Amaarae announces new album Black Star, shares “S.M.O.”

The follow-up to Fountain Baby drops in August.

Amaarae has announced details of her new studio album. BLACK STAR will be released on August 8 via Interscope Records. Today’s announcement arrives alongside the lead single “S.M.O”. The song, which was inspired by highlife, kpanlogo, and zouk, comes with a video shot on Ghana. Check it out below.

In a statement accompanying “S.M.O”, Amaarae said: “For as long as I’ve made music, fusion has been my strength and I think this comes to full fruition on ‘S.M.O.’ The song takes inspiration from Ghanaian 80’s highlife trailblazer Ata Kak and blends it with a mean Detroit club bass, a drum roll akin to both Magic System’s “1er Gaou” & Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” and an infectious zouk melody that sounds like a steel pan lipsing an evil synth. I feel like the new Donna Summer mixed with Control-era Janet and the song pretty much speaks for itself. Like “Pleasure Principle” or “Love To Love You Baby,” I don’t know how much clearer one can get when they ask you to “SLUT ME OUT”. The message can’t be mistaken and the beat makes you move. That’s all I want to do this summer, make people dance and feel things!”

Amaarae’s Fountain Baby was released in 2023. The following year she released an EP, Roses Are Red, Tears Are Blue — A Fountain Baby Extended Play. This August Amaarae is due to perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago and Montreal’s Osheaga Festival.

BLACK STAR artwork