Starrgirl, the third studio album by Ayra Starr, leads this week's new music poll. Listeners voted in a survey published on Friday, August 14 on Billboard, choosing the latest release from Nigerian afrobeat star as their favorite music.
Starrgirl surpassed several new releases this week from artists including KATSEYE, Phoebe Bridgers, Troye Sivan, Becky G and more. As voting closed on Sunday, Starr's new album came in first place with more than 87% of the votes.
Starrgirl, which follows the singer's album The Year I Turned 21 (released in 2024), is a collection of 16 tracks that includes the recent single "Tornado" and last year's Grammy-nominated collaboration with Wizkid, "Gimme Dat", plus features from artists such as Zayn, Rema, Leon Thomas and Danny Ocean. Starr expanded her sound on the project, incorporating more elements of dance music and R&B.
"I'm very proud of the woman I've allowed myself to become through creating this album and every version of me that had to exist to get here," Starr wrote on Instagram during the launch week. In an interview with Variety, the singer said that moving to New York inspired the new music, explaining that as a woman in her twenties she was "acting my age. I'm living my age. I just liked experiencing life, and it wasn't just about work, work, work. It was about enjoying all the work I've done and just allowing myself to be, you know? And seeing myself from the perspective of being whole, and 'I am', instead of 'I have to be'".
"And that's what Starrgirl is," she added. "It's not really an alter ego, but it's a part of me that is already complete, that doesn't have to act, that doesn't have to be. Because being a Black girl and an African girl, we grew up with 'You have to be this'. There's a certain kind of anxiety that is deep, layers, layers, layers within you, that you just feel like you have to unlearn. But when you step away from that and go deep, deep, you start to understand that you don't need to be anything more than what you already are." Behind Starrgirl in this week's Billboard poll are KATSEYE's "WILD", Phoebe Bridgers' Lost Weekend and Troye Sivan's "She's the Best".
