Ayra Starr's 'Starrgirl' Wins Billboard's Weekly New Music Fan Poll in a Landslide
Ayra Starr's third studio album Starrgirl has won Billboard's weekly new music fan poll, taking more than 87% of the vote by the time the poll closed on Sunday, August 16, 2026. The album was released on August 14 through Universal Music and is the follow-up to her 2024 record The Year I Turned 21 (Billboard).
Billboard runs the poll every Friday, inviting readers to vote on that week's notable new releases. Starrgirl finished far ahead of the field, which included new music from KATSEYE, Phoebe Bridgers, Troye Sivan, Becky G and others. KATSEYE's single 'WILD', Phoebe Bridgers' 'Lost Weekend' and Troye Sivan's 'She's the Best' rounded out the trailing entries (Billboard).
The album runs 16 tracks and includes the single 'Tornado' and a Wizkid collaboration titled 'Gimme Dat'. Feature spots come from Zayn, Rema, Leon Thomas and Danny Ocean. Starrgirl has also picked up nominations at the Billboard Music Awards, according to Universal Music Canada (Universal Music Canada).
The 87% margin is the detail worth pausing on. Fan polls measure enthusiasm, not sales — they tell you who showed up to click, not who bought a record — but a field that includes names like Phoebe Bridgers and Troye Sivan makes a near-nine-tenths share hard to dismiss as a small audience making noise.
For Starr, whose 2022 single 'Rush' opened the door to a global listenership beyond her Lagos base, Starrgirl lands as a third album carrying the weight of whether that door stays open. The features stretch across continents: Wizkid and Rema from Nigeria's Afrobeats scene, Zayn from pop's mainstream, Danny Ocean from Venezuela. The poll result says listeners who encountered the record in its first 48 hours liked what they heard enough to say so publicly — what the streaming and sales charts say next is a separate question Billboard will answer in the coming week.
