Amaarae Drops music video for "Girlie Pop" Ahead of new album “Black Star” and Maiden Voyage Festival

MusicMusic VideoAfrobeatsAlt PopR&B

25 Jul

Written By Gideon Asibi

Amaarae - Girlie-Pop! (Official Music Video)

“One of the most exciting new artists in music.” — ELLE

“She’s probably on your favourite artist’s playlist.” — GQ

“Her voice is extra luxurious, her music lavish with instrumentation.” — PITCHFORK

Avant-garde global pop star Amaarae shares a pulsing, effortlessly sleek new single and video, “Girlie Pop”. Stamped with her signature softness and airy, hypnotic vocals, the single continues Amaarae’s recontextualization of Ghanaian and African music with pop and club sounds across time and space. The accompanying video, directed by Omar Jones, is a bold and sensual glimpse into the beat-driven ecstasy that occurs when two souls collide, with the music providing the necessary alchemy, both in and out of the club. “Girlie Pop” follows the bold, world-building single “S.M.O”, released alongside the announcement of her highly anticipated new album BLACK STAR—out August 8th via Interscope Records. Listen to “Girlie Pop” HERE and watch the visual HERE.

Amaarae shares about the new single, ”Girlie Pop started as a freestyle over an open guitar on a magical night in Brazil! I wanted to make a song that embodies the feeling of a kiss from your favourite person in the world. We all dream of finding that one person who sends us into the stars with just a smile & peck on the lips! The BLACK STAR album is all about fun and fantasy! I want Girlie-Pop to be the soundtrack for when you sit and daydream about your crush. The music video feels like the perfect expression of that.”

In April, Amaarae made history at Coachella, where she debuted as the first Ghanaian artist to grace the Indio stage. Her headline-making set saw the iconoclast playing energetic songs from fellow Ghanaian artists and exciting fans with unreleased previews of new music from BLACK STAR, in between her shaving her head on stage as a representation of “the new kind of freedom” the incoming era represents. She followed suit in June with her electrifying debut set at Glastonbury, which led to rave reviews from critics. This summer and autumn, she’s bringing her unforgettable stage presence to festivals around the globe, including AfroNation, Lollapalooza, Maiden Voyage, Osheaga, Lowlands, and more.

The celebratory festival performances follow the success of Amaarae’s sold-out tour behind Fountain Baby, which was praised as among the best albums of the year by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker and was Metacritic’s #1 album of 2023. Featuring the effortlessly suave singles “Angels in Tibet” and “Reckless and Sweet,” the Afrobeats-flipping LP launched Amaarae into global pop stardom, landing her on the cover of NME, Paste, and Clash, as well as touring with Sabrina Carpenter, support billing on Childish Gambino’s tour, and an H&M x Mugler campaign.

Amaarae has long championed self-expression ever since breaking out with her 2017 single “Fluid,” an ode to living in between different labels and modes. Her astronomical rise arrived with the release of her 2020 debut album THE ANGEL YOU DON’T KNOW, boosted by the now-platinum, globally charting “Sad Girlz Luv Money (Remix)” featuring Kali Uchis and Moliy. She stepped into the Black Panther cinematic universe with “A Body, A Coffin,” her contribution to Marvel’s 2022 Wakanda Forever Prologue EP. She has since showcased her versatility through collaborations with Childish Gambino, Stormzy, Janelle Monáe, 6LACK, Kaytranada, Babyface, and Tiwa Savage, among others.