Ghanaian avant-garde pop visionary Amaarae has unleashed BLACK STAR, her highly anticipated sophomore album via Interscope Records, and it’s a seismic celebration of African soundscapes colliding with global club culture. A defiant fusion of ghettotech, house, baile funk, techno, and Afrobeats, the album is a love letter to the alternative youth of Ghana and Black baddies worldwide, wrapped in Amaarae’s signature hypnotic vocals and genre-blurring audacity.
From the glittery, Cher-referencing “Fineshyt”—a track she dubs Believe’s “badass play cousin”—to the highlife-infused “S.M.O” and the flirty DJ-wordplay of “B2B”, BLACK STAR reimagines African rhythms through futuristic pop and dance music. It’s both a time-traveling sonic experiment and a manifesto of feminine confidence, sexual liberation, and diasporic pride. Standout collaborations with PinkPantheress, Bree Runway, Naomi Campbell, and Charlie Wilson add layers of star power without overshadowing Amaarae’s singular artistry.
Visually, the “Fineshyt” video—shot in Ghana—captures the album’s essence: a magnetic woman owning her space in dimly lit clubs and bustling streets, radiating quiet power. Meanwhile, earlier singles like “Girlie-Pop” and “S.M.O” teased the album’s themes of self-discovery and euphoric escapism, further amplified by Amaarae’s history-making Coachella set (where she shaved her head mid-performance) and electric festival runs at Glastonbury, Governor’s Ball, and Lollapalooza.
BLACK STAR follows the meteoric success of Fountain Baby (2023’s Metacritic #1 album), but where that record flirted with Afropop’s edges, this one shatters boundaries entirely. Amaarae name-checks influences like Eiffel 65 and Modjo, yet the album feels wholly original—a testament to her ability to warp nostalgia into something groundbreaking.
