Star Sparkle Blog

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...

This week’s video is GET EVEN by Australian singer and rapper The Kid LAROI , and featuring American singer-songwriter  GIVĒON . GET EVEN is LAROI's latest single and follows SLEEP, which came out in August. He released his 2nd studio album BEFORE I FORGET in January and a deluxe edition in April, as well as several singles from it. As with SLEEP, I think GET EVEN is a stand alone single. Both songs were recorded for  the original version of LAROI's 2nd album (then titled WATCH THIS!). As I mentioned in a previous post , he decided to scrap it and record a new one, which was largely inspired by his break-up with girlfriend Canadian singer  Tate McRae .  In turn, a couple of songs on the deluxe edition of Tate's 3rd album SO CLOSE TO WHAT??? (released last November, following the original’s February 2025 release) are thought to be about LAROI. GET EVEN was released on 18th September. Although the song  marks the first time that LAROI and GIVĒON have worked...

In March I started a mini series called New Generation Girl Groups, which features new girl groups. So far I've featured  GIRLSET and fiveALIVE .  Now here is the next post in the mini series! Today I'm featuring British girl group Say Now . :)  Say Now formed in 2022 and originally called themselves needanamebro  They debuted their current name in July 2023, explaining that Say Now is something they live by ("saying how you feel when you feel it"). The group consists of 3 members- Ysabelle (Yssy) Salvanera), Amelia Onurah and Madeline (Maddy) Haynes. They stared out as a duo (Amelia and Yssy) but  then Maddy joined, after meeting the other girls through social media. They are managed by Modest! Management and also signed to  Atlantic Records . Say Now started out posting covers on TikTok and released their debut single Better Love in April 2023 (under needanamebro). Other singles Not a Lot Left to Say and Netflix (Better Without You) followed later tha...

Today's video is stormy weather by Meron T . She is a British singer-songwriter from South London. Her music is a mix of neo-soul, Bossa Nova style vocals, jazz, soul and R'n'B.  In September 2018, Meron released the single Hunny with producer/DJ Sey G and in November 2019 she released her debut EP Mirage EP. She became more widely known in 2020, with the release of the single Standing There, a collaboration with The Silhouettes Project . It led to her reaching a million streams online. She released her 2nd EP Palindrome in September 2025. Meron's music is influenced by her London upbringing and East African ( Ethiopian and Eritrean ) heritage. Her other singles include A/B side singles Everything and Don't Let with Sey G,  Face Your Demons with producer  Nikhil Beats , State of Mind, 1sidedlove, stormy weather and her latest fiyah! featuring Sam Wise (released in July). stormy weather (written in lower case) came out in March. I like the laid-back and "quirk...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I've previously written two K-pop in Public (dance covers of Korean songs performed in public places) posts featuring all-male groups. You can see them at the links  below:  K-pop in Public- Boys' Edition!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/05/k-pop-in-public-boys-edition.html K-pop (and J-pop) in Public- Boys' Edition 2!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/05/k-pop-in-public-boys-edition-2.html My last post was over two years ago (it also features one J-pop dance cover), so I thought it was time for another one. Here is K-pop in Public- Boys' Edition 3! :)   [ FRÁME CHOREOGRAPHY] MINISKIRT - AOA | MALE VERSION PERFORMANCE VIDEO  In the past year or so, I've shared covers of Miniskirt, the single by girl group AOA .  It was released back in January 2014 and was the lead single from their 5th single album of the same name. There has been a trend of nostal...

This week's video is Groupie by Canadian singer  Chxrry (formerly known as Chxry22). It's from her debut studio album U, Me & My Ego, which was released digitally in May. The album follows Chxrry's EPs The Other Side and Siren, which came out in September 2022 and October 2023 respectively. Groupie was the second single from U, Me & My Ego, following Main Character (released in July 2025) and was released in December last year. Two more singles have been also been released in April- Hall of Fame and Bottles & Lights featuring American singer Mariah The Scientist . Groupie is an R'n'B/pop song and is one of my favourite tracks from U, Me & My Ego. Other songs that I like are the title track, Call Security and Boring.  This is the official music video. Please note that the songs contains explicit lyrics. :)      Stream/buy U, Me & My Ego here:  https://chxrry.lnk.to/ego  And visit the YouTube playlist to watch music videos/visualiser...