Star Sparkle Blog

It's been ages since I've done a post solely about J-pop (not since last summer !). So today I'm featuring a selection of Japanese music and dance. As with other J-pop posts, some videos are new and others a bit older, so it's new(ish).  :)  [DANCE IN PUBLIC ONE TAKE] MISAMO Do no touch dance cover- Mermaids Taiwan First up, some J-pop in Public ! This is a dance cover of Do not touch by MISAMO , the first sub-unit of  K-pop girl group TWICE . The unit is made up of the band's 3 Japanese members, Momo, Sana and Mina, so they have released music in Japanese. Do not touch came out last July as the lead single from MISAMO's debut Japanese EP Masterpiece. The dance cover is performed by Mermaids Taiwan and features Ling as Mina, Yiwei as Sana and Anta as Momo. The video was uploaded in October.     Visit my last New(ish) J-pop Videos posts to see the music video for Do not touch (scroll down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/08/new-j-pop-videos.html   And fo

Today's video is How Your Hands Feel by American singer Ryan Destiny (full name Ryan Destiny Irons). She's also an actress and comes from a famous family, since her dad Deron Irons was in 90s R'n'B duo Guesss (along with Darryl Gerdine). Ryan started out in showbiz young, forming a musical trio called New Limit aged 12. The group (who were managed  by Ryan's mum Dawn) auditioned for America's Got Talent in 2010. Despite getting through to the finals, they decided it wasn't right for them. Ryan went on to be part of the short lived group Love Dollhouse . They released one single Can I, before disbanding in 2015. She then launched a solo career, releasing her debut single The Same in 2018. There's also a remix featuring Nigerian American rapper Tobi Lou . To date, Ryan has released 4 more singles- Do You (2020), How Many (2023), Lie Like That (2023) and How Your Hands Feel. She has yet to bring out an EP or album. Ryan's acting credits include the le

Last year I started a series on the blog called Asian Groups , sharing music from boy bands and girl groups from Asian countries. I've also written more posts about Asian groups . Today's post is a slight twist on that, featuring two Asian/Pacific  groups- Australian girl group H3RIZON and Hawaiian boy band CROSSING RAIN.  Note: I've titled this post Asian/Pacific Groups because one group has members with Asian (Filipino) heritage) and is from Australia, and the other is Hawaiian. Also there are many Asians in Hawaii. :) H3RIZON H3RIZON are the first Australian girl group to be signed to Epic Records (as part of a joint venture with RZ3 Recordings ) and the first Asian-Pacific girl group to be signed to an American record label in general. They are a trio, made up of Bernie (full name Bernadette Marquez), Gabby (Gabrielle Montalbo) and Tiara/Taya (Taylah Albert).  The girls are all from Sydney and met backstage at local shows by Filipino artists, officially forming their

This week's video is AL SHAM by Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna . It's her latest single and is a tribute to her Levantine heritage. Elyanna describes it as an ode to the late singers Sabah Fakhri (Syrian) and Cheika Rimitti (Algerian rai singer). Al Sham is an Arabic language song (with a couple of English lines) which is influenced by Dabke (an Arabic folk dance) and rai (Algerian music). It also has modern electronic elements. The video was directed by Elyanna's brother Fairdose and came out in January. See the description box on YouTube for an English translation of the lyrics. :)   Want more Arabic music?   Check out these posts : Turkish and Arabic Songs:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/09/turkish-and-arabic-songs.html Elyanna's 2020 single Ana Lahale feat. Massari: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/12/weekly-music-video.html NEJ'- Inta Habibi (Arabic/French):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/05/weekly-music-video_17.html   P.S. T

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I wasn't feeling well the past couple of days. :) Last summer I wrote a post called Timbaland Link-up, featuring collaborations that American producer and rapper Timbaland had done with other artists. I ended up splitting it into two parts because it was quite long. You can see Part 1 here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/07/timbaland-link-up-part-1.html I wrote several posts that ended up being two-parters last year, so now I'm catching up! lol. Here is Part 2 of the Timbaland link-up. :)  The Way I Are feat. Keri Hilson, D.O.E and Sebastian In June 2007 Timbaland released The Way I Are, the 2nd single from his 1st studio album Shock Value, which came out in April 2007. It features American singer Keri Hilson and is also on international editions of her debut album In a Perfect World (2009). Timbland and Keri co-wrote the song. The Way I Are is one of Timbaland's biggest hits to date, reaching Top 5 in the US charts and No. 1

Today's video is Run Back To You by Chinese rapper/singer LAY and American singer Lauv . Lay (real name Lay Zhang) is a member of Korean/Chinese boy band EXO and its Chinese sub-unit EXO-M.  LAY made his solo debut on 7th October 2016, releasing his debut single what U need? It was a surprise gift for fans to celebrate his birthday. Later that month he brought out his debut EP Lose Control (Mandarin Chinese language). In October 2017, he released his debut solo album LAY 02 SHEEP, also on his birthday. To date LAY has released 3 more albums- Namanana (2018), Lit (2020) and Producer (2021), and 4 more EPs- Winter Special Gift (a special winter album from 2017), Honey (2019), East (2021) and West (2022). His singles include  what U need, Lose Control, I Need U (dedicated to his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary), Sheep, Namanana, Lit, Joker and Veil. He sings and raps in Chinese, Korean and English. In addition to releasing music, LAY also acts. His TV shows and films inc

Last year I had an idea to do some posts featuring R'n'B songs from the 1990s and 2000s. It was inspired by the Timbaland-Link-up Part 1 post which I wrote last summer. So I thought I'd share some music from the late 90s and early 00s. I was a teenager during that time and it feels nostalgic to me! I'm featuring a  few songs today and plan to do more another time. :) Dru Hill- How Deep Is Your Love American R'n'B group Dru Hill was founded in 1992 and they are still active today. Some of their hits include In My Bed, How Deep Is Your Love.  How Deep Is Your Love is my favourite song of theirs. It was the first single from their second album Enter the Dru and was released in September 1998. One of their most popular hits, it was also on the soundtrack to the 1998 film Rush Hour. There is also a single version with Redman.  I featured the video as a Weekly Music Video back in 2012 (!): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/11/weekly-music-video_28.html   Another

Today's video is GADJE by German born, Kosovar-Albanian singer Dhurata Dora and Albanian singer Elvana Gjata . They teamed up for the single back in 2022. The two singers also worked together again for the song LUJ, last year.  Dhurata released her debut studio album DHURATA in March 2023. Her most recent singles are PALMA featuring Austrian rapper and singer RAF Camora , which came out last July and LEJ with Kosovo-Albanian rapper Don Xhoni , released in December. Elvana's most recent releases are the 2021 EP Çelu and the single Pak, released in July 2023. She also just brought out the song HANA from the new Albanian film 2 Gisht Mjaltë 2 (sequel l to 2019's 2 Gisht Mjaltë ).  GADJE is an Albanian language pop song (with the English line) with dance vibes. It was released in June 2022 but I only came across it recently.    Dhurata and/or Elvana fan? Check out these links: LUJ, their most recent song together, which features on Dhurata's album:  https://www.youtube.co

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)  Jennifer Lopez (who is one of my favourite singers) recently released a new album. It's called This Is Me...Now ... and came out on 16th February. It's her 9th studio album and first in 10 years! Her last album was AKA which was released in June 2014. TIM...N is a follow-up to This Is Me... Then (one of my fave J.Lo albums) which was released in November 2002. Back in 2022 I wrote a post about the 20th anniversary of the album, which you can see here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/11/20th-anniversary-of-jlos-this-is-me.html This Is Me...Then was inspired by Jennifer's then relationship with American actor Ben Affleck . The couple were together from November 2002 to January 2004 and became engaged. They attracted a lot of media attention at the time and were nicknamed "Bennifer".  After calling off their engagement in 2004, both Jennifer and Ben went on to marry a