Star Sparkle Blog

In June I wrote a post about the 20th anniversary of my fave singer Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi album. It ended up being a long post, so I split it into two parts! You can see Part 1: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/20th-anniversary-of-mariahs.html I also did another post featuring a special live performance that Mariah did to celebrate the anniversary:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/mariah-carey-20th-teom-anniversary-live.html Now here is Part 2! Today I'm featuring some songs from The Emancipation of Mimi: Ultra Platinum Edition and the new 20th anniversary edition. :)   Don't Forget About Us Don't Forget About Us was the lead (and only) single from the re-released version of the album (the Ultra Platinum Edition) and came out in October 2005, ahead of the re-release in November 2005. It's one of my favourite songs from TEOM. :) Don't Forget About Us is about a past relationship, although Mariah has stated that the  true mean...

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....

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the 20th anniversary of my favourite singer  Mariah Carey's  The Emancipation of Mimi album. I ended up splitting it into two parts. You can see Part 1 here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/20th-anniversary-of-mariahs.html I'm planning to write Part 2 soon. But today I thought I'd share a special live performance that Mariah did to celebrate the anniversary.  In addition to releasing a deluxe 20th anniversary edition of The Emancipation of Mimi (or TEOM for short!) on 30th May (see Part 1 ), Mariah also recorded a live performance of select tracks from the album.  It's called Mariah Carey: The Live Sessions and is presented by MC and musical director  Daniel Moore . Daniel accompanies Mariah on the piano.   The songs featured are Don't Forget About Us, Circles, Say Somethin', Your Girl and We Belong Together. My faves are Don't Forget About Us and Say Somethin', although I like all of them....

My favourite singer Mariah Carey is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of her 10th studio album The Emancipation of Mimi. It was released back in April 2005. I'd planned to write just one post about the album but it was turning into a really long one, so I've decided to divide it into two parts! Here is Part 1. :) The Emancipation of Mimi (or TEOM for short!) was considered Mariah's "comeback album" at the time, following on from her previous two albums, Glitter (2001) which was accompanied by the film of the same name and Charmbracelet (2002). Neither the Glitter movie or album were very well received and after going through a difficult time in general, Mariah had an emotional and physical breakdown and checked into hospital that summer. She was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder , although didn't feel ready to speak about it pubicly until several years later .  Although Charmbracelet (MC's first release after leaving Virgin Records America and singing w...

Last September I wrote a post called Brandy Through the Years, which featured music from American singer Brandy. I ended up splitting it into two parts because it was long! You can see Part 1 here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/09/brandy-through-years.html Now here is Part 2! I didn't intend to take so long to do it but never mind, lol. I had several posts that I ended up making two-parters last year (such as my Timbaland Link-up ), so I'm catching up. It's actually 30 (!) years in 2024 since Brandy released her debut album (September 1994), so Part 2 coincides with that. :)   Who Is She 2 U Who Is She U was the 2nd North American single from Afrodisiac, Brandy's 4th studio album which was released in June 2004 (20 years ago this month!). It was co-written and produced by American producer Timbaland , who also worked on the album. The lead single from Afrodisiac was Talk About Our Love with Kanye West (see Part 1 ). Brandy had been going through a difficult tim...

I last did a New Music Releases post in June , when summer was starting. We're now in autumn (or spring depending where you live), so here is some new music (in a variety of genres) for a new season! :)    NCT 127- Fact Check First up is Fact Check by NCT 127 , the 2nd unit of Korean boy band NCT . The other units are NCT U , NCT DREAM , WayV (Chinese), NCT DOJAEJUNG and their newest, NCT NEW TEAM (see below). Fact Check is the lead single from their 5th studio album of the same name. Both single and album were released on 6th October. Click "Subtitles/closed Captions" on the video on YouTube for English subtitles! :)    NCT NEW TEAM (now NCT WISH)- Hands Up Update 25/2/24: The group's official name is now NCT WISH. I've updated links in this section. Next up is more NCT! NCT New Team (working title) is the 6th and newest sub-unit from Korean boy band NCT (see above) and the first Japanese unit. Last summer I mentioned in my Asian Boy Bands- Part 2 post tha...

Nearly two years ago I wrote a post about songs that had sampled older tracks or were covers of previous songs. You can read that here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/samples-and-covers.html    I've had the idea for a while to do a follow-up post, so here are more samples and covers! :)   Note : As with the first post, I've listed the original song first. Case feat . Foxy Brown and Mary   J. Blige- Touch Me , Tease Me American singer Case (full name Case Woodward) released the R'n'B song Touch Me, Tease Me back in April 1996. It was the second single from his self-titled debut album, which came out later that year. In addition, it featured on the soundtrack from the 1996 film  The Nutty Professor  (a remake of the 1963 film ), starring Eddie Murphy .  Touch Me, Tease Me featured rapper Foxy Brown and singer Mary J. Blige , as well as backing vocals by Vernell Sales aka Vee from the American duo Koffee Brown . Vee also ...

My favourite singer Mariah Carey recently released a 25th anniversary edition of her 6th studio album Butterfly. The original album was released on 16th September 1997 and featured songs such as her hit single Honey, The Roof and My All. It was actually the first album I ever bought (on cassette tape, lol) and I still consider it one of my fave MC albums. :) Butterfly was the first album that Mariah had more control over and it is R'n'B, rather than the pop (and later pop/R'n'B) of her previous releases. It also has pop and hip hop influences. The expanded edition contain 8 extra tracks (the original standard edition has 12)- a duet version of Whenever You Call with Brian McKnight , a new take on The Roof featuring Brandy , live versions of Butterfly and My All, acapella versions of Fourth of July and Outside, an Amorphous Anniversary Club Mix of Butterfly (with DJ Amorphous ) and a remix of Honey (Another Taste of Honey David Morales Mix). I had previously heard the D...

This week's video is Big Energy by Latto and Mariah Carey , and featuring DJ Khaled . Latto (also known as Big Latto) is an American rapper and her real name is Alyssa Stephens. Her original stage name was Mulatto or Miss Mulatto, which she chose because she is mixed race. "Mulatto" is a term once used for mixed black/white people (like Latto, Mariah and myself), but now tends to be considered offensive. So, she changed it due to the controversy . Latto started out by winning the first season of TV show The Rap Game in 2016 and went on to release her first mixtape Miss Mulatto in October 2016. She then got her big break with the single Bitch from Da Souf, released in January 2019 and brought out her first studio album, Queen of Da Souf in August 2020. Her other singles include the Bitch from da Souf remix with Saweetie and Trina , Muwop featuring Gucci Mane , The Biggest and her latest, Wheelie featuring 21 Savage . To date Latto has released two more mixtapes- Latto Le...