Star Sparkle Blog

Hope you all had a good Christmas! :) Today's video is of the song Nachle from the Bollywood film Lakeer - Forbidden Lines (2004). It's about Arjun (played by Sunny Deol ) and Karan (Sohail Khan ) who grow-up as brothers raised by gangster Suraj Rana. (Karan is his real son and Arjun is adopted). Karan falls in love with a girl named Bindiya ( Nauheed Cyrusi) who is in love with Saahil (John Abraham) , a fact which Karan won't accept. Saahil is close to his brother Sanju ( Sunil Shetty ) who also gets drawn into the situation between Saahil and Karan. The video features the brothers Saahil and Sanju.

K-pop girl group Girls' Generation have released their first UK single this month. It's called The Boys and was available to download yesterday. An album release is planned for next year. Here's the video for The Boys (both Korean and English versions).                                                                                              Korean version                                                           English version

Since it's nearly Christmas I thought I''d post a Christmas themed video! It's the new version of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You featuring Justin Bieber, which was on Justin's Under The Mistletoe Christmas album last year. Hope you like it. :)

More girls vs boys! Korean boyband Dong Bang Shin Ki/Tohoshinki/ Tong Vfang Xien Qi (who are sadly no longer all together) and Korean girlband Girl's Day. Perhaps the song titles should have been the other way around! lol. Girl's Day were formed in 2010. The current members are Sojin, Minah, Yura and Hyeri. Past members are Ji Sun, Ji In and Jihae (who left the group in October). They've released 3 mini albums, Girl's Day Party #1, Everyday and Everyday 2. (The video is from when they were a five piece). Visit their official site (Korean language) at: http://girlsday5.com/ For more on Tohoshinki go here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2011/12/weekly-music-video.html                                                                                            DBSK- Rising Sun                                                 Girl's Day- Nothing Lasts Forever Who's your favourite? Update  4/2/13- Tohoshinki are still together as a two-pie

Today it's a video from British singer Katy B. Katy released her debut single Katy On A Mission in 2010 and her debut album On A Mission in 2011. Her music is a mixture of dubstep , dance and R'n'B. Here's the video for Katy On A Mission. For more on Katy visit her site: http://www.katybofficial.com/gb/splash/ And for more videos, visit her VEVO: Official VEVO

Today it's a video from the Bollywood film Anwar (2007). It's about a Muslim man called Anwar, played by Siddharth Koirala  (brother of Manisha , who is in the film too) who falls in love with a girl called Mehru ( Nauheed Cyrusi ) After he finds out that she is planning to elope with his best friend, he tells her family, which leads to tragedy. He then runs away and takes shelter in a Hindu temple, only to be mistaken for a terrorist. The song is called Maula Mere Maula.

Today's video is a bit retro (lol), it's Dru Hill's How Deep Is Your Love. If you don't remember them, Dru Hill were an American 90s/00s R'n'B group whose most famous member was Sisqo (Mark Andrews). The others were Jazz (Larry Anthony), Nokio (Tamir Ruffin), Tao (Antwuan Simpson), Woody Rock (James Green) and Scola (Rufus Walter). Tao replaced Woody in 2010.  How Deep Is Your Love is my favourite song of theirs. It was released in 1998 and was on the soundtrack to the film Rush Hour . It was also the second single from their second album Enter The Dru. Rapper Redman featured on the single but his rap was cut from the video as he's not in it.                                                                                                            Update: I didn't think they were still together but it says on their site that they're still doing concerts as recently as August. Visit their site here: http://druhillonli

So I thought I'd do a girls vs boys post! Today it's the Korean boyband Big Bang vs  Korean girl group Girls' Generation .                                                         Big Bang- Bad Boy                                                                                                                                                                                       Girls' Generation- Oh! Which do you like best?

This week the video is by Thai singer Tata Young . Tata (real name Amita Marie Young) is half Thai and half American and grew up in Thailand. She's a big star in Thailand and other Asian countries. Tata has released 9 studio albums, 6th Thai language and 3 English. Today's video is for the song Zoom, from her 2nd English album Temperature Rising (2006).                                                For more on Tata visit her official site: www.tatayoung.com  It looks like it hasn't been updated for a while but you can find more videos on YouTube:  Tata YouTube Update 20/11/21: I think this is Tata's latest YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxQ0gSzLzcIPdeH5jzcJ1A Ashley Tisdale also did a version of Zoom, which you can watch here:  Don't Touch (The Zoom song)

Today's video is another one by Turkish singer Davut Guloglu . It's called Cat Cat. Hope you like it! :)

Since today is Hallowe'en, I thought I'd post a vampire themed video! It's for the dance song At Night by Shakedown and it came out in 2002. Happy Hallowe'en! :)   Update 28/10/22: The original video is gone, so I had to replace it with the Official Club Mix video.  

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. :) Today's video is by the Finnish gothic/symphonic metal band Nightwish . They've been together since 1996 and the original members were songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, singer Tarja Turunen and guitarist Emppu Vuorinen. Bassist and male vocalist Marco Hietala joined in 2002, replacing the original bassist Sami Vanska.  Tarja was basically kicked out of the band in 2005, in a letter which was also published on the website and  later replaced by Anette Olzon. Tarja has gone on to have a solo career and released three albums, a Christmas album called Henkäys Ikuisuudesta, My Winter Storm and What Lies Beneath. I prefer Tarja's vocals to Annette but I think Annette sounds alright. However I've just read that she has also left the band and they currently have a subsitute vocalist, Floor Jansen who used to be in the band After Forever. Nightwish have released 7 albums and their latest one is Imaginareum (2011).

I thought it was time for another Top 10 list. Jennifer Lopez is one of my favourite singers, so here's my list of my Top 10 favourite J.Lo songs! 1. If You  Had My Love This is Jennifer's debut single and my favourite of  hers. I remember I bought it in Paris in 1999 when I was 15, so it reminds me of that time! It's from her debut album On The 6 (1999).

I've posted about Korean boy bands before, so now I'm going to post about a girl band! This week's video is of Korean girl group Girls' Generation , also known as SNSD. They've been together since 2007 and there are 9 members, Tayeon, Jessica, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun. This is the video for their song Run Devil Run, which was a single from the repackaged version of their album Oh! and released in 2010. For more info visit these websites: Official Korean site Official Japanese site (still active as of 2024) Official US site Talking of K-pop, there were K-pop videos on UK TV today! They had a Top 10 K-pop groups list (including Girls' Generation and Big Bang) on Clubland TV. That Gangnam Style song is making Korean pop more popular here! lol. But that will be a good thing if Korean (and also Japanese and Asian in general) music is more accessible in the UK.

 Updated 7/6/16 Today's video is for the Arabic song Betekdeb Alaya by Maria . My belly dance troupe has a dance to this! Maria (full name Maria Nalbandian) is Armenian Lebanese (her parents are Armenian) and is from Lebanon. The song is from her album Ela'b  (2005) which according to Wikipedia means, "Let's Play".                                            For more on Maria visit her official FB page: https://www.facebook.com/MariaNalbandian/

Hello again! I haven't updated the blog for a while because I've had a lot of computer problems. But now I've got a new computer and am back online. :) This week's video is by Turkish singer Davut Guloglu  and the song is called Seni Seni. I can't find much info about him in English but if you like the music, check out the links below. :) Official website (Turkish language) : Official Facebook(Turkish)

This is my favourite song from the Bollywood film Race . It's called Zara Zara Touch Me. The film is about two brothers Ranvir (played by Saif Ali Khan ) and Ranjiv  (Askshaye Khanna).   Ranvir is a successful businessman who is involved in the horse and car racing businesses, while Ranjiv is an alcoholic with no job. He is love with Ranvir's girlfriend model Sonia (played by Bipasha Basu).   Meanwhile Ranvir's personal assistant Sophia ( Katrina Kaif ) is in love with him. Ranvir is in competition with a rival horse owner and things begin to get dangerous. There will be a sequel called Race 2. Apparently it's a copy of Zhu Lin Shen Chu by Taiwanese American singer/actor  Leehom Wang . I didn't know that but I watched the video and it does sound similar. Leehom sued the song's composer Pritam for plagiarism.  A lot of the Bollwood films and songs are based on or copied from foreign films and songs. According to Wikipedia Race is loosely based on a film cal

Today it's a video of the song Wanna Love You Girl by American singer Robin Thicke (and featuring Pharell). Robin has released 4 albums and this is from his second one The Evolution Of Robin Thicke. He's married to actress Paula Patton, who appeared with him in the video for his single Lost Without U. His latest album Love After War came out last December. Visit Robin's official site here: http://www.robinthicke.com/ And for more videos go here: Official VEVO

Since the Eurovision Song Contest is tomorrow I thought I'd do a post on singers who I discovered through Eurovision. People think of it as a bit cheesy in the UK but I enjoy watching it and it's good for hearing foreign singers! Our entry this year is Love Will Set You Free by Englebert Humperdinck. He seems a bit of a strange choice but we'll see! lol. The contest takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan this year, since the previous winners were Azerbajani duo  Ell and Nikki   with their song Running Scared.  So here we go! Sertab Erener Sertab won Eurovision for Turkey in 2003 with her song Every Way That I Can. She's had a long running career and was already very successful in Turkey. Sertab is a soprano and  has released 8 studio albums, plus a remix album, two compilations and one as Painted On Water (a band she is in with Demir Demirkan who co-wrote Every Way That I Can). She released her first English language album No Boundaries in 2004. She has a new album out

This week it's Big Bang (or BIGBANG). They're a Korean boy band who were formed in 2006 and are popular in Japan as well as Korea. The members are leader G-Dragon (the main one) who has also released a solo album Heartbreaker, T.O.P, Taeyang, Daesung and Seungri. They won Best Worldwide Act at last year's MTV Europe Music Awards. Here's the music video for their second Japanese single Gara Gara Go. For more info visit this link: YG site (Korean)   (their record company YG Entertainment's site-Korean language) Or click on their name for the Wikipedia link.

Delilah (real name Paloma) is a new British singer  who released her debut single Go last year. She also sang the vocals on dance/ dubstep duo Chase & Status' single Time. Her music is a mixture of things eg. dance, pop, soul and chillout. In an interview with pyromag.com last year she described it as "strong, dark, melodic, soulful pop". Delilah's latest single Breathe just came out this month and her debut album is due to be released in July. For more info on Delilah visit these links: Official site Pyromag interview And to watch videos: Delilah's Youtube channel

Here is the video for the song 10 Minutes by Korean singer Lee Hyori aka Hyolee. It's kind of similar to Jennfer Lopez's I'm Real remix (one of my favourite J.Lo songs) i.e. hanging out in the neighbourhood and the pink outfit, lol. I've also posted the Jennifer video below. Lee Hyori- or Hyori Lee in Western terms since (like in Japan) the surname comes first in Korea- used to be part of a girl group called Fin. K.L but went solo in 2003. 10 Minutes is from her debut album Stylish...E. For more info on Hyori visit these links: Official site (Korean language) Hyolee World (Korean) Hyolee Wikipedia (English) Plus: J.Lo and Ja Rule- I'm Real remix

Hello! I've been taking a break from the blog because I've had a lot of computer problems lately and also I wasn't sure which direction to take it in. I started off with different topics, like films, music, TV and belly dance but I ended up mostly doing music videos. I've decided that I'll concentrate mainly on music because I love it, (listening to music is one of my favourite hobbies) with posts on some other things sometimes. And then see how it goes. :)

Today's video is of the song Bardaasht from one of my favourite Bollywood films Humraaz . It's about couple Karan ( Akshaye Khanna ) and Priya ( Amisha Patel ) who are in a dance troupe/band (I thought they were more of a dance troupe but I don't know!). They get a job performing on a cruise ship, which is owned by rich businessman Raj Singhania ( Bobby Deol ). Raj falls in love with Priya and Karan sees an opportunity to make money by having Priya marry Raj and then later divorce him to get his money. But Priya starts to fall in love with Raj.  It's supposed to be like the Hollywood film  A Perfect Murder but I haven't seen that, so don't know how similar it is. The video is from a performance scene on the ship. For another Amisha video, see my Tollywood video post: Narasimhudu- Krishna Murariki

It's American rapper Ja Rule 's 36th birthday today (he was born on a leap year), so I thought I'd post one of his videos. Here is Livin' It Up featuring Case , which was released in 2001 and is from his Pain Is Love album.

Takeshi's Castle was a Japanese gameshow that was on TV in Japan in the 80s. It was based around Count Takeshi (Japanese actor/director Takeshi Kitano ) who lived in a castle and the aim of the show was for contestants to beat the challenges Count Takeshi set and defeat him by "storming the castle". The challenges were silly but also quite hard and by the end of the game there weren't often that many contestants left. It seemed to be very rare for players to beat Takeshi! Takeshi's Castle is the British version of the show (featuring certain games). There is also an American version, MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) which they sometimes show on British TV and various others around the world. This post is based on the British version, which is narrated by actor Craig Charles. It ended in 2004 (although it was brought back in 2009 but according to Wikipedia they had just changed the opening sequence) but they currently show repeats on the TV channel Challeng

Here is another piece of music by Czech violinist Ivo Sedlacek. At 16 and a half minutes it's longer than the other one I posted Colour Of The Leaves but if you'd liked that, you'll probably like this one as well. :) Ivo Sedlack- Dance of Autumn Lights

Here's a peformance by Amar Gamal. She's another former Bellydance Superstar, who also co-founded a troupe called Bellyqueen along with fellow dancers Kaeshi Chai and Jenna. She's now a long distance member of the troupe. In this video she's dancing with Isis wings. Amar Gamal For more info about Amar visit her Wikipedia page:  Amar Gamal Wikipedia I'm not sure how accurate it is but gives some information. Also visit Bellyqueen's site:  Bellyqueen

Today's video is another Tollywood (the Telugu language South Indian film industry) one. It's a song called Krishna Murariki from the film Narasimhudu, starring JR NTR , Amisha Patel and Sameera Reddy . Amisha is a well-known Bollywood actress, but she sometimes acts in South Indian films too and Sameera has also acted in Bollywood. Narasimhudu (which according to Wikipedia is a remake of Kannada language film Durgi) is about an orphan called Narasimhudu (NTR) who is adopted by some villagers who help raise him. Then when two villagers rape a young girl, the adult Narasimhudu avenges her. This video is nothing to do with that though, it's a dance scene. Update 2- 26/8/23: I've replaced the video again but it still freezes towards the end! Update 14/8/13: This freezes towards the end. I think the first video I posted here got removed by YouTube. You can watch another version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-E_CY4acM  I won't post it on my blog yet bec

This one isn't a music video really, just pictures put to music. The piece of music is called Colour Of The Leaves and it's by Czech violinist Ivo Sedlacek . His music tends to be quite long (this piece is about 14 minutes) but it's beautiful and worth listening to if you're into classical/violin music or just open to different types. It's not the sort of stuff I usually listen to but I like it. Hope you enjoy it! :) Update 25/8/17: The video I first linked to is now gone from YouTube but you can listen to a sample of the song here:  Colour Of The Leaves sample Sorry about that, it's a shame! I'll update if I find a new video or longer sample in future. :)

Today it's He's Unbelievable by the German singer Sarah Connor . Sarah's career began in 2001 when she brought out her debut single Let's Get Back To Bed- Boy! with the rapper TQ and she has since released 7 albums. She's very successful in Germany and other countries in mainland Europe. She's not so well known in the UK, I think her most famous songs here are Let's Get Back To Bed-Boy!, Unbelievable and Bounce. Some of her albums weren't released here. Here is the video for He's Unbelievable (one of my favourite Sarah songs) from her second album of the same name. For more on Sarah visit her official website (German language):  Official site and her official YouTube channel: Sarah Connor- YouTube The site hasn't been updated in a while though. You can also check out Sarah's video for Under My Skin which I posted in December in the Dong Bang Shin Ki/Tohoshinki post because it's similar to their song Mirotic: Mirotic/Under My Skin

Today's video is by Cameroonian singer Henri Dikongue . The song is called Ndola'a Su and I think he is singing in Douala. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!). Hope you enjoy the song. :) Henri Dikongue- Ndol'a Su

Are You Afraid Of The Dark was a Canadian/American kids TV series that was made in the 90s (and a new series in 1999 and 2000). It was about a group of teenagers called the Midnight Club who would meet up at midnight and sit around a campfire (bonfire) telling each other scary stories. They each had a turn every week. I really liked that programme, it was good and creepier than Goosebumps (a similar show)! I've got the first 4 series on DVD, lol. The subjects of the stories included vampires, werewolves, ghosts, magic and evil clowns! Here are a couple of  clips from one of my favourite episodes. The Tale of Laughing in the Dark. Friends Weegee and Josh and Weegee's sister Kathy go to a fun fair. The boys make a bet that if Josh goes into the funhouse that is reportedly haunted by a clown called Zeebo and takes the nose from the Zeebo dummy, Weegee will have to wear it. Josh is successful but Zeebo isn't happy about the theft...                                 

Sorry it's late this week, I've had some personal problems. This video is by Japanese singer Koda Kumi (or Kumi Koda in Western terms, since in Japan the surname comes first). She is very popular in Japan and has released 52 singles and 9 albums so far, with her 10th album Japonesque due out at the end of the month. Her music is mostly J-R'n'B, with some J-pop and more rocky and dancey songs too. Here's the video for one of  my favourite Koda songs, Trust You. Update 14/8/16: The original video has gone so I had to replace it. This is Avex's upload and not the full song.                                                                    

This week it's the video for Candy by American singer/actress Mandy Moore . I used to really like this song, lol. It was released in 2000 in the UK and is from her debut album So Real. It's not really the best song, a bit corny nowadays but never mind, lol. I think Mandy mostly concentrates on acting these days. According to Wikipedia her last album was released in 2009. It's strange to think that this song came out almost 12 years ago now! (13 in America).  

Continuing the Bellydance Superstars video series, here is a performance by Sonia. She is dancing to a drum solo by tabla (drum) player Issam Houshan. I don't think Sonia is dancing with BDSS anymore because they have a new line-up on their site. I can't find much info on her but according to one site she was the first Bellydance Superstar to be signed up. Here is some information: Hala Dance- Sonia For more on Issam visit here: BDSS- Issam Houshan or his official site: http://www.issamhoushan.com/

Here's a video by Jasmine , another Japanese pop/R'n'B singer. I discovered this song a couple of months ago and really like it. It's called Jealous and is from her debut album GOLD which was released in 2010. Jasmine- Jealous Update 19/9/15: The YouTube video got deleted but I found the video on another site.