Star Sparkle Blog

Canadian singer Justin Bieber released a surprise new album last month. It's called SWAG and is his 7th studio album. News of SWAG  only emerged just before its release on 11th July. I think I came across songs from it on YouTube and realised they were from a new album. It had been quite a while since Justin had brought out new music, so I was pleased to find out about it! :) SWAG follows Justin's 6th album Justice and 2nd EP Freedom (both released in 2021). To date it has reached No. 1 in several countries , including Canada, Australia, Norway and Portugal and charted within the Top 10 in more, including the UK, US, Australia, Spain and Japan. The release of SWAG comes after Justin has been through a difficult time in his personal life. There have been rumours of problems in his marriage with wife American model and businesswoman  Hailey Bieber (daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, one of the Baldwin brothers ) and worries over Justin behaving erratically as well as...

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...

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...

Jennifer Lopez (one of my favourite singers) recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of her album Rebirth. It was her 4th studio album and was released on 1st March 2005 (my 21st birthday!). It seems crazy that it's been so long since it came out! lol. In November 2022, I wrote a post about the 20th anniversary of J.Lo.'s This Is Me...Then album . So, I decided to do another one for Rebirth's anniversary. :)  Rebirth was Jennifer's first album following her split from then fiance American actor Ben Affleck , which was in part due to intense media attention. The couple later reunited and married in 2022 and Jennifer's most recent album This Is Me...Now (accompanied by a film of the same name) was inspired by their rekindled romance. (I got the album for my 40th birthday last year!) However, they broke-up a second time last year. At the time of the Rebirth's release, Jennifer was married to her third husband American singer and actor Marc Anthony , with whom s...

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...

 Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I didn't manage to finish it yesterday. :) Christina Aguilera (one of my favourite singers) is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of her self-titled debut album. She released Christina Aguilera on 24th August 1999 in the US. It wasn't released in the UK till October though and the edition I have lists the release as 2000. I can't find the original CD but it's likely a UK/European edition and maybe a newer release. Christina launched her career aged 17, with the song Reflection from the 1998 Disney film Mulan and then went on to release Christina Aguilera the following year. The album (consisting of largely pop songs) was very successful, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (also doing well internationally) and was certified platinum several times. It featured the hit singles Genie in a Bottle (the lead single and first one from the album), What a Girl Wants, I Turn to You and Come On Over (All I Want Is You). Ba...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I'm starting a new series called Random Albums, where I feature an album I own. I've actually had the idea for ages, since last year! lol. Today I'm focusing on Complex Simplicity, the debut album by American singer Teedra Moses . :)  Teedra started out as an assistant wardrobe stylist to celebrities, before becoming a singer. She began her music career by signing to TVT Records in 2002, going on to release her debut US single You'll Never Find (A Better Woman) featuring rapper Jadakiss in November 2003. The following June she brought out her 2nd single Be Your Girl. She released Complex Simplicity in August 2004 in the US and the following year in the UK. The album was largely produced by Paul Poli, with all tracks co-written by Teedra herself (and many also written by Paul). It features her first  two singles You'll Never Find and Be Your Girl as well as a 3rd, You Bette...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)  Jennifer Lopez (who is one of my favourite singers) recently released a new album. It's called This Is Me...Now and came out on 16th February. It's her 9th studio album and first in 10 years! Her last album was AKA which was released in June 2014. TIM...N is a follow-up to This Is Me... Then (one of my fave J.Lo albums) which was released in November 2002. Back in 2022 I wrote a post about the 20th anniversary of the album, which you can see here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/11/20th-anniversary-of-jlos-this-is-me.html This Is Me...Then was inspired by Jennifer's then relationship with American actor Ben Affleck . The couple were together from November 2002 to January 2004 and became engaged. They attracted a lot of media attention at the time and were nicknamed "Bennifer".  After calling off their engagement in 2004, both Jennifer and Ben went on to marry and h...