Star Sparkle Blog

This week's video is MONA LISA by Korean rapper and singer (and member of K-pop boyband BTS ) j-hope (real name Jung Ho-seok, or Ho-seok Jung in Western terms). It's his latest solo single and the third one to be released since he completed his military service (mandatory for men in South Korea) last October. It's a stand-alone single, not appearing on j-hope's EP/soundtrack HOPE ON THE STREET VOL.1 (VER.1 PRELUDE), which was released in March 2024. It follows LV Bag with American rapper and singer Don Toliver , Speedy ( Don's Louis Vuitton bag !) and American musician and singer Pharrell Williams , which came out in February, and Sweet Dreams featuring American singer Miguel , which was released in early March. MONA LISA is a laidback R'n'B and hip hop track, with all-English lyrics about how j-hope likes his girls! It's described as a "love song that pays tribute to celebrating one's unique beauty" . It was released on 21st March.    Fo...

It's Eurovision season again! This year's final will be on Saturday 17th May, a bit later than the past couple of years . The 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in St. Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland, after Nemo won with The Code last year. The UK's entry is country pop girl group Remember Monday with What The Hell Just Happened? . I normally write two Eurovision posts (and occasionally a couple of extra "mini countdown" posts), so here is the first one! Today I'm featuring previous Eurovision posts, plus a few new music videos from former contestants. :)   Eurovision Round-up (features posts from when I first started writing about the contest in 2012, up to 2017):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/05/eurovision-round-up.html Eurovision Round-up 2 (posts from 2017 to 2023; includes the countdown posts):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/05/eurovision-round-up-2.html Eurovision 2023 Favourites: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/05/eur...

Today's video is Az Sum Ti by Bulgarian Russian singer Kristian Kostov (who represented Bulgaria in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest , 8 years ago now!). Az Sum Ti is Kristian's latest single and his first time singing in Bulgarian for almost 10 years. It's part of an audio-visual project.  The song title translates as "I Am You" in English. The video premiered on 15th March.   Want more Kristian? Check out these posts: Music video for Iris, his 2023 single with VOSTOK (plus links to more music): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/06/weekly-music-video_14.html Audio for Espresso (released last year): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/05/weekly-music-video_15.html   P.S. Speaking of Eurovision , this year's contest is coming up! The Grand Final is on Saturday 17th May (with the semi-finals on the Tuesday and Thursday before). Keep up with Eurovision  news here:  https://eurovision.tv/event/basel-2025

Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote a dance videos post featuring couples' dances (plus one group dance). You can see that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/07/dance-videos.html I thought it would be fun to do another edition, so here it is! :)   Sonali X Aadil- Dhoom Dhoom  First up, some Bollywood! Here is a dance to Dhoom Dhoom by Thai singer Tata Young , from the 2004 Bollywood film Dhoom . There's also another version called Dhoom Machale . It's performed by Sonali of LiveToDance with Sonali and Aadil. It's a YouTube short and was uploaded a couple of months ago.   Visit this post to see the videos for both Dhoom Dhoom and Dhoom Machale: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/10/weekly-music-video_23.html    Sonali X Aadil- Dhadhand Dhang- Rowdy Rathore And here is another dance by Sonali and Aadi, this time to Dhadhang Dhang from Rowdy Rathore (2012), an action film that stars Akshay Kumar . This is also a short and was uploaded last month.  ...

Today's video is Weeds, the latest single by British girl group Sugababes . It's their 5th single under the name Sugababes, as the reformed original trio of Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy.  After several line-up changes since their debut in 2000, the group got back together as MKS (Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan) and released music under that name, before reclaiming the Sugababes name. For a background on that (and to see the music video for their 2023 single When the Rain Comes), visit this post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/10/weekly-music-video_11.html Weeds follows the more recent singles Situation with British musician and DJ A LITTle SOUNd (which was inspired by Sugababes' debut single Overload), released last August and Jungle which came out in March.  As with Jungle, Weeds was self-released, since Sugababes are no longer signed to BMG . The group have also just started a new UK and European tour. Weeds came out on 8th April. It's a slow...

In the past, I've written a couple of posts about songs that samples older tracks or were covers of previous songs. You can see them below: Samples and Covers:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/samples-and-covers.html More Samples and Covers: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/06/more-samples-and-covers.html   My last post was nearly two years ago, so I thought it was time for another one! This post mostly features sampled songs (however there is a bonus cover! :) Note : As with the previous posts, I've listed the original song first.   Carly Simon- Why American singer-songwriter Carly Simon released the single Why back in August 1982. It was written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (co-founders of the band CHIC ). Why is a pop/disco style song with reggae influences. It was from the soundtrack of the film Soup for One . Although the movie didn't do so well, the single was successful, reaching Top 10 in the UK Charts and doing well throughout Europe. Th...

This week's video is 32nd Floor by American singer Nija . It's her latest single and was released on 21st March. 32nd Floor is a smooth, sexy R'n'B song. This is the visualiser and was uploaded on 24th March.      Want more Nija? Check out these posts: Visualiser for On Call (released in 2021):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/11/weekly-music-video_24.html   Visualiser for Beautiful Lies (2022):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/06/weekly-music-video_15.html Official audio for Love Like This (2022): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/10/weekly-music-video_26.html

As you'll know if you follow the blog, I've often shared Dance in Public (dance covers of song performed in public places) videos in recent years. I'd say that the most popular genre is K-pop in Public (Korean dance covers). I think that's where the trend started. J-pop in Public (Japanese) dances are starting to become more popular lately too. Also, there are some C-pop in Public videos.  In the past couple of years, I've been coming across more dance covers of South East Asian songs as well. Last year I wrote a post featuring V-pop and P-pop in Public dances (Vietnamese and Pinoy/Filipino) but I don't think I've shared that many P-pop covers. So today's post is all about P-pop in Public! :)   [POP IN PUBLIC] BINI "Karera" dance cover by Principium || Philippines First up is a dance cover of Karera by Filipina girl group BINI . It was released in September 2023 and was the first pre-release single from the group's debut EP Talarawan (re...

Today's video is Just Like Me by Canadian singer Chxrry22 . It's her latest single and was released in February.  Just Like Me is an R'n'B song that has 2000s vibes, as people mention in the YouTube comments. In the music video, Chxxry also has a nice ode to American singer Tweet's classic 2002 single Oops (Oh My) featuring Missy Elliot .   Chxrry22 fan? Check out these posts: Performance video for Favorite Girl (2023):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/04/weekly-music-video_17.html Visualiser for Poppin Out (Mistakes), released last summer: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/10/weekly-music-video.html   P.S. Tomorrow it's Star Sparkle Blog's 14th birthday! I don't do birthday posts every year, only for the 7th and 10th (I hadn't thought to write a 5th birthday post, so started with the 7th). I started the blog on 17th April 2011. Next year I'll probably write a 15th birthday post. Thank you to everyone for reading! :)    

I've often featured Bollywood music (and films) on Star Sparkle (and sometimes South Indian music , such as Tollywood and Kollywood . However, I haven't featured music from the Indian music industry outside of films as often.  So today I'm sharing a quick round-up of previous posts on the blog, plus some newer Indian pop music. :)    Here are the posts previously shared: Prasad Bhandarkar playing Ragashivranjani on the bansuri (Indian bamboo flute):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/02/weekly-music-video_13.html Raja Kumari- Meera (Indian American): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/weekly-music-video_31.html   Celina Sharma (Indian/Italian Australian)- CHALO: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/02/weekly-music-video.html   Kenishaa Francis and Tejas Agarwal- Blue Naina: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/weekly-music-video_9.html   Sukriti and Prakriti Kakar, Badshah- Kya Say?: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/03/weekly-...

This week's video is I know love by Canadian singer Tate McRae and featuring Australian rapper and singer (and Tate's boyfriend!) The Kid LAROI . Tate started her career as a dancer aged 6 and went on to compete in competitions. She also took classes at her mother's dance company YYC Dance Project and learnt ballet at the Alberta Ballet Company's training school. Tate had a successful career as a young dancer, which included winning awards, becoming a brand ambassador for dance shoes and appearing in a music video. She became more known internationally when she appeared in Season 13 of the American version of the reality TV series So You Think You Can Dance , at the age of 12 (nearly 13). She was the first Canadian finalist on the show. In 2017, Tate started uploading videos of her singing her own original songs to her YouTube channel (which had previously featured mostly dance content). She released her first independent single One Day in 2017 and went on to release...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)   For ages (at least a year!) I've had the idea to do a post about my Top 10 thriller films but I just haven't felt inspired for some reason. So for now, I thought I'd write a shorter post about some teen thrillers (which happen to all be from the 90s) instead! :) Although they may not technically be classed as teen films, I've called this post Teen Thrillers because the main characters are teenagers. Since a couple of these are based on true stories, they could also be included in a true movies post ! Unless otherwise stated, the videos are trailers. Poison Ivy (1992) Lonely teenager Sylvie (played by Sara Gilbert , best known for the 90s American sitcom Roseanne , which was revived in 2018) meets Ivy ( Drew Barrymore ) and becomes friends with her.  The two girls are very different, both personality wise- Sylvie is quiet and shy, whereas Ivy is extroverted and flirty- and wit...

Today's video is Taste by American singer Coco Jones . It's from her upcoming album Why Not More? which is due out on 25th April. Why Not More? will be Coco's debut album (she has previously released 6 EPs, the most recent being the Christmas themed Coco By The Fireplace , which came out last November). Other singles from the album include singles Here We Go (Uh Oh) which was released last May and newest single You, which was released earlier this month. Taste is a smooth, sexy R'n'B song (and sexy video too!). The chorus is inspired by Britney Spears' hit 2004 single Toxic . It came out in February.  Please note that the video is quite "adult"! :)   Watch the music video for Here We Go (Uh Oh) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2nxrPHHe0&list=WL&index=28   And watch the visualiser for Coco's latest single You (which premiered on 28th March) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2nxrPHHe0&list=WL&index=28     Visit this link ...

In the past few years, I've occasionally written posts about my current favourite songs (about once a year). In recent years I've also done ones about my fave songs from the year in general (like my Current Favourite Songs of 2024 post). So here they are for 2025! You can see my previous posts at the links below: June 2019: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/current-favourite-songs.html May 2020: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/current-favourite-songs.html April 2021:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/current-favourite-songs.html Feb 2022: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/current-favourite-songs.html April 2024:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/04/current-favourite-songs.html   So, here's what I've been liking lately! :)  Gen Neo- I Wanna Know Singaporean singer Gen Neo released his latest EP Push&Pull back in November. To date he has brought out 4 singles from it- Tell The Truth, Like I Do, ONTW and The Test. While I li...