Amaarae Details New Album ‘Black Star’, Shares New Song ‘S.M.O.’

Amaarae has announced that her next album, Black Star, will land on August 8 via Interscope. Today, The Ghanaian American singer has previewed the follow-up to 2023’s Fountain Baby with a sultry, infectious new single called ‘S.M.O.’. It comes paired with a music video Amaarae shot with director Omar Jones. Check it out below.

“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.,” Amaarae said in a press statement. “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 & feel things!”

Last year, Amaarae dropped Roses Are Red, Tears Are Blue — A Fountain Baby Extended Play, which made our list of the best EPs of 2024.