Spotlight on Shirley Ahura
I go where the music is,” says Shirley Ahura. And that means if an act she simply needs to see live hasn’t got a tour date in her hometown of London, no problem. When we catch up she’s just back from an overnight trip to Birmingham to see Jamaican dancehall act Skillibeng. The week before she was in Paris to check out Nigerian singer-songwriter Ruger. “It all started with BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend in 2012,” she explains,"since then I think live music has become my love language.”
Shirley’s fascination and exploration of the African diaspora, and particularly its influence on global music, defines her as a writer and journalist. Her first published piece was for UK Vogue in 2020; a focus on four trailblazing West African female artists - Tems, Lady Donli, Wavy The Creator, and Amaarae - upending conservative culture in Nigeria through their music. “Having my first work published in Vogue made me feel invincible,” she says. “I honestly started to think ‘what can’t I do?’”
She was among the first UK commentators to single out the explosive Amapiano genre, a unique take on house music born in South African townships that has in the past few years become the fastest growing global club sound. Her 2021 feature for The Face remains the definitive introduction to the genre’s sound, style and explosive potential. Later this Summer she’s heading to Ibiza to cover London Amapiano / Afro-house collective Dankie Sound’s weekender, and witness first hand the genre’s storming of electronic music’s Island citadel.
But Shirley’s strengths as a writer aren’t simply down to having her finger on the pulse and her determination to seek out new music. There’s a genuine literary quality to her writing - allied to an ongoing personal journey to connect more deeply with her heritage (Shirley’s mother is from Uganda, her father Nigerian). Her powerful contribution to a recent anthology of experimental memoir and personal poetry by women and non-binary writers from migrant backgrounds, ‘What the Water Gave Us’ is almost a personal manifesto. “I saw it as a chance to talk about journeys; all the journeys I’ve seen in my life, the roots that anchor you to a place, and the routes and journeys that have shaped me as a person.” The culmination of the piece was her watershed journey to Lagos in Nigeria, a side of her heritage that - having been raised by her single parent mum - she’d never before felt ready to delve into.
In a different sphere, Shirley points to her contribution to ‘Destination Dancefloor’ a global atlas of club culture published by Dorian Kinsey and Mixmag in 2022, as another milestone. Shirley’s input was a guide to nightlife and club culture of Ugandan capital Kampala. “I’d actually just been stranded in Uganda because of lockdown - and had decided to plunge myself into the city’s truly crazy non-stop party scene, to really live like a Ugandan. To then get home and have the chance to document and archive that culture was amazing.”
Meanwhile she also manages to bring that unique sensibility and insight to her ‘day job’ as copywriter, creative strategist and cultural commentator - whether writing and creating a guidebook to ‘Queenie’s Brixton’ as part of the launch campaign for the Channel 4 series about a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, weaving intricate tales onto Wray & Nephew's socials during the heritage rum brand's biggest year celebrating Jamaica's 60th Independence, creating a’ zine on Chivas Regal's whiskey-sipping rising stars from Lagos to Tokyo, Mumbai to Mexico City, or as part of ‘Mix It Up’ a collaboration between Mixmag, The Face and Nandos that teamed African acts like Durban legends Major League DJz with British artists including M1llionz. “Being in the DJ booth with Major League DJz was just… just sick!” she says, with an enthusiasm that’s infectious, informed and at times incandescent. Look for her for her where the music is.
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