Star Sparkle Blog

Time for another instalment in my Asian Groups series! Today I'm featuring Indonesian girl group no na . :)  Note: Currently, Indonesians are going through a difficult time, after the killing of a delivery driver led to protests in several cities , which have spread to some other South East Asian countries. Thinking of people in those countries. :)  They are a 4-member group and were formed by American record label and mass media company 88rising , with 3 of the members meeting at their 2022 Head in the Clouds festival in Jakarta in 2022 and the 4th joining later. Their name (which is written in lower case) comes from the Indonesian word "nona", which means "young lady" or "miss" in English.   no na joined several other Indonesian acts on 88rising, including Rich Brian ,  NIKI  and  Stephanie Poetri . The members are Christy (full name Denial Christian Gardena), Esther (Esther Geraldine Simanjuntak), Baila (Bailia Shaquanda Fauri) and Shaz (full name ...

This week's video is Back Outside by American singer Nija . It's her latest single and was released on 15th August. Back Outside follows Nija's previous 2025 singles- 32nd Floor (released in March) and Heaven (which came out in June). It's a smooth R'n'B song, with laid back vibes. This is the visualiser.    Want more Nija? Check out these posts: Visualiser for 32nd Floor:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/04/weekly-music-video_23.html Official audio for Heaven:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/weekly-music-video_18.html    

Today's video is DIED A LITTLE by  LEWY . Her full name is Mariah Lewy and she is an Australian singer-songwriter. Born in Sydney,  LEWY was into music from a young age, after being introduced to American girl group  Destiny's Child by her parents. She started singing lessons aged 5 and also learnt to play the piano and guitar. She likes a wide range of genres from pop to R'n'B and her musical influences include  Lady Gaga , Billie Eilish , Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston .  In the past few years, LEWY has done live performances, recorded at studios in several countries and posted song covers on YouTube. In addition to singing, she is an actress, having studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney and been selected for the callback stage of Moana (I presume the 2026 live action remake ). Now aged 19, LEWY has been recording an album (scheduled for release this year) and just released the single DIED A LITTLE. Her next ...

5 years ago I wrote my first K-pop in Public Dances post, featuring dance covers of K-pop songs performed in public places. Since then, the trend has taken off and expanded to other Asian music genres such as J-pop , C-pop , V-pop (Vietnamese pop) and T-pop (Thai pop) . Plus, Western and  African music dance covers . I've written quite a few K-pop in Public Dance posts in the past few years, so I thought I'd do a round-up of them all, plus share a couple of new videos. :)   Note: I haven't included all the K-pop in Public videos featured in my general dance video posts because it would take me longer to write this. But I will share links to past Dance Videos round-ups as well, which should link to most of them.    K-pop in Public Dances:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/08/k-pop-in-public-dances.html   K-pop in Public- EVERGLOW Dances:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/10/k-pop-in-public-everglow-dances.html K-pop in Public- Boys' Ed...

 Today's video is 12 to 12 by American singer sombr . His real name is Shane Michael Boose and his stage name (which is written in lowercase) is based on his initials. He also  chose it because of how he was feeling at the time. ("Somber"- or "sombre  as we spell it in the UK- means to feel down/sad and serious.) sombr released his debut single nothing left to say (also written in lowercase) in October 2021 and 4 other singles followed, including through it all and caroline. Then in 2023, aged 17, he signed to Warner Records and released the single weak. He also has his own independent record label SMB.  In September that year, he brought out his debut EP in another life. Two more singles from the EP were released, silhouette and my house is warm, plus several more non-album singles.  However, it was this year that sombr's career really took off, when his singles back to friends and undressed (released in December 2024 and March 2025 respectively) went vi...

This week's music video is CHUCO by Peruvian American singer A.CHAL and featuring Peruvian band Los Mirlos and Peruvian producer KAYFEX .  Los Mirlos (whose name translates to "The Blackbirds" in English) plays  Peruvian cumbia music . It's a sub-genre of cumbia, which is thought to have originated in Colombia (specifically from Afro-Colombian funeral traditions. CHUCO is A.CHAL's latest single. It's a Spanish language song and was released on 25th July.      For more music by A.CHAL, check out this post: Music video for LMKK (released last October, plus links to more music:   https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/03/weekly-music-video_12.html   And for more on Los Mirlos and KAYFEX, visit the links below:   Los Mirlos: Boa Viagem Music profile:  https://www.boaviagemmusic.com/artist/los-mirlos/   Official site (Spanish language):  https://losmirlos.com/     KAYFEX: Official site (Spanish/English):  https://w...

We're moving into mid-August and late summer, so before the season is over, I'm sharing some summer themed songs/videos! :) I've written several summer themed posts over the years. Here are 2024's: Vibes for Your Summer!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/07/vibes-for-your-summer.html Island Vibes!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/08/island-vibes.html     Similarly to last year , I struggled a bit to think of a title for the post, lol. I've called this one Late Summer Vibes.    Afgan feat. Jessi- Escape In June 2024, Indonesian singer Afgan released the single Escape. It was the 1st single from Sonder, his 2nd English language mini album, which also came out in June. Escape was preceded by Shallow Water  (released in February 2024) and followed Criminal (Over You) featuring American singer  thủy  (released this January). For Escape, Afgan teamed up with South Korean based American rapper Jessi , whose 2017 single Down feature...

This week's music video is HOT GIRL SUMMER by Australian rapper and singer The Kid LAROI . It's his latest single and was released on 25th July. HOT GIRL SUMMER follows LAROI's recent singles ALL I WANT IS YOU and HOW DOES IT FEEL?, which were released in June. It's a hip hop style song about  hot girls who have it easy in the dating world and has been seen as a break-up anthem, especially since LAROI and his girlfriend Canadian singer Tate McRae are rumoured to have split up .  LAROI and Tate started dating over a year ago and also worked together professionally on the song  I know love (from Tate's album So Close To What, back in February. The video also has summery vibes!     Want more The Kid LAROI? Check out this post: Audio for ALL I WANT IS YOU (also has a link for HOW DOES IT FEEL?): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/weekly-music-video_25.html

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I haven't done that many general dance videos posts (featuring more than one more genre) lately. My last one was Dance Videos- Couples' Edition 2! in May but apart from that, I haven't written a lot this year. So today I'm featuring a variety of videos from different genres. :)   [TPOP IN PUBLIC | ONE TAKE] FEAT- PIXIE | SINGAPORE DANCE COVER OPEROSE First up, some T-pop (Thai pop) in Public ! This is a dance cover of FEAT by Thai girl group PiXXie . It was released in May last year as a digital single. The cover is performed by OPEROSE. They are a dance cover crew from Singapore.  The video premiered in April and features MEGZ as Mabelz, JIAYI as Pimma and REENA as Inghko. It' s a one-take video, meaning it was filmed all in one go.       Watch the music video for FEAT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FztEbqElt0 Follow OPEROSE/subscribe to their channel here: ht...

This week's video is KISSIK from the 2024 Tollywood (Telugu language) film Pushpa 2: The Rule .  The movie is the sequel to action drama  Pushpa: The Rise (released in 2021) and sees the title character (played by  Allu Arjun ) now head of the red sandalwood smuggling business and facing off against his enemy, police officer Bhanwar Singh Shekawat ( Fahadh Faasil ), who has a grudge against him.  There is also a dubbed Hindi version.  I featured the video for Oo Antava Mawa..Oo Antava Mawa from the first Pushpa in my Tollywood Videos Round-up 2 post back in 2023. You can see it here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/09/tollywood-videos-round-up-2.html KISSIK was released as the third single from Pushpa 2 last November, prior to the film's release in December. It was preceded by Pushpa Pushpa and Sooseki (The Couples Song) in May 2024. Two more singles followed in December- Peelings and Gango Renuka Thali. The video is an item number , I think and st...

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....

Today's video is All I Got by Maro . His real name is Marwan Daou and he is a Lebanese singer-songwriter and YouTuber. He was born in Beirut and has a Lebanese dad and Ukrainian mum. Maro's grandma taught him to play the piano and he also taught himself to play the guitar. He started his career by posting cover videos on his YouTube channel (inspired by Justin Bieber ). In 2018 his cover of Falling Down by the late American rappers  Lil Peep and XXXTenation  reached  over one million views and led to him going to Northern Europe , where he got a music manager and signed to tech music record label  SNAFU Records  the following year. In August 2020, Maru released his debut single carsick, which is about an on-off relationship . His 2nd single Take It Back followed in January 2021. He has released several other singles to date, including Addicted to Her Sadness, start again, Never Let You Go and All I Got. In November 2022, he brought out his debut album Words Fro...

It's been ages since I've shared some Turkish music (apart from Weekly Music Videos, my last Turkish music post was back in 2019!), so today I'm featuring some. :) You can see my last Turkish music post here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/03/turkish-music_30.html     First of all, here are a few posts featured on the blog since 2019: Otilia- Deli Gibi (Otlilia is Romanian but it's a Turkish language song): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/weekly-music-video.html Eurovision Countdown- Past Contestant Hadise (update on Turkey's 2009 Eurovision contestant): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/04/eurovision-countdown-past-contestant.html Murda feat. Hadise- Imdat: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/09/weekly-music-video_21.html   Now here is some music I haven't previously shared! :)     Hadise-  Fırtınam This is  Fırtınam, the most recent single by Turkish Belgian singer Hadise (my favourite Turkish singer!), who was Tu...

This week's video is Woman To Woman by Nigerian singer Simi . It's her most recent single and came out in March. Woman To Woman is the 4th single from Simi's 5th studio album Lost and Found, which was released in July last year, through her independent record label Studio Brat . It's an Afrobeats, R'n'B and soul album.  Woman To Woman follows previous singles All I Want, Men are Crazy and Borrow Me Your Baby. It's all about celebrating women and I think the lyrics are a mixture of English, a Nigerian language and Pidgin . This is the original music video and there's also a viral video (see below).      And here is the viral video (also released in March):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUjYM7PiTI   Want more Simi? Check out this post: Music video for her 2020 single THERE FOR YOU feat. Ms Banks (plus links to more music): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/01/weekly-music-video_20.html

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I've previously written several posts about the solo careers of band members, ( Fifth Harmony and BTS ). Today I'm focusing on the members of Korean girl group BLACKPINK . :)   BLACKPINK are one of the most internationally successful Korean girl groups (and groups in general, along with the likes of BTS), and were branded "the biggest pop band in the world" in 2020.  The group consists of 4 members-  4 members- JISOO (full name Kim Jisoo, or Jisoo Kim in Western terms), JENNIE (Kim Jennie),  ROSÉ  (real name Roseanne Park/Park Chae-young) and LISA (born Pranpriya Manoban but she has legally changed her first name to Lalisa). Despite JISOO and JENNIE having the same surname/family name (Kim), they aren't related (at least not recently)!  Random fact: Kim is one of the most common family names in South Korea , along with Park and Lee. Some of them may be dist...