Amaarae Artistfacts

July 4, 1994
Amaarae pronounces her name "ah-muh-ray." Not to be confused with Amerie ("ay-marie"), the singer who had a big hit in 2005 with "1 Thing."
She was born in New York City but moved to Ghana, where her parents are from, when she was an infant. She lived in Atlanta around 2004 when artists like Ciara and T.I. were on the rise, and then she moved to New Jersey, where most of the kids in her school were white and into artists like Green Day and Britney Spears. She went to Ghana in 2008 for high school, armed with many musical influences that she combined with African music to craft her sound.
She releases her music on her own label, Golden Child Entertainment. In 2022 she partnered with Interscope so she'd have better distribution, but she maintains full creative control as essentially her own label boss.
Amaarae broke through internationally around 2020 when the Afrobeats sound was emerging, with artists like Burna Boy and Omah Lay leading the way. She finds the Afrobeats tag a bit restrictive, positioning herself instead as "The quintessential African princess of pop."
She sings in a high-pitched lilt that sounds nothing like her speaking voice, which is much deeper. That falsetto creates an intriguing contrast with her often pointed lyrics - like getting bit by a chihuahua.
A turning point for Amaarae came in 2021 when Kali Uchis jumped on a remix of her song "Sad Girlz Luv Money" that exploded on TikTok.
In 2024 Amaarae was the opening act on part of Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet Tour, including a stop at Madison Square Garden on September 29. "She's a freak just like me," Amaarae told Rolling Stone about Carpenter. "It's just a different kind of expression: Hers is bright and colorful; mine is dark and edgy."
She attended Agnes Scott College, a women's college in Decatur, Georgia, from 2013-2017, graduating with a degree in English and Poetry. During this time she also DJed at parties in the Atlanta area.
After finishing college in 2017, Amaarae moved back to Ghana to launch her music career and spend more time with her family. She built a following in Nigeria before expanding her reach to America and beyond.
For Amaarae, strip clubs are a creative space - they're where she gets a lot of song ideas. "Going to the strip club is like going to church," she told Rolling Stone. "That's my tithe for the year."

"The ideas are free-flowing, by the grace of God," she added. "The strip club is a very big influence for me, but also just being in the midst of beautiful women."
Amaarae thinks of her personal life and stage persona as separate entities, like in the show Severance. She's very quiet when she isn't performing; in those times she's "just Ama."

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