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Asian Groups- Indian Boy Band

Here is another instalment of my Asian Groups series! Today I'm featuring Indian boyband  FIRST5 . :) They describe themslelves India's first next gen pop boy group  9 "next gen") meaning a new generation. They are like a male counterpart to W.i.S.H , India's first girl group in 22 years, who debuted last year. FIRST5 (also written as First5) was founded in 2023 by Indian singer/songwriter and content creator Aksh Baghla , who held online auditions on his  social media channels. The group consists of 4 members- Yoshi, Tan, Elton and Daksh. Aksh (who is from Himachal Pradesh) was originally part of the band (hence the name "FIRST5) but decided to take a backseat (due to investment and management challenges ) and ake on a mentor/captain role for the others. The boys come from Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Uttar Pradesh but moved to Chandhigarh to focus on the group. Inspired by international pop and K-pop in particular, FIRST5 started out by coverin...
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Weekly Music Video

Today's video is Love Life by JUNO. She is a Nigerian singer/artist, signed to The Gamma (a media and technology enterprise). JUNO  (real name Joy Dzeremo) made her debut with the single Intentions in August last year. To date she has released two other singles- Love Life and her latest, PIPE ME UP with Nigerian singer-songwriter Ruger . Her music is a blend of Afro soul and Afropop . Love Life is Juno's 2nd single and was released last December. I like the chilled vibes of the song. :)       Also check out the video for PIPE ME UP (released last month):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRh5J0J2F0g   And for more on JUNO visit these links:  Official FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/hearjunoo/   Official Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/hearjuno   Official YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@hearjuno     Want more African music? Check out these posts: Afropop Round-up 2022-2023:  https://sta...
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C-pop Saturday

Time for another instalment of C-pop Saturday, my semi- regular series sharing Chinese music! I've only done one other post this year ( in February ), so this is the 2nd one of 2025. Today I'm featuring C-pop and R'n'B. :)   ELL&s- Elevatah First up, a Taiwanese girl group! This is Elevatah by  ELL&s , who are signed to KJM Entertainment. The group consists of 5 members- 4 of whom were previously in pre-debut girl group SUNNY PARFUM . According to their Kprofiles , they are a sub-unit of SUNNY PARFUM. The members are lead vocalist Ashlee (real name Chan Hsai-chen/Xinchan), Theia (Zheng Yuhsin), Cherry (Chen Chen-wei/Huang Xiuwan/), Rosie (don't know her full name yet) and Shan/Shanshan (Chen Yu-shan).   All the girls apart from Rosie were members of SUNNY PARFUM * ELL&s debuted in July 2024 with the digital single Elevatah. They also released the special single Ride or Die (2024 Remaster Version) last September, a remake of a song originally released by ...
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Weekly Music Video

Today's video is ALL I WANT IS YOU by Australian rapper and singer THE KID LAROI . It's a recent single and was released on 6th June. It precedes his latest single HOW DOES IT FEEL? which came out later this month. ALL I WANT IS YOU is a laidback pop/R'n'B song with romantic lyrics. It marked LAROI's  first solo release of 2025 , following his single I know love with his girlfriend Canadian singer Tate McRae (released in February). This is the official audio.   The Kid LAROI fan? Check out these posts: Music video for I know love with Tate:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/04/weekly-music-video_9.html Video for his newest single HOW DOES IT FEEL? (released on 20th June):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIDRLLVaLlQ
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Mariah Carey 20th TEOM Anniversary- Live Performances

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the 20th anniversary of my favourite singer  Mariah Carey's  The Emancipation of Mimi album. I ended up splitting it into two parts. You can see Part 1 here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/20th-anniversary-of-mariahs.html I'm planning to write Part 2 soon. But today I thought I'd share a special live performance that Mariah did to celebrate the anniversary.  In addition to releasing a deluxe 20th anniversary edition of The Emancipation of Mimi (or TEOM for short!) on 30th May (see Part 1 ), Mariah also recorded a live performance of select tracks from the album.  It's called Mariah Carey: The Live Sessions and is presented by MC and musical director  Daniel Moore . Daniel accompanies Mariah on the piano.   The songs featured are Don't Forget About Us, Circles, Say Somethin', Your Girl and We Belong Together. My faves are Don't Forget About Us and Say Somethin', although I like all of them....
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Weekly Music Video

This week's video is Heaven, the latest single by American singer Nija . It follows her previous single 32nd Floor, which came out in March. Heaven is a chilled R'n'B song. Someone in the comments on YouTube describes it as "outer space R'n'B"! It's one of my current favourite songs and I bought it on iTunes.  The single came out on 30th May. This is the official audio. I'll update this post if there's a music video in future. :)   Visit my Weekly Music Video post from April to see the visualiser for 32nd Floor:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/04/weekly-music-video_23.html  
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K-pop in Public- Girl Group Classics

Sorry the 2nd post is later again this week; I didn't feel well yesterday and didn't manage to get it finished. :)   In recent months I've seen several K-pop in Public (dance covers of Korean songs in public places) to older songs by girl groups. So today I'm sharing some K-pop in Public covers of girl group classics! :)   AOA- Miniskirt In my Asian Dance in Public post in February, I shared a couple of covers of Miniskirt by AOA  (a  3rd generation K-pop group , I believe). They debuted in 2012 but they have been inactive since 2020. Miniskirt was released back in January 2014 and was the lead single from their 5th single album of the same name. As I mentioned in that post, I  featured the music video on the blog  10 years ago! The Miniskirt covers are by OnePear Dance crew from Australia and STARMINA from France, plus I shared a couple more links (scroll down):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/02/asian-dance-in-public-videos.html Now h...
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