Star Sparkle Blog

This week's video is INTENTIONS by Nigerian singer Juno  (also written as JUNO). It's her latest single and was released on 7th August. The Afropop/R'n'B song is described as a "mirror to desire, doubt and the silent tension between two hearts". This is the lyric video.     For more Juno check out these links: Music video for Love Life (released last December):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/07/weekly-music-video.html   Lyric video for Love Life (uploaded on 7th August):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQPlDesX0s  

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I haven't done that many general dance videos posts (featuring more than one more genre) lately. My last one was Dance Videos- Couples' Edition 2! in May but apart from that, I haven't written a lot this year. So today I'm featuring a variety of videos from different genres. :)   [TPOP IN PUBLIC | ONE TAKE] FEAT- PIXIE | SINGAPORE DANCE COVER OPEROSE First up, some T-pop (Thai pop) in Public ! This is a dance cover of FEAT by Thai girl group PiXXie . It was released in May last year as a digital single. The cover is performed by OPEROSE. They are a dance cover crew from Singapore.  The video premiered in April and features MEGZ as Mabelz, JIAYI as Pimma and REENA as Inghko. It' s a one-take video, meaning it was filmed all in one go.       Watch the music video for FEAT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FztEbqElt0 Follow OPEROSE/subscribe to their channel here: ht...

I last shared a New Music Releases post at the beginning of June . So now that we're well into summer, I thought I'd share some new music from a mix of genres, for the current season! :)   KARD- Touch  First up, some K-pop! This is Touch, the latest single by Korean mixed gender/co-op group KARD . It's the lead single from their 8th mini album DRIFT and both came out on 2nd July. DRIFT features 7 tracks, including BETCHA, Touch, Pivot and instrumental versions of Touch and Pivot. Touch is an English and Korean language song with sexy lyrics, which reinterprets 2000s music . Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)    There's also a performance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKRAgL7THOg   Stream/buy DRIFT here:  https://lnkfi.re/KARD_DRIFT   And for more music from KARD, visit my New Music for 2025 post from the beginning of the year (features the visualiser for stand-alone single Detox):  https://starsparklex....

This week's video is Woman To Woman by Nigerian singer Simi . It's her most recent single and came out in March. Woman To Woman is the 4th single from Simi's 5th studio album Lost and Found, which was released in July last year, through her independent record label Studio Brat . It's an Afrobeats, R'n'B and soul album.  Woman To Woman follows previous singles All I Want, Men are Crazy and Borrow Me Your Baby. It's all about celebrating women and I think the lyrics are a mixture of English, a Nigerian language and Pidgin . This is the original music video and there's also a viral video (see below).      And here is the viral video (also released in March):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUjYM7PiTI   Want more Simi? Check out this post: Music video for her 2020 single THERE FOR YOU feat. Ms Banks (plus links to more music): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/01/weekly-music-video_20.html

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...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)   It's been a while since I've done a New Music Releases post (apart from my New Music for 2025 posts at the beginning of the year, my last one was in December ). So here is some new music for spring (almost summer) 2025! :) LISA feat. Tyla- WHEN I'M WITH YOU First up, an Asian/African crossover! :) Thai rapper and singer LISA (member of Korean girl group BLACKPINK turned solo star) recently brought out the single WHEN I'M WITH YOU, a collab with South African singer Tyla .  LISA's full name is Lalisa Manobal (her birth name is Pranpriya Manobal; she  changed it to bring herself good luck ). She started her career becoming a trainee with YG Entertainment (one of South Korea's biggest entertainment companies) and debuted at a member of BLACKPINK in 2016. In September 2021, LISA made her solo debut with the single album Lalisa and single of the same name. The single albu...

This week's video is PUSH 2 START ( REMIX) by South African singer Tyla and Jamaican dancehall rapper and singer Sean Paul . The original version of PUSH 2 START was released last October and is from the deluxe edition of Tyla's debut studio TYLA (called TYLA+). The deluxe album also came out in October. The remix was released on 3rd March.    For more on the original PUSH 2 START and to watch the  music video, visit my New Music Releases post from December: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/12/new-music-releases.html   Tyla fan? Check out these posts:   Music video for Jump with Gunna and Skillibeng, released last May (plus links to more music):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/05/weekly-music-video_22.html One Call with SPINALL and Omah Lay (released last July):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/08/weekly-music-video_21.html   Or want more Sean Paul? Check out these links: Music video for How We Do it with Pia Mia (2022)...

I've previously featured a couple of African girl groups on the blog, but not a boyband so far. A couple of months or so ago, I did a search online and found some. So today I'm featuring Dey Say, a boyband from South Africa! :) Dey Sey are the first South African boyband in two decades who have not been formed through a reality show. The group comes from Johannesburg and consists of 4 members aged between 16-21- J, Dre, Chad and Elim. Dey Say ( previously known as CLJ ) started out by posting videos on TikTok , their most popular being a cover of Cameroonian American singer Libianca's hit single People, which reached over 1 million views.  After South African TV presenter Leanne Manas heard their music, she conducted a live on-air search to find them, then invited them on her TV show Morning Live , which kickstarted their career. Following their appearance, the boys headed to the studio and began recording original music, which blends different genres, such as amapiano ...

This week's video is SMH by Joeboy and Tempoe . Joeboy (real name Joseph Akinwale Akinfenwa-Donus) is a Nigerian singer, who started working on music aged 18.  His career took off he after uploaded a cover of British singer Ed Sheeran's Shape of You to Instagram, which drew the attention of Nigerian singer Mr Eazi . He then became an emPawa 100 finalist (part of Mr Eazi's talent incubation initiative programme emPawa Africa , which was officially launched in 2019) the following year. In March 2019, Joeboy released the single Baby. It is one of his most successful singles to date, reaching the Top 10 in the Nigerian, Kenyan and Ugandan Apple Music Charts and over 20 million streams on YouTube and Spotify.  His follow-up track Beginning (released in August 2019) was also No. 1 on Apple Music in Nigeria and Uganda. He brought out his debut EP Love & Light in November 2019.  Joeboy released his debut studio album Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic in February 2021. He...

In the past couple of years I've written round-ups of live performances I've shared on the blog. You can see them at the links below:  Live Performances Round-up: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/03/live-performances-round-up.html Live Performances Round-up 2023:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/07/live-performances-round-up-2022-2023.html   Since we're now in 2025, I thought I'd share some more posts from the past couple of years, plus some new performances! :)   My 2023 live performances post, which features Filipina singer Denise Julia with bum 2 me , Singaporean singer Gen Neo's Losing Game Guitar Ver. and South African singer Tyla with Water:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/09/live-performances-2023.html My Afropop Round-up 2022-2023 post includes a live performance from Kenyan singer Karun. She sang her single Only You for music platform COLORSXSTUDIOS:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/11/afropop-round-up-2022-2023.html Eu...

Time for the first C-pop Saturday post of the year! If you're new to the blog, it's my semi-regular series sharing Chinese music that I started back in 2018 . My last post was in September , so it's been a while!    WayV- FREQUENCY In December I shared the music videos for both the Korean and Chinese versions of FREQUENCY, the latest single by WayV , in my New Music Releases post. They are the Chinese sub-unit of Korean boyband NCT and sing in Chinese (Mandarin) and Korean. FREQUENCY is the title track from the group's 6th mini album, which was released last November. Watch the videos here (scroll down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/12/new-music-releases.html   Ozone- Looking at the Crescent Moon/New Moon Dance Performance Video In my latest Asian Groups post, I featured the Taiwanese boyband Ozone (as well as Thai girl group 4EVE). One of the songs I shared is New Moon (or the Chinese title which is something like Looking at the Crescent Moon Together, whi...

This week's video is Call Of, the new single by Cape Verde born French singer Ronisia . It was released on 24th January.  Ronisia's most recent album is era 24, which came out in November 2023, but Call Of isn't on the album. It's a French language R'n'B song.     Ronisia fan? Check out this post: Music video for her 2023 single C'est toi: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/11/weekly-music-video_15.html  

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post sharing some new music for 2025. You can read it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/new-music-for-2025.html   Today I'm sharing some more new releases from various genres. Please note that some of the songs contain swearing/explicit lyrics. :) Sukriti and Prakriti Kakkar- Aa Zara Indian twin musical duo Sukriti and Prakriti Kakkar's new single Aa Zara (released on 24th January) was this week's Weekly Music Video. Watch it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/weekly-music-video_29.html   JoJo- Ready To Love American singer JoJo recently released the single Ready To Love. It's one of the latest singles from her new EP NGL, her 5th, following on 2021's trying not to think about it . The EP title stands for "Not Gonna Lie" and it came out on 24th January. NGL is mainly R'n'B and consists of 8 tracks including previous singles, lead single Porcelain, plus the "stripped down" version...

This week's video (or audio) is IT'S TRUE by Nigeran singer and record producer CKay and featuring  Canadian dancer, actress and singer Nora Fatehi . It's from CKay's latest album project EMOTIONS, which was released in October.  EMOTIONS follows CKay's debut album Sad Romance (which came out in 2022) and is a fusion of Nigerian and international music. CKay (who is known as "Africa's Boyfriend") says that the album is about "vulnerablility and growth" . Singles from EMOTIONS include WAHALA featuring Nigerian rapper and singer Olamide , IN MY BED and ADDICTED featuring Nigerian highlife band The Cavemen. . For IT'S TRUE, CKay teamed up with Nora, who has Moroccan heritage and is known for her dancing (in particular belly dancing). She began her acting career by appearing in Indian films ( Bollywood and South Indian ), both for item numbers and acting roles, and is based in India.  Last February, Nora signed a record deal with Warner M...

Sorry this week's post is later; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)   It's a new year, so time for some new music! Since 2017 I've been writing posts sharing new music releases for the new year. You can see 2024's at the links below: New Music for 2024: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-music-for-2024.html More New Music for 2024:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/02/more-new-music-for-2024.html   So here are some new releases from a variety of genres. :) KARD- Detox First up, some K-pop! This is Detox, the latest single by Korean mixed gender/co-ed group KARD . It was actually released in December but I thought I'd include it. :) The group released their 7th mini album Where To Now? Part 1: Yellow Light last summer, along with the singles Tell My Momma and SPIN.  Detox is a stand-alone/non-album single but it may be intended for Part 2 of Where To Now? in the future. Detox is a pop/dance song about "detoxing" from all t...

A couple of years ago I shared my favourite songs of 2022. Then I did the same last year, so I thought I'd make it an annual tradition! You can see my previous posts at the links below: Favourite Songs of 2022: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/12/favourite-songs-of-2022.html Favourite Songs of 2023: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/01/favourite-songs-of-2023.html And now  here are my fave songs from 2024! :)   Back in April, I wrote a post with my current favourite songs. So rather than repeating myself, I'll link it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/04/current-favourite-songs.html A few of them had come out at the end of 2023. And here are more songs I liked last year. :)  LE SSERAFIM- EASY Korean girl group LE SSERAFIM released their 5th Korean single EASY in February. It was very popular and inspired a lot of K-pop in Public dance covers (see below!). LE SSERAFIM was formed in 2022 and currently consists of 5 members- leader Kim Chaewon, Sakura...