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BLACKPINK Girls' Solo Careers- Part 2

Sorry there was no 2nd post last week; I didn't manage to get it finished in time. :) A couple of months ago I wrote a post about the solo careers of the members of Korean girl group BLACKPINK . It ended up being quite a long post, so as with similar posts, I split it up into two parts. Part 1 covered JENNIE and   ROSÉ,  and you can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/07/blackpink-girls-solo-careers-part-1.html Now here is Part 2 featuring LISA and JISOO. :)   LISA 6 months after  ROSÉ,  the group's main rapper LISA (real name Lalisa Manobal, formerly Pranpiya Manobal) made her own solo debut (the 3rd member to do so). She released her debut single album LALISA in September 2021 .  The single album  became the best selling album by a female soloist at the time and broke the record for the  highest first-week sales for a female K-pop soloist, which was previously set by  ROSÉ (see Part 1). In turn,  LISA's reco...
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Weekly Music Video

This week's music video is ARIKE Remix by Kunmie , Simi and Mabel . It's a remix of Kunmie's single ARIKE. Kunmie (full name Oluwabukunmi Ariybi) is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He grew up in the church and stared playing drums when he was 8, later becoming a songwriter for other Nigerian artists. Kunmie has shared that he got into music  during a difficult time in his life  and it helped him to escape from loneliness.  His breakthrough came with the release of Arike in February. It went viral on TikTok and reached No. 2 on the Spotify Viral 50 Global playlist. In March, Kunmie released his debut EP Before We Became Strangers. His music is Afrobeats and Nigerian R'n'B. It has been  described as soulful and filled with Youruba-inspired drum patterns . Watch the music video for the original Arike here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgsa2p0lIPY   Arike is about romantic relationships. For the remix, Kunmie teamed up with fellow Nigerian singer Simi a...

Weekly Music Video

This week's video is INTENTIONS by Nigerian singer Juno  (also written as JUNO). It's her latest single and was released on 7th August. The Afropop/R'n'B song is described as a "mirror to desire, doubt and the silent tension between two hearts". This is the lyric video.     For more Juno check out these links: Music video for Love Life (released last December):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/07/weekly-music-video.html   Lyric video for Love Life (uploaded on 7th August):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQPlDesX0s  

Asian Groups- Indonesian Girl Group

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 ...

Weekly Music Video

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    

New Justin Bieber Album

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...

Weekly Music Video

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 ...