Amaarae has teased, through a spectacular twitch livestream party, a brand new album titled Black Star, dropping around summer 2025 and referencing the large black star in the middle of the Ghanaian flag. The party featured a vibe-heavy DJ set spinning unreleased tracks, alongside some of Amaarae’s favorite records from female musicians, anchored by an army of women dressed in black, sporting Black Star merch and of course, Amaarae donning a large Ghanaian flag inspired bandana. The snippets from the livestream are already making waves, and have given us a taste of what she has cooked up for us on the new project.
Here are three things we look forward to on the new album
Dance/Electronic Pop
On a whole, the snippets have an echoing, energetic quality that brings to mind the dance floor at a rave and this is aided by the rockstar aesthetic she created for the livestream. In light of the global explosion of dance/electronic pop within the last three years courtesy of popstars such as Drake, Charli XCX and Beyonce, the direction in which she is headed with her music is unsurprising especially as Amaarae has experimented with similar sounds before (think jehovah witness and Disguise) and is well on the path to reaching popstar status herself. In addition to the success of her critically acclaimed sophomore album Fountain Baby, 2024 saw her tour with Sabrina Carpenter as her opener for the first 12 dates of her “Short n’ Sweet” tour, following her own successful headlining tour in the US, UK, and Europe. While the unreleased snippets undoubtedly have the sensual, carefree flair that we have come to associate with Amaarae, it is also evident that this project will cater to the pop audience.
A Tribute to her Ghanaian Heritage
Although an official tracklist is yet to be released, fans have taken lyrics from the snippets and have given the songs names of their own such as 360, Fineshyt and Ketamine Coke Molly. These snippets see Amaarae singing, rapping, lacing the tracks with her signature sensual whispers and doing this all while maintaining the fundamentally African drum patterns that will remind international fans where she comes from and will set this album apart from any dance/electronic projects released by her contemporaries. The Ghanaian flag inspired bandana from the livestream party was included for a reason – although this project is intended to widen her international appeal and solidify her spot in the popstar conversation, heritage still takes center stage and in this era of African music gaining increased international appeal, there will be no doubts as to the nationality of the artist behind this project.
Genre-bending
While the ever enigmatic artist may not have given us all the details of the upcoming project just yet, we can expect heavy experimentation with genres (Afrobeats, Electronic/Dance, Pop, Alternative R&B , Rap) with catchy melodies that will take over the summer and fast paced tracks that will inspire fans to let loose and make their way to the dance floor at any event. We are familiar with Afro R&B Amaraae and have been gradually easing into Dance/Electronic Ammaare, but this project is set to display all her previously explored musical identities plus an introduction to sounds we haven’t heard from her before with each track boasting a melting pot of genres.
