Star Sparkle Blog

In the latest Weekly Music Video post I mentioned that I was doing a  Best Of 2016 post. So here it is! These are my favourite posts on the blog for this year. :) Music C-pop I don't listen to C-pop as much as J-pop and K-pop but this year I did listen to some new artists and featured two of them on the blog: Jolin Tsai vs Jay Chou: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/girls-vs-boys-c-pop.html Eurovison This year's Eurovison Song Contest post:  http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/current-eurovision-acts-nostalgia.html J-pop Not so much J-pop in 2016 but I plan to listen to more next year. Here's a post on some J-pop artists:     http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/more-j-pop-acts.html K-pop I've liked K-pop for a few years now but I got more into it this year, especially when Arirang TV started being shown in the UK in October! I posted quite a few K-pop Weekly Music Videos (see below for some of them). In ad...

Today's video  (actually audio) is We Should Be Together by Pia Mia . It's her latest single and is out now. I really like this song. :) It's only an audio at the moment but if there's a video in the future I'll post that as well. Hope you had a good Christmas! (Or other festival depending on what you celebrate). :) This is the last Weekly Music Video for 2016 but I'll be back next week with the first one for 2017! Also I'll do a Best Of 2016 post later this week featuring my favourite blog posts from this year, so look out for that.

In October I did a Hallowe'en round-up post. Since today is Christmas Eve I thought it would be cool to do a Christmas round-up. :) Note: Post contains spoilers. Books The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (Narnia) This is the 2nd book in the fantasy children's series The Chronicles of Narnia. Originally published in 1950, it's become a kid's classic. The series is about the magical land of Narnia which is actually meant to be Heaven. It's ruled over by the great lion Aslan (who is like Jesus). But if you're not religious (like me) it's still an entertaining story. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is about siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie who are evacuated from London to the country during the Blitz . They go to stay with Professor Kirke who lives alone, apart from his housekeeper Mrs. Macready.  While looking round the house the youngest girl Lucy discovers an entrance to Narnia in the back of a wardrobe. She come...

It's Christmas Day on Sunday, so here's a Christmas themed video. :) It's when Christmas Comes by Mariah Carey and featuring American singer John Legend . It was released in 2011 and you can also find it on Mariah's 2010 album Merry Christmas II You, although without John's vocals. Mariah's ex-husband Nick Cannon appears in the video, along with their twins Moroccan and Monroe as babies. :)  For more Mariah check out my post on her new TV show Mariah's World: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/mariahs-world.html

As I'm sure you've heard me mention before, Mariah Carey is my favourite singer! :) Her new reality show Mariah's World just started showing in the UK and it's been interesting to learn a bit more about her. I was surprised that she was doing a reality show/documentary actually because she seems like quite a private person. There are all the diva rumours but I don't know much about her day to day life. Mariah's World follows Mariah preparing for the European leg of her worlds tour Sweet Sweet Fantasy and also getting ready for her wedding to Australian businessman and investor James Packer (now her ex-fiance). Her twins with ex-husband rapper and actor Nick Cannon , Moroccan and Monroe also make an appearance. Other people featuring are her new manager Stella Bulochnikov and choreographer/dancer Anthony Burrell , who you'll know already if you're a Dance Moms fan. (Abby's arch rival Cathy brought him in to choreograph for her team Candy Apples). ...

Sorry there was no 2nd post last week, as I mentioned before I wasn't well . I had some kind of flu thing but I'm feeling better now. :) This is Drip by Chinese rapper and singer Meng Jia . She's a former member of Korean/Chinese girl group miss A . Jia (Chinese names are written the other way round to Western names, so Meng is her surname) left in May after her contact expired and launched her solo career last month. She is also an actress and model. Drip is her debut solo single. She's singing in Chinese, although I'm unsure which dialect. Maybe Mandarin? This is the official music video. There's also a dance video, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5R6J0FWiGU For more on Jia visit these links: Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjbaby0203/ Article about her leaving miss A:  http://en.yibada.com/articles/125021/20160520/meng-jia-leaves-girl-group-miss-jyp-entertainment.htm

Sorry for the late post, I wasn't feeling well at all yesterday. :) Today's video is All That Matters by Justin Bieber . It's one of my favourite Justin songs and is from his 2013 digital only compilation album Journals. This was one of his first songs to have a more "grown-up" style. I don't own the full album but have several songs from it, including this one.

I can't believe it's nearly Christmas! But I say that every year, lol. Since it is now the Christmas season I thought I'd share a couple of songs from Ariana Grande's Christmas & Chill EP. It was released last December but I didn't come across it until March this year, which was a bit late, lol. Now it's come round again so I've bought two songs (December and True Love) and plan to have the rest as a Christmas present. Here's December, one of my favourites: And this is True Love, my other fave: To hear the rest visit Ariana's Spotify or YouTube: Ariana Spotify https://www.youtube.com/user/ArianaGrandeVevo/ If you'd like more Ariana check out Santa Tell Me (another Christmas song): http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/weekly-music-video_23.html And here are some songs and videos from her latest album Dangerous Woman: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/new-ariana-grande-songs.html http://star...

This week's video is JULY by Chinese Canadian singer Kris Wu . His real name is Wu Yifan (his birth name was Li Jiaheng but he changed it later) and he is a former member of the Korean/Chinese boyband EXO . Kris was born in Guangzho in China, and lived between there and Vancouver in Canada during his childhood and teen years. He became an S.M. Entertainment trainee in  South Korea in 2008 and joined EXO in 2012. In May 2014 he left the band and filed a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment, claiming that he was treated badly by them. (Two other of members of EXO, Luhan and Z.Tao did the same thing). They reached a settlement this July. In June 2014 Kris released his debut solo single Time Boils the Rain, which was from the Chinese film, Tiny Times 3.0 . And in November 2015 he brought out the single Bad Girl. In addition to singing, he acts and his films include Somewhere Only We Know (2015), Mr. Six (2015), The Mermaid (2016), Sweet Sixteen (2016), and upcoming movies, the...

Time for an update on the latest music and videos I've been listening to/watching lately. :) The Weekend feat. Daft Punk- Starboy (explicit, unedited version) Nick Jonas- Voodoo (video) Louise Johnson- So Good Hyloyn- Paradise (K-pop) Fergie - Life Goes On Britney Spears feat. Tinashe - Slumber Party (video) Zara Larsson - I Would Like  Meng Jia (former missA )- Drip (C-pop) Kris Wu (ex- EXO )- JULY (C-pop) HELLOVENUS- i'm ill (K-pop) K-pop ASTRO- Confession JENYER (Jeon Jiyoon, former 4minute)- I Do  AOA Cream ( AOA unit)- I'm Jelly BABY Loco- Still T-ARA- TIAMO IMFACT- Feel So Good JENYER with Jiggy Bros- MAGNET    Hey Violet- Guys My Age  VICTON- I'm fine (K-pop) INNA- Yalla * Lana Del Rey- You Can Be The Boss (explicit video, contains disturbing scenes) Justine Skye feat. Wizkid- U Don't Know That's all for now! :) *New to me.

Today's video is Stuck On You by British singer Joss Stone . She first became famous aged 16 with the release of her debut album The Soul Sessions in September 2003 and and its first single Fell in Love with a Boy, a cover of The White Stripes' song (theirs is called Fell in Love with a Girl), which came out in early 2004. The Soul Sessions was very successful and Joss' second album Mind Body & Soul (released in September 2004) was also a best seller. The lead single You Had Me which came out the same month, is one of her most successful songs. To date she has released 7 albums, the rest are Introducing Joss Stone (2007), Colour Me Free! (2009), LP1 (2011), The Soul Sessions Vol 2 (2012) and her most recent, Water For Your Soul which was released in summer 2015.  Some of her other singles are Right to Be Wrong, Don't Cha Wanna Ride, Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now featuring American rapper Common , Teardrops which is a cover of the Womack & Womack song (...

Last year I did a round-up of my favourite Japanese music acts. You can check it out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/09/j-pop-acts.html I thought it would be good to do a post on some more Japanese singers and groups today. :) Note: A few of the singers in this post are mixed race. I don't think there are that many famous Japanese singers with mixed heritage but there are a few, including the 3 below, Crystal Kay , A.I. and Thelma Aoyama . One of my fave singers Namie Amuro is a quarter Italian as well. Being mixed race myself it's cool to see successful mixed people. :) BENI (formerly Beni Arashiro) BENI (full name Beni Daniels) originally debuted as Beni Arashiro (or Arashiro Beni in the Japanese way) but decided to have just BENI as her stage name in 2008. Her mum is Japanese and her dad is American (European and Native American). She was born in Okinawa in Japan and later moved to America and then to Yokohama in Japan. She started out as a member of...

This week's video is Voodoo by Nick Jonas . It's from his latest album Last Year Was Complicated which was released in June. It's one of my favourite songs on the album. :) Not sure if it's an actual single. Please note that the song is explicit. :) Nick also has a new video for Champagne Problems . I featured it before when it was just an audio. Watch the music video here: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/weekly-music-video_27.html For more songs from the album visit this post: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/new-nick-jonas-album.html

As I mentioned before I've been listening to a lot of K-pop recently. The channel Arirang TV started showing in the UK the other month, so I've been watching the programmes Pops in Seoul and Simply K-pop . (I usually just discover K-pop videos on YouTube). I thought it would be good to do a post on the latest K-pop releases. :) BTS- Blood Sweat & Tears BTS' latest single is Blood Sweat & Tears. It's from their new album Wings (their 2nd full length studio album) which came out last month. I just read that Wings has made history by becoming the first album by a Korean act to enter the UK Albums Chart! :) Blood Sweat & Tears was No 1 in the Korean charts.

Today's video is Saans from the Bollywood film Jab Tak Hai Jaan . It came out in 2012 and is about journalist Akira Rai (played by Anuskha Sharma ) making a documentary on Indian army Major and bomb disposal expert Samar ( Shahrukh Khan ). As she digs into his past she discovers a romance he had 10 years ago with Meera ( Katrina Kaif ), when he was living in London and working as a musician. I haven't actually seen the film but Saans is my favourite song from it. The video shows Samar and Meera's love story. The playback singers are Shreya Ghoshal and Mohit Chauhan . The official Jab Tak Hai Jaan site is still there if you'd like to visit it: http://www.yashrajfilms.com/microsites/jthj/index.html If you're a Katrina fan here are some more of her videos: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/06/weekly-music-video.html https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/04/weekly-music-video_9.html https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/02/weekly-music-video_18....

30/12/16: Updated with more of the girls' links. :) Teen Mom UK just started this week. It's the British version of the very successful American reality show franchise Teen Mom. The first Teen Mom (now known as Teen Mom OG which stands for Original Girls) and its sister programme Teen Mom 2 are both spin-offs from the MTV series 16 and Pregnant . The original Teen Mom started in 2009, so it's been a long time and now it's come to the UK! Someone pointed out on the Facebook page that it should be called Teen Mum UK (instead of Mom) and that might suit it more, but I suppose they just kept the American spelling because it's part of the Teen Mom series. Teen Mom UK works in a similar format to the American shows, expect the girls also have cameras of their own to film in their rooms. That part is like 16 and Pregnant actually, where the teens would talk to the camera at the end. There are 5 girls on TM UK, Chloe, Naomi, Mia, Amber and Megan. Chloe Chloe Pa...

This week's video is Kalbimin Fendi by German DJ POLIQUE featuring Turkish/Dutch German singer Atiye and Turkish rapper 9Canlı. DJ POLIQUE's real name is Kostas Triandafilidis. He is known as Germany's most successful Urban DJ and has done well in Turkey and Greece, especially with the single Don't Wanna Go Home featuring FYI last year. He's also a producer and mixing engineer. POLIQUE's latest release is Turn Me On with Swedish/Congolese singer Mohombi which came out in July. Back in March he teamed up with Atiye and 9Canlı for the Turkish language song Kalbimin Fendi (My Heart's Master). For more on POLIQUE visit these links: Official site: http://www.djpolique.com/ Official FB: https://www.facebook.com/djpolique/

It's Hallowe'en on Monday, so I'm doing a post on my favourite Hallowe'en/scary things, plus a round-up of spooky themed things on the blog. :) I tried to avoid spoilers but there are a couple. Books Trick or Treat by Richie Tankersly Cuisick This is a Point Horror book (the series was hugely popular in the 90s, ahhh nostalgia! lol) and the story is about Martha, a girl who moves to a new town after her dad gets married. She finds it hard adjusting to having a stepmum and isn't keen on her stepbrother, Conor but most of all she dislikes the creepy house. She learns that something terrible happened in the house and in the lead-up to Hallowe'en weird things keep happening, especially in Martha's room! I've had this for years and like to re-read it occasionally around Hallowe'en; I just started reading it again today. :) Halloween Night by R.L. Stine Another Point Horror, written by R.L. Stine who also wrote the Goosebumps series (see b...

This week's video is Fires in the North by Leaves' Eyes . It's their latest song. I still think it's a shame that Liv Kristine left/was sacked (she says the rest of Leaves' Eyes fired her while they say she left) but new singer Elina has a good voice which suits this song. It must be hard going into such a long running band. It will be interesting to hear further music and I also look forward to hearing new stuff from Liv. :) This is the official lyric video.

I'm on a K-pop kick at the moment! It's time for another Girls vs Boys post and I'm featuring the Korean groups Red Velvet and GOT7 . Update 25/11/24: I've deleted old links/updated them. Red Velvet are a 5 member girl group made up of Irene, Wendy (who is originally from South Korea, later moved to Canada and also lived in the US, Seulgi, Yeri and Joy (who all grew up in Korea). The name Red Velvet represents two sides to them- Red is the more girly, excitable side and Velvet is the more grown-up, toned down one.  They were formed by South Korean entertainment company S.M. Entertainment (who are responsible for lots of the K-pop groups) at auditions over several years and debuted in August 2014 as a 4 member group with the single Happiness (digital release only). The music video for Happiness was very popular. In October that year they released their second single Be Natural featuring rapper Taeyong, who is now part of the K-pop group NCT . In March 2015 Yeri jo...

Today's video is DRIVE by Jay Park featuring singer GRAY . It's the latest song from his new album EVERYTHING YOU WANTED which is due out tomorrow. (Well today in Korea, since they're ahead of us!).

JoJo's new album Mad Love. came out today. Her last album The High Road was released in 2006, so it's been 10 years! Since then she's released singles and mixtapes but this is the first full length album in that time. I've been looking forward to it because I've been waiting for her to bring out a new one for ages. I kept waiting for Jumping Trains (which was the name of her 3rd album at one time) to come out! lol. Update 25/11/16: Note: I'm referring to the Deluxe version which I think is only available in as a digital/MP3 download. I like Mad Love, it's a good album. The best songs for me are in the middle and then towards the end. (Although I also like F*** Apologies. which is No. 3). I sometimes find that with albums; I like the songs more towards the begining or middle etc. My favourite ones so far (sometimes I need to listen to songs several times for them to grow on me) are Reckless., I Can Only. featuring Canadian singer Alessia Cara , Honest....

This week's video is Mani Per Money by Era Istrefi . It was her first single which came out in 2013. Era sings in Gheg Albanian and Mani për money translates as "Money mania). The first song I heard of Era's was Bonbon, which was a good introduction. This is a different style, more reggae. I look forward to hearing more of her music. :)

I've listening to a lot of new music lately, so here are the latest songs and videos I've heard and seen. :) Era Istrefi - Mani Per Money* Aluna George- I Remember album Tulisa feat. Akelle- Sweet Like Chocolate Usher feat. Young Thug- No Limit Christopher Martin- Under The Influence* JoJo - Mad Love JoJo feat. Remy Ma- FAB (explicit) Tove Lo feat. Wiz Khalifa- Influence Majid Jordan feat. Drake- My Love

Today's video is Talk About Forever by Mabel . It's a video project to commemorate the new Tate Modern building which was opened back in June. (Tate Modern is an art gallery in London). I first watched the video in August and included it in my New Music/Videos update that month. It's a bit of a strange video in my opinion; it's one of those with interpretive dance which seem to be the trend at the moment, e.g. Sia's videos with Maddie from Dance Moms and Years and Years' latest two (I'm just not a fan of that dance style!). I like the song though, it has a nice vibe and the dancers are good. :)

BANKS ' new album The Altar is out today. I was looking forward to it since I really like her first one, Goddess. I even listened to Goddess last night in anticipation of the new one! lol. I listened to The Altar on Spotify and it's a good album. I think some songs are similar to Goddess but it's a bit of a different vibe in some ways. My favourite songs so far are F**k With Myself (I bought it a couple of months ago on iTunes), Lovesick and Judas. I also like Gemini Feed and Mind Games. I expect when I listen to it more, I'll have more I like because some songs take a few listens to get into. :) I thought Better which was released last November was going to be on the album but it isn't. Thought I'd share my faves today. There are no official videos/audios for a couple of them yet but I'll update if they come on. Some of the songs are explicit. This is a video from a live performance of Lovesick two years ago:   This is Mind Games: And he...

This week's video is Something About You by Majid Jordan . They are a music duo from Canada, most well known for producing and featuring on Canadian rapper/singer Drake's song Hold On, We're Going Home in 2013. (I really like that song; I should feature the video sometime!). The duo consists of singer Majid Al Maskati and record producer Jordan Ullman. Jordan is from Toronto and Majid has lived in Bahrain in the Middle East and London but later moved to Canada. The pair met at the University of Toronto in 2011 and released their debut EP Afterhours on Soundcloud , using the name Good People. They went on to sign to OVO Sound , the record label co-owned by Drake and brought out their first official single and EP both called A Place Like This in July 2014. Majid Jordan's other singles are Her, Forever, My Love featuring Drake and Something About You. They released their self titled debut album this February. Their latest song is Free (Us); I don't think it's...