Star Sparkle Blog

Last year I did a round-up of my favourite Japanese music acts. You can check it out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/09/j-pop-acts.html I thought it would be good to do a post on some more Japanese singers and groups today. :) Note: A few of the singers in this post are mixed race. I don't think there are that many famous Japanese singers with mixed heritage but there are a few, including the 3 below, Crystal Kay , A.I. and Thelma Aoyama . One of my fave singers Namie Amuro is a quarter Italian as well. Being mixed race myself it's cool to see successful mixed people. :) BENI (formerly Beni Arashiro) BENI (full name Beni Daniels) originally debuted as Beni Arashiro (or Arashiro Beni in the Japanese way) but decided to have just BENI as her stage name in 2008. Her mum is Japanese and her dad is American (European and Native American). She was born in Okinawa in Japan and later moved to America and then to Yokohama in Japan. She started out as a member of...

I like a variety of music from around the world, so I thought today I'd do a round-up of world music posts on the blog. :) I was originally going to include more countries but it was turning into a really long post, so I've split it up! I'm starting with music from African and Asian countries. Note: I've listed the countries and singers/groups in alphabetical order to make it easier but the Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood films are listed in order of posting (from oldest to newest) because that was how I did the previous Bollywood round-up post.  Text size has been corrected so this should be easier to read now! :) Africa Angola Perola: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/11/weekly-music-video_18.html Cameroon Henri Dikongue: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/01/weekly-music-video_25.html Egypt Amr Diab:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/06/weekly-music-video_26.html Ruby: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/06/weekly-music-...

Hope everyone had a great New Year. :) It's time for another post on new music and videos I've been listening to/watching lately. (Some of it is just new to me). So here we go! Selena Gomez- Same Old Love Mabel- My Boy, My Town Shawn Mendes- Stitches  Bart Baker- Ariana Grande Focus parody BABYMETAL- Gimme chocolate! (Japanese) Rachel Platten- Stand By You Aida Nikolaychuk- Lullaby Kehlani - Did It Justin Bieber feat. Kehlani- Future That's it for now. There aren't as many songs as past lists but I'm looking forward to hearing more new music in 2016. :)

I've done quite a few posts on Japanese and Korean singers and groups, so to fit in with September's J-pop and K-pop theme I thought I'd do a round-up of my favourite acts. I was going to do both Japanese and Korean acts but it was turning into a mega post, so I'll start with the J-pop ones and do K-pop next time! Koda Kumi Koda Kumi is my favourite Japanese singer. She's very popular in Japan and this year is her 15th anniversary of being in the music business. Here are some Koda related links: Video for one of my favourite songs, Trust You: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/01/weekly-music-video_21.html My absolute favourite song, feel: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/03/weekly-music-video_27.html Top 10 Koda Kumi Songs

Today it's between Japanese singers Ayumi Hamasaki and GACKT. Ayumi Hamasaki is one of Japan's most popular singers and has been named the "Empress of Pop". She launched her career in 1998 with the single Poker Face and went on to release her first album on record company Avex, A Song for xx in 1999. (In 1995  she brought out a mini-album Nothing from Nothing on the record company Nippon Columbia, which failed to chart). Since then Ayumi (Ayu to her fans) has released 50 singles and 14 studio albums, 8 of which have topped the Oricon charts.She is ranked by Oricon as the 3rd best selling Japanese artist of all time, behind rock duo B'z and pop rock band Mr. Children . She is also popular throughout Asia. As well as being a singer, Ayumi has her own fashion brand MLTRG (Material Girl), a cartoon version of herself called Ayupan, has  hosted a talk show Ayuready? (from 2002-2004) and also opened a restaurant called Rainbow House. She is considered a fashion...

This is the video for Koda Kumi 's single Pink Spider from her new covers album Color the Cover. The songs are all covers of classic Japanese hits. Pink Spider was originally sung by J-rock singer hide , who was a solo artist,  lead guitarist of the heavy metal band X Japan and lead singer and guitarist of the alternative/rock band Zilch . He died 15 years ago and his death was ruled a suicide. For hide's version, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tABkiHXOlNQ Update 9/5/13: Koda Kumi's record company Avex have had the video removed and the only one on YouTube is a 1.24 clip from them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFV58f1S8R0 P.S. Please like my Facebook page to receive post updates! http://www.facebook.com/StarSparkleBlog