Star Sparkle Blog

While I like Bollywood (Hindi language Indian films) and also sometimes watch Tollywood (Telugu language) videos, I haven't seen many Kollywood videos. Like Tollywood, Kollywood is a South Indian film industry but it's the Tamil language one. It started in 1918 with the silent film Keechaka_Vadham . Kollywood is one of the most successful film industries in India and Tamil films are also made in other countries, such as Sri Lanka and Singapore. In India, Kollywood is based in Tamil Nadu . This is Kalasala Kalasala which is from the film Osthi Ayngaran. The video stars Malika Sherawat, who also acts in Bollywood movies.                                Kollywood reminds me a bit of Tollywood, since they're both South Indian and seem to have a similar style. I'm planning to watch more Kollywood videos in the future. You might a...

It was Eurovision on Saturday. I like it and watch it every year and vote for my favourite. This year I voted for Latvia. They didn't win, Sweden did with Måns Zelmerlöw's Heroes . I thought the Swedish entry was a good song and they deserved to win. The Latvian entry was Love Injected and was sung by Aminata . Her full name is Aminata Savadogo and she has a Latvian and Russian mum and a Burkinabè dad (from Burkina Faso in West Africa). She was born and grew up in Latvia. Aminata has entered several Latvian TV contests and previously entered Eurovision with the song I Can Breathe, which came 5th in the 2014 final. She's also released a song called Leave My Love Bleeding. Aminata is currently studying economics at the University of Latvia and released her debut album, Inner Voice in April. Here's Aminata's performance of Love Injected at the Grand Final. It's a dancey, dubstep type song, a bit different to the other entries. My favourite part is the choru...

It's the Eurovision Song Contest tonight, so time for my annual post! This year it's the 60th anniversary and Australia are entering for the first time. The contest will be held in Vienna, Austria, since Austria's Conchita Wurst won last year with Rise Like a Phoenix. The UK's entry this year is Electro Velvet . I think the song is ok but nothing startling, lol. I hope we do well though. In past years I've written about the 3 singers I discovered through Eurovision , Eurovision songs I like and Eurovision Past and Present This year I thought I'd do a couple of updates on past winners for something different. Helena Paparizou Winning Eurovision for Greece in 2005 with the song My Number One really helped to launch the career of Helena (her real name is Elena is, but she's known abroad as Helena). Her debut solo album Protereotita (Priority) had been released the year before but after her Eurovision success it was re-released several times, rename...

Today's video is Chains by Nick Jonas . It's from his second album Nick Jonas (2014). Chains was originally released in July last year and was then re-released at the beginning of this year. There's also a remix featuring Jhené Aiko . The remix is my favourite actually. :) Listen to the remix here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFZsjvfrTy8

The MTV reality show Teen Mom has returned for a new series and is going to be shown in the UK next week. It's a spin-off show from 16 and Pregnant, which follows the lives of pregnant teenagers. Teen Mom was the first spin-off and featured 4 girls from the first series (or season) of 16 and Pregnant- Maci, Farrah, Amber and Catelynn. There have been two more Teen Mom series as well, Teen Mom 2 and Teen Mom 3. TM3 lasted for just one season but TM2 is still going. You can read an old post of mine on Teen Mom 2 here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2011/05/teen-mom-2.html Teen Mom started at the end of 2009 and finished after 4 series in 2012. However it's now back for a 5th series as Teen Mom OG (short for original, I think?), which shows what the girls have been up to since we heard from them last. Here's a bit of info about the girls: Maci Maci Bookout gave birth to son Bentley in October 2008. She had relationship problems with Bentley's father Ryan Edward...

Today's video is Oops! by G.NA featuring Ihoon of Korean boyband BTOB . G.NA (real name Gina Jane Choi or Choi Gina)* is a Canadian singer and actress with Korean heritage. She was born in Canada but now lives in South Korea. G.NA started out in the music industry as a member of K-pop group Five Girls but they never debuted due to problems with their record company, so G.NA concentrated on a solo career. She released her debut single- a duet with K-pop star Rain (Bi) called Aeini Saenggimyeon Hago Sipeun Il" ("Things I Want to Do When I Have a Lover"- and debut mini-album Draw G's First Breath in July 2010. Since then she has brought out 3 more Korean EPs, Top Girl (2011), Bloom (2012), Beautiful Kisses (2014), an English EP, Oui (2012) and 1 studio album, Black &White, which came out in 2011.  She has released 10 singles, including Black & White, Top Girl and 2Hot. Black & White and 2Hot are two of G.NA's most successful songs to date, reachi...

Two of the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC) students from the reality show Dance Moms have released music videos recently. Following in the footsteps of former student Brooke Hyland and current student Mackenzie Ziegler aka Mack Z, Nia Frazier and Kendall Vertes are also launching singing careers. Sadly the whole thing has been made into a big competition between the girls because the dance teacher Abby wanted to manage Nia's career but her mum Holly went "behind Abby's back" and contacted singer-songwriter Aubrey O'Day to arrange a meeting. Holly feels that Abby doesn't have Nia's best interests at heart. Since Kendall's mum Jill is happy for Abby to manage Kendall, it's turned into a rivalry. I don't think there's anything wrong with lighthearted competition, but on Dance Moms you can see the whole thing is affecting Nia and Kendall. So this isn't a "Vs" post, I'm just featuring both girls' videos here today. :) ...

This week's video is FWU by Kehlani (also known as Lani Tsunami). Her full name is Kehlani Parrish and she's an American singer from Oakland in the Bay Area of California, who started out as a dancer but moved into singing after a knee injury left her unable to dance. She joined a band called Poplyfe as a teenager and now releases solo music. Last year Kehlani brought out a mixtape called Cloud 19. She's also recorded quite a few other songs which you can listen to on her website (see below). Her new single You Should Be Here and album of the same name are out now. FWU is from Cloud 19. Like Pia Mia's song of the same name, the initials stand for F"ck With You and the song is explicit. For more on Kehlani visit these links: Official website: www.kehlanimusic.com Official FB:  https://www.facebook.com/Kehlanimusic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kehlanimusic You can download Cloud 19 on Datpiff: http://www.datpiff.com/Kehlani-Cloud-19-mixtap...

The reality TV show Raising Asia started in the UK recently. It follows dancer Asia Monet Ray (8 at the time of filming) and her family, mum Kristie, dad, former bodybuilder Shawn and little sister Bella Blu as they help Asia in her bid to be the "next Beyonce ". Asia and Kristie first appeared on dance teacher Abby Lee Miller's Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition and then featured on Dance Moms .They left the show at the end of series./season 3 when Asia left the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC) to focus on dance training  and launching a singing and acting career back in LA. For more on Asia's time on Dance Moms check out this post: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/dance-moms-asia.html In Raising Asia viewers watch as Asia works on her dancing with choreographer Anthony Burrell (who once worked for Abby's arch rival Cathy on Dance Moms!) and her singing with manager and vocal coach Billy Hufsey (who starred in the 80s TV series Fame ) and see her...