Coco Jones & Ayra Starr Team Up: Inside Their Careers & Personal Journeys 🎶

At 14, Coco Jones was catapulted into stardom thanks to a role as teen singing sensation Roxie in the 2012 Disney movie Let It Shine. That rush of fame was short-lived. Jones was signed then dropped from a label before she was 16. The industry didn’t know what to do with the young girl with the big voice. She was too sultry, too confident, too Coco.

But in that short time, Jones had already managed to touch another girl halfway around the world. A young Nigerian named Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe was looking to Disney movies as a road map to turn her own dreams into a reality. And she saw Jones’ Roxie as a role model.

Aderibigbe began singing, and would later take the stage name Ayra Starr. Her debut album, 2021’s 19 & Dangerous (and its 2022 deluxe counterpart), brought smash hits “Bloody Samaritan” and “Rush” — with the latter finding itself on President Obama’s end-of-year faves. Her mix of upbeat Afropop with a soulful vocal register brought her to the mainstream.