DEBBY FRIDAY

On her new record, The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life, Debby Friday defines success on her own terms. For the Nigerian-Canadian polymath, to be a starrr is to live at the extremes: public versus private, hubris versus humility, flying versus falling. Autodidactic by nature, she emerged onto the scene in 2018 with BITCHPUNK, a self-produced and self-released EP that introduced her genre-blurring sound and fearless creative ethos. In 2023, she released her debut LP, GOOD LUCK (Sub Pop) to critical acclaim. The New York Times described the album as “ambitious and charismatic.” Six months following its release, the album was crowned the winner of the 2023 Polaris Music Prize.

On her new record, to help bring her vision of radical honesty on the dance floor to life, Friday recruited Australian producer Darcy Baylis (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal). Returning to their de facto home base in London in between touring, the pair traded ideas in the studio from morning until midnight. Layered with meaning, The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life is brimming with coded, if-you-know-you-know references—weaving love letters and innuendos from the names of it-girl perfumes, French cognac, and Hellenistic prophetesses who speak in tongues. With additional production credits from Graham Walsh (METZ, Holy F*ck), Tayhana (Rosalia, N.A.A.F.I.) and Detroit ghettotech prodigies HiTech, it reads like a manifestation of Friday’s pursuit of an experimental pop sound that still feels distinctively hers.