Nigerian singer Ayra Starr’s warm reception of her LGBTQ fans at a recent event in Brazil has ignited a wave of controversy online.

During her performance at the C6 Festival in São Paulo on Friday, LGBTQ fans proudly displayed placards with messages like “We Are Your Sabigays” and “We ❤️ You Ayra.” The term “Sabigays” is a playful homage to Ayra Starr’s popular nickname, Sabi Girl.

After the concert, an LGBTQ fan with the Twitter handle @miketrindade posted photos of his encounter with Ayra Starr, captioning them, “Today I met my Starrrrrr 😭🙏❤️ @ayrastarr.” The post quickly went viral, sparking a mix of reactions, especially among Nigerian fans.

Ayra Starr also shared the post on her Instagram story, further fueling the online debate.

Here is Naijacrawl’s compilation of some of the reactions on X:

@GeorgeDanso97: “Truth to be told. A homophobic musician will never break out in America or anywhere in the Western world. Those gays carry streams, buy tickets, everything. They run the game. Unless you are homophobic secretly.

@AGRF9: “The moment the gays start stanning you, it’s officially over: You are in for a long career.

“If you check very long and resistant female careers such as Madonna, Beyoncé, Mariah, Nicki etc., just to name a few, you will notice their careers were/are heavily supported by women and gays. These people will support you till the end of time.”

@DemoOFUK: “If Ayra can capitalize on their [LGBTQ] market and put some ‘rainbow’ lyrics in one of her songs, she will be a global menace with this community behind her.

“Bruh, all I am saying is the need for inclusion. Why y’all triggered? In all walks of life, there is the need for inclusion. Even in Netflix movies, we see it these days. Tf wrong with y’all? It’s Sabbath day, boy.”

@harrisonJNIOR: “She don’t need it [support of LGBTQ]. If she does, she’ll get them and lose Nigerians.”

@NGeeNius: “This is rubbish. She doesn’t need this unnatural set of people. She already is a rising star. So she doesn’t need to capitalize on Jack.”