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...

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....

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...

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...

Today's video is Princess GaL (Harajuku Y2K ver.) by Japanese singer Hamano Haruki (or Haruki Hamano in Western terms). She is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Fukuoka. Haruki's music is a mixture of J-pop, hip hop and rap and her lyrics are described as  "sensual and realistic, with a touch of venom" . Born in 2000 herself, she is popular with Generation Z women and has stated that her goal is to "be a friend to all women". Haruki released her debut EP 2000 in 2021 and has since released 4 more- nichijounonakaniaruhinichijou (2022), To the past me, so that I can laugh. (2022), Hamano Haruki "Re:Arranged (2023), LovE ToXic (2023). She just brought out her 1st album NET BaBy on 7th May. Her singles include WATASHI NO MONOSASHI, Tokyo, sexless, Princess GaL, CuL and her most recent, Chu <3 (a collaboration song with the lip brand CHOOSY ) which came out last month.  Princess GaL (Harajuku Y2K ver.) is a new version of Haruki's digital single Prin...

This week's video is I know love by Canadian singer Tate McRae and featuring Australian rapper and singer (and Tate's boyfriend!) The Kid LAROI . Tate started her career as a dancer aged 6 and went on to compete in competitions. She also took classes at her mother's dance company YYC Dance Project and learnt ballet at the Alberta Ballet Company's training school. Tate had a successful career as a young dancer, which included winning awards, becoming a brand ambassador for dance shoes and appearing in a music video. She became more known internationally when she appeared in Season 13 of the American version of the reality TV series So You Think You Can Dance , at the age of 12 (nearly 13). She was the first Canadian finalist on the show. In 2017, Tate started uploading videos of her singing her own original songs to her YouTube channel (which had previously featured mostly dance content). She released her first independent single One Day in 2017 and went on to release...

In the past few years, I've occasionally written posts about my current favourite songs (about once a year). In recent years I've also done ones about my fave songs from the year in general (like my Current Favourite Songs of 2024 post). So here they are for 2025! You can see my previous posts at the links below: June 2019: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/current-favourite-songs.html May 2020: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/current-favourite-songs.html April 2021:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/current-favourite-songs.html Feb 2022: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/current-favourite-songs.html April 2024:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/04/current-favourite-songs.html   So, here's what I've been liking lately! :)  Gen Neo- I Wanna Know Singaporean singer Gen Neo released his latest EP Push&Pull back in November. To date he has brought out 4 singles from it- Tell The Truth, Like I Do, ONTW and The Test. While I li...

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...

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...