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Starsha: the Layou voice between soca, bouyon and Black Girl Magic

Published October 20, 2026

Starsha, whose real name is Marsha Laurent, is a singer from Layou, a small fishing village on the west coast of Dominica, raised in the neighbouring village of St Joseph. Since 2017 she has built a catalog that crosses soca, bouyon and dancehall without leaving her island: a first single she wrote herself, “I Doh Fraid”, bouyon records with Triple Kay and Asa Bantan, a 2021 soca hit, “System Failure”, on the Dwivayéz Riddim, and a recent record, “Black Girl Magic”, written with Zwady. Her Dominica Festivals profile presents her as the winner of the Soca Artist of the Year category at the Dominica Music Awards 2022. This profile follows her records one by one, separates what comes from her own interview words from what comes from the official profiles, and says where the public file stops.

Marsha Laurent, from Layou to St Joseph: a name born of a nickname

The legal name is the first fact of the file, and it comes from two sources that agree. The Dominica Festivals artist profile gives Marsha Laurent as the legal name, Layou as the origin, and the occupations of singer, songwriter and model. The interview she gave Soca News in February 2021 confirms it in her own words: she presents herself there as a Dominican songstress whose birth name is Marsha Laurent and whose stage name, Starsha, comes from the nickname Star that everyone gave her when her talent began to be noticed. She says she kept the name because she saw herself as that star, and it is that explanation, her own, that this profile keeps.

The geography is told with the same clarity by both sources. She was born in the seaside community of Layou, grew up in the neighbouring village of St Joseph on the same west coast, and was residing in St Joseph at the time of the 2021 interview. In Soca News she describes Layou as a small fishing village in the west of her homeland, the place where she dreamed, grew up and gave birth to her talents. It is from that double anchoring, Layou for the birth and St Joseph for the childhood, that this profile takes its page title.

Two method notes belong right here. First, the flattering label that follows her: in the interview she says she has been delighted to be regarded back home as the soca and bouyon princess. That is a reported phrase, in her own mouth, and this profile quotes it as such, without turning it into an official title. Second, the birth date: the Dominica Festivals profile carries an internally contradictory birth line, which mixes two months, and no other source consulted corrects it. This profile therefore publishes no birth date for Starsha, rather than a broken date copied without verification.

Her influences, again in her 2021 words, start at home: a father who was part of a singing group when young, brothers whose music she listened to, and the idea that it all started with family. The official profile adds the frame: active from 2017 to today, genres soca and bouyon, and one associated act, Signal Band, Shelly band, with which she performs on stage and in duet. The portrait is therefore that of a west coast village singer who became, in four years, one of the documented women voices of the Dominican scene.

2017 and 2018: “I Doh Fraid”, “Firewood” and producer Dada

The verified starting point of the catalog is 2017. Both sources agree: that year Starsha releases her first soca single, “I Doh Fraid”, a record she wrote herself according to the Dominica Festivals profile. In the Soca News interview she names it as the start of her involvement in music, followed by “Firewood”, and she ties both records to the same producer, Dada, owner of Cotton Groove Studio. The official profile adds the sequel: the same producer also signs “Firewood”, released in 2018 on the Melanin Riddim.

That start matters for two reasons. The first is writing: from the very first single, the artist is credited as the writer of her record, a thread that runs to “Black Girl Magic”, written by Marsha Laurent according to the official video credits. The second is speed: the Dominica Festivals profile writes that she rose on the local scene almost immediately after that first single, and in that same year 2017 she toured Antigua and Anguilla with the Triple Kay Band according to the profile. A singer from Layou who, in her debut year, already plays on two other islands with one of the big bouyon bands of Dominica: the path is documented from the origin.

One confusion this site knows well has to be avoided here. The producer of these beginnings is named Dada in both sources, with his Cotton Groove studio. This profile cites him under that stage name and does not merge him with any other bearer of the nickname. What the sources establish is enough: a Dominican soca producer, a named studio, two first records, and a collaboration that launches the career. The rest of the catalog will widen that circle, from Triple Kay to Asa Bantan, from Shelly to Zwady, without ever leaving the producers of the island.

The bouyon side: “Colours”, “Lies”, “Body”, “Handle It”

The Dominica Festivals profile says it in one sentence: she started with soca, but she is known for bouyon records. The list it gives is precise and this profile follows it in order. “Colours”, with Triple Kay as a feature. “Lies”, with Asa Bantan, the artist the profile calls in its text the bouyon boss of Dominica, a phrase this profile reports without turning it into an official title, since artist titles are usages and not facts. “Body”, solo. “You Make Me”, which the 2021 interview also names among her earlier records. And “Handle It”, on the Sook Pak Riddim, the riddim form being the ordinary factory of bouyon and carnival soca.

Around that bouyon core, the same profile draws the versatility she claims. She is a guest on “My Love”, a record by Colton T, a Dominican artist known for his dancehall records. She moves to dancehall herself with “Always On My Mind”, on the Sweet Talk Riddim, and as a feature on “Carry On”, by Black Diamond. In the 2021 interview she defends that choice in her own terms: she loves soca, she does not want to limit herself to one genre because of her versatility, and she names bouyon and soca as her two grounds. The verified catalog backs her: to each genre belongs at least one named record, dated by the context of the profiles and the riddims.

That bouyon side places her in a history longer than her career. Bouyon soca, the sung and carnival branch of bouyon, was started by Dada in 2003 in Dominica according to the first hand testimony of Sean “Smokiller” Francis, Dominican-born, who was in the rooms where it began, and Triple Kay popularized it. Starsha sings with Triple Kay on “Colours” and toured with the band as early as 2017: she therefore works with the very popularizers of the style, two decades after its start, from inside the lineage and not as an outside guest.

“System Failure” and the Dwivayéz Riddim: the 2021 hit

The central record of the file is “System Failure”. The Soca News interview gives its complete card, in the artist words: written by Jair Pendenque, writer and radio man, set on the Dwivayéz Riddim, and the official video came out on January 25, 2021, produced by Dlo, of GloSho Multimedia, and by Savion Augustine, of Savion Beats, and shot and edited by GloSho Multimedia. She also tells the subject of the record there: a song about strong Caribbean women and their presence on the dance floor, played in the video as a seduction game that sends a man to the edge of cardiac arrest, hence the title, the system failure.

A third source, independent of the first two, locks the context. On February 11, 2021, the newspaper AXA Newz describes the Dwivayéz Riddim as a production by ProducerDlo, Dylan Lowe, and Savion Beats, Savion Augustine, both from Dominica, and gives the full list of voices on the riddim: Starsha with “System Failure”, Shelly with “Happy Place”, Trilla-G with “Déliway”, Zwady with Fireman Lee on “Down Dere”, and Trinidadian artist Tevin Hartman with “Overproof”. The paper adds that two official videos were out by that date, those of “System Failure” and “Happy Place”. Starsha record is therefore the central Dominican piece of a riddim built as a bridge between Dominica and Trinidad.

The producer of the record ties Starsha to the rest of this site. Savion Augustine, known as prod.bysavion, is the same passer who produces for Shelly and Signal Band and who records songs with Trilla-G: on “System Failure” he co-produces the biggest documented soca record of Starsha, alongside Dlo. The Dwivayéz Riddim, whose name comes from the Creole word dwivé, to wander from party to party according to the AXA Newz article, is in this way a document of the Dominican method of 2021: one riddim, five voices, two islands, and videos shot by one same local studio.

2021 and 2022: collaborations, stage and Soca Artist of the Year

The year 2021 is, in the official profile, the year of collaborations at the top of the island scene. Starsha is a guest there on “All Your Love”, an afrobeat tinted duet with Sheldon “Shelly” Alfred, of Signal Band, which the 2021 interview also names among her records. She sings “Xcellent” with the Triple Kay Global Band. She sings “I Can Relate” with Trilla-G. And she releases the solo soca single “Gyal Like Me”. Added to “System Failure” in the same year, those records make 2021 her densest documented year of releases, across all partners: the Signal Band singer, the Triple Kay band and the singer rapper Trilla-G, in other words three of the central names of the Dominican wave.

The stage follows the same path, according to the Dominica Festivals profile. Starsha performs there solo and often with Signal Band, at their signature events such as Lumination, and she graced the World Creole Music Festival stage alongside the band in 2019 and in 2020 according to that profile. The same source announces her Jazz N Creole debut in 2022, with jazzy versions of her records. This profile reports those elements as the profile gives them: the two Creole festival appearances are written in the past there, while the Jazz N Creole is announced in the future, and it is therefore presented here as a 2022 announcement and not as a performance verified after the fact.

The institutional crowning comes next, and this profile gives it with its exact source. The Dominica Festivals profile writes that Starsha topped the Soca Artist of the Year category at the Dominica Music Awards 2022, and presents her in the same sentence as the reigning soca star of Dominica, a phrase of the profile and not of this site. No independent winners list of that edition was confirmed by direct opening during this research, and this profile therefore credits the title to the profile that carries it, without rounding it up or denying it. A national soca title, after a 2021 year of collaborations with the biggest names of the island, remains, even carefully attributed, the salient fact of the second half of her file.

“Black Girl Magic”, moving accounts and the limits of the file

The best documented recent record in the catalog is “Black Girl Magic”. Its official video, opened during this research, carries the full credits: performed by Starsha, written by Marsha Laurent, with additional writing credits for Aswad “Zwady” Polydore, produced by Dernel Green, vocal engineering, mixing and mastering by Cornell Phillip, and artwork by Chad George, of 365 Group Inc. The record closes two old threads of the file: writing, since the lead writer is again Marsha Laurent, as on “I Doh Fraid” in 2017, and Zwady, with whom she already sang the duet “First”, on the Fete Lyfe Riddim, according to the official profile.

The other soca records named by that profile complete the repertoire and are reported here as such: “Memories”, “Carnival Party” and “First”, therefore, alongside “Real Good Whine”, named in the 2021 interview among her earlier releases. No album is referenced in the sources consulted: the Starsha catalog is a catalog of singles and riddims, consistent with the economy of Dominican carnival, where the season record, carried by a shared riddim and a video, is worth more than a long format. This profile therefore invents for her no album, no world tour and no streaming figures that no opened page gives.

The practical traces of the file also show an artist in motion. In 2021, the Soca News interview gave her accounts as @juststarsha on Instagram and @Starsha on Facebook. The description of the “Black Girl Magic” video gives, for its part, starshaofficial on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. This profile records the change without ruling on which set of accounts is active today, and links in its structured data only the Dominica Festivals artist profile, opened and verified. If a single official page settles, this profile will be completed and dated. In the meantime, listening starts with “System Failure”, continues with “Colours”, “Lies”, “Gyal Like Me”, “All Your Love” and “First”, then with “Black Girl Magic”, and the full repertoire is followed in our bouyon playlist and on the women of bouyon page.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Starsha?

Starsha is the stage name of Marsha Laurent, a singer, songwriter and model from Dominica, born in Layou on the west coast and raised in the neighbouring village of St Joseph. In her 2021 Soca News interview she explains that Starsha comes from her nickname Star. She has been active since 2017, across soca, bouyon and dancehall, and associated on stage with Signal Band according to the Dominica Festivals profile.

What was Starsha first record?

“I Doh Fraid”, released in 2017. The Dominica Festivals profile presents it as a single written by herself and produced by Dada, who also produced “Firewood” in 2018, on the Melanin Riddim. In her Soca News interview she names those two records as the start of her musical path and names the producer as the owner of Cotton Groove Studio.

What are the bouyon records of Starsha?

The Dominica Festivals profile names “Colours” with Triple Kay, “Lies” with Asa Bantan, “Body”, “You Make Me” and “Handle It”, on the Sook Pak Riddim. It adds her dancehall moves, “Always On My Mind” on the Sweet Talk Riddim and “Carry On” with Black Diamond, and her duet “First” with Zwady on the Fete Lyfe Riddim, filed among her soca records by the same profile.

What is “System Failure”?

Her 2021 soca record, written by Jair Pendenque and set on the Dwivayéz Riddim, produced by ProducerDlo and Savion Beats according to the AXA Newz paper of February 11, 2021. The official video came out on January 25, 2021, produced by Dlo of GloSho Multimedia and Savion Augustine of Savion Beats according to her Soca News interview. The same riddim also carries “Happy Place” by Shelly, “Déliway” by Trilla-G and “Down Dere” by Zwady with Fireman Lee.

Did Starsha win an award at the Dominica Music Awards?

The Dominica Festivals artist profile writes that she topped the Soca Artist of the Year category at the Dominica Music Awards 2022, after a 2021 year of collaborations with Shelly, Triple Kay and Trilla-G. No independent winners list of that edition was confirmed during this research, and this profile therefore credits the title to that profile, exactly as it words it.

What is “Black Girl Magic”?

A Starsha record whose official video gives the full credits: written by Marsha Laurent, with additional writing credits for Aswad “Zwady” Polydore, produced by Dernel Green, with vocal engineering, mixing and mastering by Cornell Phillip. The same description gives her accounts as starshaofficial on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, where her 2021 interview gave @juststarsha on Instagram. Our bouyon playlist follows this repertoire.

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