Ayra Starr is the Brightest Star ('Starrgirl' Review)

Adeayo Adebiyi 13:39 - 21 August 2026

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The review of Ayra Starr's third album 'Starrgirl'

The world has watched Ayra Starr grow and evolve over the years since she made her debut in 2021. She has sung about ambition, love, heartbreak, and desire from the lens of a 19-year-old star. She’s expressed the musings and emotional complexities of a 21-year-old superstar discovering the world for herself. At 24, her growth continues to be documented in even more compelling music.

After releasing two fantastic LPs that establish her as one of the leading protagonists of African pop music, there remain even greater heights for Ayra Starr to reach, and no one appreciates this fact better than the award-winning Nigerian superstar herself.

The path to her third LP ‘Starrgirl’ was lit up with sensational singles that delivered sensual numbers, gender-empowering anthems, and cross-border hits that capture her status and her dynamism. The path was also occasionally dimmed by the disgusting actions of trolls who thought their online vim and targeted attacks could chip away at her confidence and tear at her regal attire. But they were wrong. All through the process, she beautifully documented the journey of a woman in personal and professional transit.

The summer anthem ‘Hot Body’ saw her embrace her status as a sex symbol; when she sampled Wyclef Jean’s classic ‘Diallo’ on ‘Gimme Dat’ featuring Wizkid, it was a display of range that earned her a Grammy nomination. She displayed wicked sexiness on retro R&B and Dancehall mash-up ‘Who’s Dat Girl’ featuring Rema, and FOLA’s cameo on the sultry ‘Tornado’ signalled a sexual awakening from a woman who was discarding the tongue-in-cheek style of her previous albums for a bolder expression of her thoughts, desires, and status.

Ayra Starr’s third album ‘Starrgirl’, released on August 14, 2026, is the pop manifesto of a superstar flying the African flag on the global stage with compelling music that effectively discharges the high standards she’s set for herself and erects even higher ones.

In 2024, when trolls attempted to mock her posture, she told them her curves were accentuated by the weight of carrying Afrobeats on her back. She backs the claim on her new album, where the chest-thumping opener ‘Dangerous’ features rattling kicks, swaggering flow, and Terry Apala’s cosmetic vocals remind listeners of classic Don Jazzy-type productions that defined the 2000s.

The boldness to declare herself the brightest star whose name is on every lip is a common denominator in this album that excels in the imposing quality of the production that captures her global popstar ambition and a well-curated supporting cast of features and songwriters who follow her lead.

Ayra Starr

Across 16 tracks and 46 minutes, her expression of personal growth is matched by artistic excellence as she takes listeners on a thrilling journey with steamy, breathless, and emotional stops. Each track flows into the next, and each song serves a distinct purpose of soundtracking the Ayra Starr show where the spotlight permanently remains on her.

When she sings about sexual desires on ‘Amazing’ featuring KWN, it’s with bold lyrics and super vocals that paint steamy imagery over a sensual atmospheric production that nods to her standing on the global pop scene. On ‘Pressure’, she brings American Grammy-winning R&B Star Leon Thomas to Afro-R&B territory, and sets the pace like a woman who does the same when the lights go off. “I ain’t just anybody…I never wait for anybody… inflation, I am the price they want to beat,” she thumps her chest with on ‘Tornado’, with enchanting sexiness and sultry melodies that capture why she's the queen of heart and chart.

Ayra Starr’s personal evolution is intertwined with her career growth. At 24, her interaction with love is bolder. When she’s in love, she goes all in and allows herself to revel in the feeling, as evident on the breathtaking ballad ‘Heaven’, where she’s locked in a duet with Zayn, the global star, who’s one of her childhood heroes. Ambition has taken her around the world and landed her in New York, where she has enjoyed new experiences, including finding a love that inspires her to make a sweet, girly pop record, ‘Midnight in New York’, that captures the dreamy love in a city that never sleeps.

It’s personal growth, knowledge of self, and the desire for bold expressions, and the pursuit of global adventure that inform The Elements-produced cinematic pop record ‘Miss Understood’. The same accounts for her hearty singing on the D-Phelps-produced ‘Letter To God’ where she reassures her lover. It’s also why she embarks on a search for clarity on the swingy ‘Where Do We Go’.

Ayra Starr also brings her sensuality, bold expressions, and chest-thumping to the dance floor. She invites pretty ladies chasing their paper to a ball on the Afro-dance production of the sexy ‘Ms Paper’ featuring French-Congolese star Theodora, with whom she delivers a sensational song that’s a TikTok dance routine away from becoming a global hit. She takes the parties to the clubs and dancefloors from Lagos, Nairobi, London, Chicago, Rio, and Brussels, on the cross-continental production of ‘Dance’ where her Afrobeats credentials shine. And when she embarks on tour, these records will be the crowning moments that will get those she sings about on the Highlife-tinged ‘Treasure’ on their feet dancing freely, happily, with reckless abandonment, and in unison with the Star girl.

Yet there’s even more to come; Ayra Starr has revealed plans to release a deluxe, which will carry songs that will speak directly to the home front and invariably deliver an even bigger moment. Brilliant and impressive as it promises to be, it should not come as a surprise. After all, she has already told us — Ayra Starr lon mo tán só.

‘19 and Dangerous’. ‘The Year I Turned 21’. ‘Starrgirl’. That’s a trifecta.