explains, that meal has a connection to home for her, too. “Noodles [are] my favorite food in the whole world, and it just comforts me,” she explains.
“In Nigeria, we have noodles called indomie. I used to get it since I was a child, when I became a teenager, when I was in school,” she recounts. “When I was in uni, I couldn’t cook, I would always just make some indomie, and as Nigerians, we know how to make things taste amazing [by adding extra ingredients] in different ways.”
Starr has inventive tricks for making her sweet snacks on tour taste extra-delicious, too. The singer says gummy bears are another tour rider staple — and she’s got a super-sweet hack for taking the gummies to the next level.
“You can never go wrong with gummy bears. Why? What else are you looking for,” she says. “Let me put you guys on something right now that you might have never tried: Vanilla ice cream with gummies. Game changer. It’s over.”
Source: grammy.com
