ZAYN says Ayra Starr's "Heaven Baby" made him think of his daughter

"Heaven Baby" by Ayra Starr featuring ZAYN is track 14 on Starrgirl, the Nigerian singer's third album, which came out on 14 August 2026. The video followed on 5 October. Ayra sings the first verse and hook, and ZAYN, the singer from Bradford in England, takes the second verse and hook.

A love song, or a song for a child?

The lyrics are built like a love song. The singer talks about how far she would go for someone, about not managing if that person ever left, and calls them an angel. ZAYN's verse says he would jump the moment he is told to, and only ask how high.

ZAYN heard something else. In Spotify's "Directed By" making-of film, he said the first thing that came to mind when he heard the song was his daughter, and that he cried a couple of times. He spoke of a "very powerful sentiment", the feeling that you would not know what to do without this person in your life. ZAYN's daughter, Khai, was born in September 2020 and is now six.

Ayra described it in the same film as "a love song, but it's almost about the fear of losing love".

Kept apart on purpose

In the video, Ayra sings from a balcony upstairs while ZAYN is downstairs inside a glass box. The director explains in the making-of that the idea came from "that feeling of being a little kid and missing somebody so hard", someone who is close but still far away.

On set, he told the two singers they should never look at each other, because then it would start to feel like a love song. In the finished video the two are kept apart.

Press reports and the Spotify film give different names for the director, so this story does not name him.

Two readings, one song

Line by line, many of the lyrics work both ways. A lover who does not yet see how much someone cares could also be a small child who cannot yet understand what a parent does for them. A promise to die for someone sounds like too much from a partner, but most parents would say it without blinking. ZAYN's own answer was to hear his daughter.