Star Sparkle Blog

It's been a bit since I last did a C-pop Saturday post, so here is the first one of the autumn! (In June I said it was the first one of the summer and it ended up being the only one, but never mind! lol.  :) Vinida- Blood Moon First up is Blood Moon by Chinese rapper Vinida. Her full name is Vinida Weng (I've also seen her called Weng Ying so perhaps that's her Chinese name*) and she is based in Fuzhou , in China's Fujian province. She debuted on Chinese variety show Sing! China in summer 2016 and went on release her debut single Dirty Mind in December. Vinida is signed to Modern Sky Records, China's largest independent record label and has released a full length album called Solo. Vinida is singing on in Blood Mood rather than rapping. The song (which was releaded in May) has a nice vibe, especially the chorus. Vinida-  Queendom Here is another song by Vinida where she's rapping. It's called Queendom and was released in April 2017. For

This week's video is Doyin by Nigeria born, Ghana based singer Mr Eazi and  Nigerian singer Simi . It was uploaded last month. I like the overall vibe of the song and the two singers go well together. :) They previously worked together on Surrender last year. According to comments on YouTube "Doyin" is a Yoruba name. Urban dictionary has it listed as a nickname for a girl . If you watch the video on YouTube you can see the lyrics. African music fan? Check out this post: Afropop Round-up:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/afropop-round-up.html

Time for a New Music Releases post! (The last one was in May , so it's been a little while). So here are some new releases  from a variety of genres, for late summer/early autumn. :) Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey- Don't Call Me Angel First up is an Ariana Grande , Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey collaboration! The 3 stars have teamed up for Don't Call Me Angel, a song from the new Charlie's Angels film. They have different styles but I think they combine well on the song. The video premiered on 13th September. Tiwa Savage- 49-99 This is 49-99 by Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage , which came out on 5th September. It's sung in a Nigerian language/ pidgin , I think. If you view the video on YouTube you can see the lyrics and also their meaning in English. :) "49-99" is a term referring to a transit bus and how there are only 49 seats, but 99 passengers standing. The song is about the hard life many Nigerians go through. You can read can

Today's video is Work by Algerian born,  British raised singer Miraa May . It's from her latest EP Dark which was released in July. I bought Work last month on iTunes and it's one of my current favourite songs. :) This a lyric video which was uploaded at the end of July. Please note that the song contains swearing:) For another Miraa May song check out this post featuring the Nobody music video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/03/weekly-music-video_20.html

The Teen Mom universe keeps growing! This month sees the start of a brand new spin-off- a UK version of Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant . The original Teen Mom, now re-named Teen Mom OG (itself a spin-off on the American reality show 16 and Pregnant , which follows pregnant teenagers) started in 2009 and there have been several other shows since- Teen Mom 2 , Teen Mom 3 (cancelled after one season), Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant and Teen Mom: Young Moms Club (formerly Pretty Little Mamas). There have also been several international versions, including Teen Mom UK and Teen Mom Australia . Series 6 of TM: UK just finished and now the British version of Young and Pregnant is due to start next week. TM: Young and Pregnant UK follows 4 new girls- Charlie, Alisha, Laura and Charlotte who are all expecting babies. When TM UK started only Mia Boardman was pregnant but this time all of the mums were pregnant during filming. (Which makes sense since this is "young and pregnant"! lol

This week's video is Off Guard by Albanian singer Elvana Gjata and featuring American singer Ty Dolla $ign . Elvana is from Tirana in Albania and started her career by taking part in music festivals. Her debut single was Te kam khan which she performed at the Kenga Majke festival. She has released many singles including Te Dy, Mames (her best selling single to date),  Ku jeton dashuria ime, Vetes, Disco Disco, Puthe, Lejla and Ku vajti. Elvana released her debut album Mames in 2007 and has brought out two more since, Vetes (2009)_ and Afer dhe Larg (2011). While she mainly sings in Albanian, she has released a couple of English language singles- Forever is Over and Off Guard. Last year she brought out an EP called 3. Her latest single is Fustani featuring Kosovo-Albanian musician Capital T , which was released in June and A ,'don which came out in August. Elvana has also appeared in TV and film, including winning S2 of Dancing with the Stars in 2012  and acting in the  2019

I've previously done round-ups for J-pop , K-pop and Bollywood , so today I'm featuring a round-up on Afropop posts on the blog. Afropop is a term used to refer to African popular music. There are many different types and languages it's sung in. A lot of the Afropop that I come across tends to be West African (mainly from Nigeria and Ghana). I'm part Cameroonian and have also listened to some Cameroonian music. And I listen to East African music as well, such as Tanzanian and Kenyan. You can read a bit about Afropop here:  http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20110930-travelwise-intro-to-afropop In 2016 I did a World Music Round-up post featuring music from Africa (also features Asian music), so I'm not going to link to those posts again but you can find them here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/06/world-music-round-up-africa-and-asia.html Artists listed include Henri Dikongue (Cameroon), Amr Diab (Egypt), Perola (Angola) and TID (Tanzania). Note: In

This week's video is Pulling Away by British singer Sinead Harnett and featuring American singer Gallant . It came out in July and will be on Sinead's debut album Lessons In Love, due out on 20th September. I have her EP Chapter One, so am looking forward to the album release. :) For more on Sinead and the album visit these links: Official site: http://www.sineadharnett.co.uk/ Official FB: https://www.facebook.com/sineadharnettmusic/ And check out these posts for more music: Unconditional from Chapter One: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/weekly-music-video.html Body single: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/07/weekly-music-video_11.html P.S . Gallant also worked with Chinese singer Tia Ray on the song Trust Myself. Watch the video here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/c-pop-saturday.html

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I wasn't able to finish it yesterday. :) Something a little different today! I've noticed the American rapper/singer 6LACK has worked with a few artists I like, so today's post is a link-up, featuring his collaborations. 6LACK (real name Ricardo Valdez Valentine) is from Atlanta, Georgia. His stage name is pronounced "black". (I do automatically start to read it as "6 lack" though! lol). He started out as a battle rapper when he was still at school. 6LACK's breakthrough came with the single Prblms, released in September 2016. It was from his debut album FREE 6LACK which came out that November. In September last year he released his second album East Atlanta Love Letter. His singles include Prblms, First F**k featuring Jhené Aiko , OTW with Khalid and Ty Dolla $ign , Nonchalant, It's Not U It's Me with Bea Miller and Imported with Jessie Reyez . First F**k with Jhené Aiko Although I listed th