Ayra Starr – ‘Starrgirl’ album review: the Afro-R&B superstar widens her orbit

When Ayra Starr first stepped onto the scene, she became a go-to for pristine, pretty music with her first two albums – ‘19 & Dangerous’ (2021) and ‘The Year I Turned 21’ (2024) – both powered by chart zingers.

But on ‘Starrgirl’, the Beninese-Nigerian singer ascends, becoming an artist who knows her space in the music world and still pushes at the sides of the box to make more room.

Bouncing between R&B , blues , Afropop and pure pop balladry, she is more confident, playful and sure in her own light – which shines brighter than ever on this record.

READ MORE: Grimes’ Hatsune Miku collaboration is filled with love: “I feel really in awe of her, but also protective of her” Kicking off with the enthralling, amapiano-inflected ‘Dangerous’, ‘Starrgirl’ immediately feels heavier and more physical than her earlier work.

But Starr constantly morphs: from the sultry R&B of smouldering ‘Amazing’ with Kwn into the suave sophistication of the Afropop-leaning ‘Gimme Dat’, where she goes toe-to-toe with Wizkid over heartstring-plucking guitar, before ‘Pressure’ brings in Leon Thomas for a sunnier, glossy pop sound.

Yet, these songs flow seamlessly into one another, bound by the same sense of uninhibited freedom – Starr finally letting herself roam, and that’s what makes ‘Starrgirl’ feel like such a step forward.

While the singer’s previous records were charming, they often remained in a polite, palatable space – but ‘Starrgirl’ gives her room to experiment. ‘Ms.

Paper’ with Theodora brings a frenzied Francophone dancefloor energy that’s built to shell down a fête.

That evolution is just as apparent in her songwriting, where she moves beyond the broad strokes of romance and empowerment to allow in more specificity, vulnerability and personality. ‘Letter To God’ is a moving ballad where Starr’s bluesy vocals play around on the doo-wop-y beat as she sings, “I wrote a letter to God ’bout you” . ‘Heaven Baby’, meanwhile, takes a more direct route; rather than relying on heavy imagery or abstraction, Starr and Zayn Malik shoot straight: “You could be my heaven, baby / Die for you if you let me, baby.” Though, Starr doesn’t always hit it out of the park with her newfound penchant for pushing boundaries. ‘Where Do We Go’ is a thrilling showcase for her voice, even if her huge belts occasionally struggle to find somewhere comfortable to sit inside its fast-moving riddim: “Where do we go from here? / After I dried my tear, After I say goodbye / You never made it clear” .

Meanwhile, ‘Misunderstood’ is a perfectly enjoyable dance-pop empowerment song with a 2010s sheen, but could belong to almost anyone.

It works; it just doesn’t feel particularly like her.