Star Sparkle Blog

This week's video is IRONIC by MARQUISE . Her full name is Marquise Jadenipit Auramornrat and she is a Thai singer-songwriter and dancer.  MARQUISE's uncle is Jettamon Malayota, who fronts one-man Thai pop band  PENGUIN VILLA . She got her own start in music in 2023 when she became a contestant on The Debut: Dream Academy , the talent show run by South Korean entertainment company HYBE and American record label  Geffen Records , with the purpose of forming an international girl group.  She was one of 20 finalists (the only representative from Thailand) and made it through to the final but didn't make the group, which went on to become KATSEYE .  She went back to Thailand to continue her training and also featured in the Netflix docuseries Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE in 2024. Random fact: MARQUISE was named after the marquise cut of a diamond because her family owns a jewellery business. Jadeinipit is her first name (inspired by the gemstone jade) but she g...

In the past I've written a couple of posts about international girl groups. You can see them below: International Girl Groups:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/international-girl-groups.html More International Girl Groups:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/11/more-international-girl-groups.html   The first post featured Angolan group Afrikanas and Thai group G-TWENTY, and the second one featured South African group Girl Chat and Thai group Wizzle. I haven't come across many African girl groups in general, so I was excited to discover Nigerian girl group MYST recently! :)  Described as a Nigerian Afro-pop girl group, MYST is a trio made up of Mira,  Sucré and Trella. They come from different states/areas (Mira is from Lagos,  Sucré is from  Abuja and Trella is from Port Harcourt) and were originally solo artists before forming the group.  They  connected in interesting ways - Mira met  Sucré's  aunt in a BTS Army grou...

Today's video is Heaven Baby by Nigerian singer Ayra Starr and featuring British singer ZAYN  (Zayn Malik). It's her latest song and is from her 3rd studio album Starrgirl, which was released in August.  The first official single from Starrgirl was Tornado, which came out in June. However, the album also includes the previously released singles Gimme Dat featuring Wizkid , Hot Body, Who's Dat Girl featuring Nigerian singer and rapper  Rema and Where Do We Go. My favourite songs from it include Hot Body and Pressure featuring American singer Leon Thomas (not a single). ZAYN's latest album is KONNAKOL (his 5th) which  was released in April and his latest single is Sideways which came out in April. I'm not sure if Heaven Baby is an official single (it's listed as the 14th official track on Starrgirl ) but maybe it's more of a promotional single. It was released in August but there is now also a music video. The duet marks Ayra's first collaboration with ZA...

Back in May during the time of the Eurovision Song Contest , I heard that an Asian version was launching. I was excited because I'm a fan of both Eurovision and Asian music ! Now it's getting closer because the first edition of Eurovision Song Contest Asia  will take place next month.  Visit my Countdown to Eurovision 2026! post for more about the contest (scroll down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2026.html There is now more information since I first wrote about it. The Grand Final will be held in Bangkok , Thailand on Saturday 14th November and 11 countries are competing. In addition to the TV broadcasts in the 11 countries, it will also be shown live on YouTube and there will be a Rest of the World vote (which was introduced to the main ESC in recent years). I hope to watch and vote but will have to check the time difference.  The contestants have been chosen through national selection shows. 8 countries have been confirmed so far-...

This week's video is Best Behavior by Canadian R'n'B duo Majid Jordan  (made up of Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman) and featuring British singer  Clementine Douglas . It's from Majid Jordan's 5th studio album Two Roads, which was released on 28th August. Two Roads follows their previous album Good People/Afterhours which came out in November 2023. It was preceded by the lead single Cold and 2nd single See You Again, (released in May and June respectively). Majid Jordan describe it as their "most immersive and fully realised work to date" .  To date, they have released two more singles- the title track on 21st August and Strangers on 28th August. Side note: It's now 10 years since I first featured Majid Jordan on the blog ! I didn't realise it had been so long, lol.  Best Behavior is one of my favourite songs from Two Roads (others include Have I Gone Too Far?, Rather Be With You and Dream). It's an R'n'B synth pop song and puts me ...

It's been a while since I've shared any Turkish music on the blog (I did a couple of posts last year ). So today I thought it would be cool to feature new Turkish boy band CRUSH ! :) In recent years, the rise of K-pop globally has inspired other countries to create more  next/new generation pop groups . In Turkey, girl group manifest made their debut last year. And now there is a male group counterpart! CRUSH were formed through the Idol House Türkiye  reality show competition, which was inspired by the South Korean idol training system . The contestants were virtually enrolled in a professional idol camp for training and then competed on the show, which was broadcast on YouTube. The winning members were chosen by a jury and public vote. The  group is signed to Istanbul and New York based record label  ETL Records and Turkey' largest record label  DMC Music Company  (aka Dogan Music Company). Their goal is to  "bring together the different stren...