Star Sparkle Blog

Time for another instalment of C-pop Saturday, my semi- regular series sharing Chinese music! I've only done one other post this year ( in February ), so this is the 2nd one of 2025. Today I'm featuring C-pop and R'n'B. :)   ELL&s- Elevatah First up, a Taiwanese girl group! This is Elevatah by  ELL&s , who are signed to KJM Entertainment. The group consists of 5 members- 4 of whom were previously in pre-debut girl group SUNNY PARFUM . According to their Kprofiles , they are a sub-unit of SUNNY PARFUM. The members are lead vocalist Ashlee (real name Chan Hsai-chen/Xinchan), Theia (Zheng Yuhsin), Cherry (Chen Chen-wei/Huang Xiuwan/), Rosie (don't know her full name yet) and Shan/Shanshan (Chen Yu-shan).   All the girls apart from Rosie were members of SUNNY PARFUM * ELL&s debuted in July 2024 with the digital single Elevatah. They also released the special single Ride or Die (2024 Remaster Version) last September, a remake of a song originally released by ...

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...

Sorry the post is a bit later this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)   It's now December and less than a month is left of the year, so here are some new music releases for the end of 2024!  You can read my previous New Music Releases post (written in October) here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/10/new-music-releases.html Today I'm sharing new music from a variety of genres. :) Tyla- PUSH 2 START First up is PUSH 2 START by South African singer Tyla . She has had a very successful year , with achievements that include continuing to top the charts with her single Water and songs from her debut album, and receiving nominations and winning awards at several international award shows, such as the GRAMMYs , the MTV Video Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards . She is rounding off her year by appearing as one of the guests on the Netflix holiday special A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter (hosted by American singer Sabrina Carpenter...

Time for another instalment in my semi-regular series C-pop Saturday! Today I'm sharing mainly a mix of C-pop and R'n'B:) Ally Shen- Secret First up is Secret by Ally Shen . She is a Taiwanese singer who has grown up in Germany and Switzerland. She is fluent in Chinese, German and English. Ally started out as a model aged 15 , which led to her catching the eye of a music producer and becoming a girl group trainee. She made her music debut in April 2020, as part of the Taiwanese girl group PER6IX . They released a digital single and two EPs but their debut was disrupted by the pandemic. They don't  appear to be active currently. During her break from PER6IX, Ally concentrated on songwriting and music , as well as college. She then decided to focus on an entertainment career. In 2023 she took part in the Taiwanese reality show NEXT GIRLZ , where contestants competed for a spot in a new girl group. She was one of the winners and became a member of Twinkle Black . As well a...

Time for another C-pop Saturday (my semi-regular series featuring Chinese music)! It's only my second one of the year (the first was in February ). Here is a selection of Chinese songs (double videos from a couple of acts!) :) BOY STORY- Alpha First up is Alpha by Chinese boy band BOY STORY . It's from their 3rd EP JI which was released in February. Having started out in the music  industry as boys (literally a "boy band"!), the BOY STORY members are now in their late teens and early 20s (with the youngest aged 17). They officially debuted in China in 2018 and made their Korean debut in August last year, with the English version of the single ZI.P. Alpha is the title track from JI and was released on 3rd February (the same day as the EP). It's a mixture of Chinese and English lyrics, and is about the contradiction of opposites . There are also English and Korean versions of the song.  Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :...

Time for the first C-pop Saturday post of the year! If you're new to the blog, C-pop Saturday is a semi-regular series that I started in 2018 , featuring Chinese music (pop and sometimes other genres).  Today I'm featuring a mix of songs- pop, R'n'B and some African inspired music! :) WayV- Poppin' Love First up is Poppin' Love by WayV ,  the Chinese sub-unit of the Korean boy band NCT . It's from their 2nd studio album On My Youth, which was released in November. The title track came out on 1st November 2023, the same day as the album. Poppin' Love is a pop/R'n'B song sung in Chinese (I think Mandarin). I'm not sure if it was an official single but the video was uploaded in October. I think the video follows on from the one for No One But You + INVINCIBLE, which you can watch here if you want to see it first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuIV0bWMEy8 Poppin' Love is listed as a "Track Video", so maybe it's not an actual ...

Time for another C-pop Saturday post (my semi-regular series featuring Chinese music)! Here is another selection of C-pop (and sometimes other genres). :) Zunya- Love on a Boat First up is Love on a Boat by Taiwanese singer Zunya. His real name is Tong Li and his music combines modern pop with traditional Chinese instruments.  His popular songs include That's Called Life, Wu Yu and Beautiful Night featuring Taiwanese actress (and occasional singer) Gingle Wang . Zunya's latest release is the album Grateful, which came out in June and his most recent single is All Is Well. Love on a Boat is a lighthearted R'n'B song and it's about lovers on a boat who now have to communicate face to face, rather than through their mobile phones. (At least according to Google Translate and what I gather from the video!). The video (which was directed by Taiwanese singer and rapper J.Sheon ) was uploaded in June.   For more on Zunya visit these links: Viberate page: https://www.vibera...

Time for the first C-pop Saturday post of 2023! For those new to the blog, C-pop Saturday is a semi-regular series where I feature C-pop and other styles of Chinese music. I started it back in 2018 .   So here is another selection of Chinese music. :) WayV- Diamonds Only Diamonds Only, the latest single by WayV (the Chinese sub-unit of Korean boy band NCT) was a Weekly Music Video in December: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/12/weekly-music-video_28.html   Shi Shi feat. KIRE- [jagi] Here is [jagi] by Shi Shi and featuring KIRE . Shi Shi (real name Sun Sheng Xi) is a Taiwanese-Korean singer. * She has Taiwanese heritage and was born in South Korea. She got started in the music business after taking part in the Taiwanese reality singing competition Chinese Million Star in 2012. Shi Shi went on to release her debut album Girls in August 2014 and the 2nd singleoff  the album, Constant Temperature, is one of her most popular songs to date. Her other singles inclu...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to finish it yesterday. :)   Back in in 2019 I wrote a blog post featuring songs from Head in the Clouds II, the 2nd album by 88rising. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/11/songs-from-head-in-clouds-ii-album.html   I thought it would be cool to expand on that by featuring more artists from the record company, so that's what today's post is about. I decided to split it into two posts because I was behind with posting. :)  88rising (also written as 88⬆) is an American mass media company founded by Sean Miyashiro in 2015. It primarily represents Asian artists, both from America and Asia. 88rising's enterprises include a record label, video production and clothing companies. The record label mainly works with hip hop and R'n'B rappers and singers. To date there have been two compilation albums featuring 88rising artists, Head in the Clouds, released in July 2018 and Head in the Cl...

It's been a while since I did a C-pop Saturday post (my last one was in the summer), so today I'm sharing another selection of Chinese music! :)   38- Flower by A-Lin First up is 38-Flower by Taiwanese singer A-Lin . Her real name is Lisang Pacidal Kouyan and she is an aboriginal singer of Amis descent. She started out in the music business in 2006, with her debut album Lovelorn, Not Guilty (English translation), released under Avex Taiwan. To date A-Lin has released 9 more albums, including Diva (2008), Happiness, And Then (2012), Guilt (2014), A-Lin (2017) and her latest LINK. She left Avex after several albums and signed to Sony Music in 2014. Her singles include Anti-Perfect, Passenger, I'm Not Sorry, Best Friend and 38-Flower.  Her music is a mixture of Mandopop (Mandarin language) and other genres such as rock and R'n'B. She has been compared to fellow Taiwanese aboriginal singer A-Mei . 38- Flower is from A-Lin's latest album LINK, which was relea...

It's been a while since my last C-pop Saturday post, so today I'm sharing a selection of Chinese music! :)    WARps Up Last month I featured Japanese/Chinese boy band WARPs Up's song POWER in my Asian Boy Bands- Part 2 post ( click here for Part 1 ). It's a mostly English song with some Chinese lines). Visit the post here (see under C-pop/J-pop: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/07/asian-boy-bands-part-2.html Or here's a direct link, since the video is blocked from playing on 3rd party applications:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3XsfUQD6ic   Roy Wang & JelloRio- By Now This is By Now by Chinese singer Roy Wang and rapper JelloRio . Roy (also known as Wang Yuan) started out as a member of then teenage boy band TFBoys but he and the other members are just releasing solo music now, as far as I'm aware. Roy made his solo debut with the single Cause of You, which he performed at his 15th birthday concert back in November 2015 and released second singl...