Star Sparkle Blog

Extra post! Update 17/5/22: The competition was actually called Eurovision: Your Decision in 2016; Making Your Mind Up was the name from 2004 to 2007! Just thought I should correct this! I don't normally post twice in a day but tonight is Eurovision: Your Decision , the first time in ages they're letting us pick the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest and since I'm a Eurovision fan, I had to post! lol. So tune in tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One if you'd like to pick our entry. :) Some other countries have already chosen their entries. Keep up to date with the news on the official site: http://www.eurovision.tv/tag/expand/2016 The Semi Finals will be held on 10th and 12th May and the Grand Final on the 14th.

Vanessa White from British/Irish girl group The Saturdays has just released her debut EP . The Saturdays are currently taking a break while they pursue other projects. Vanessa's EP is called Chapter One and came out on 19th February. It features the songs Don't Wanna Be Your Lover, Nostalgia, Relationship Goals featuring Polish music producer Chloe Martini and Lipstick Kisses featuring British rapper Wretch 32 . I already watched the Nostalgia video the other week (see my New Music post) and listented to the rest on Spotify the other day. I like the EP, I'm thinking of having it for my birthday. Her music is good, maybe a bit more R'n'B than The Saturdays. My favourite songs are Nostalgia and Relationship Goals. Here are the videos and audio so you can have a listen yourself. :)   Update 15/11/20: The videos for Don't Wanna Be Your Lover and Relationship Goals have been removed for some reasons, so I' ve replaced them with unofficial uploads. Don...

This week's video is Fergalicious by American singer Fergie . Her full name is Stacy Ferguson and she is a member of American group the Black Eyed Peas as well as being a solo singer. As a child Fergie was part of the TV show Kids Incorporated. She went on to form trio Wild Orchid and they released 2 albums before she left in 2001. In 2003 Fergie joined the Black Eyed Peas and they released their 3rd album Elephunk, which featured some of their mort successful songs- Where Is The Love, Shut Up, Don't Phunk With My Heart and My Humps. Since then the group have brought out 2 more albums, their last being The Beginning in 2010.  As far as I know Fergie is still part of of the Black Eyed Peas but since she didn't appear on their last two songs Awesome and Yesterday, it's not known if she will be on their new album. In July 2006 Fergie launched her career as a solo artist with the single London Bridge. It was a hit, reaching No 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in the US...

I've been listening to more new music lately so here's an update on what I've been listening to (and the videos I've been watching). :) Tinashe - feat. Juicy J - Energy  Katy B with Craig David and Major Lazer- Who Am I Listen on Spotify (sign-up or login): https://play.spotify.com/artist/5EUdiv20t58GCS09VMKk7M?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open Trey Songs feat. Mila J - Disrespectful Timbaland feat. Mila J- Don't Get No Better  Tinashe- Watch Me Work  AlunaGeorge feat. Popcaan- I'm In Control Little Mix feat. Jason DeRulo- Secret Love Song  Christina Milian- 4U EP (minus Do It which I already listened to): Rebel Liar Like Me feat. Snoop Dogg Listen on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/artist/4eAOcbAXIF4BmbN6E1QIlw?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open Or you can find the videos on YouTube. That's it for now. :)

This week's video is I'm In Control by AlunaGeorge featuring Jamaican dancehall artist Popcaan . I hadn't heard anything from AlunaGorge for ages so it's good to see them back. I'm In Control is out now. According to Wikipedia AlunaGeorge will release a new album later this year.

A couple of years ago I did the Anggun Lyrics Project (where I wrote out the lyrics for songs from the English version of her album Elevation. I started a similar one with the French songs but didn't get very far! lol. However since I'm better with Spanish than French I decided to have a go at translating some Spanish lrics. I've started out small with Canadian singer Nelly Furtado's Te Busque featuring Colombian singer Juanes . It appeared on Nelly's album Loose (2006) and was released as a single in 2007 although not in the UK, I don't think. Only the chorus is in Spanish. I found out that there is a full Spanish version though which I'm planning to listen to soon. I wrote out the lyrics and also used Letssingit.com and Google Translate. There are also lyrics in the video below (click on it to view it on YouTube). A couple of lines in the chorus aren't the best translation, so if you're a native or fluent Spanish speaker and have a better t...

Here's a new one from FAKY , the Japanese girlband (well, Japanese/international technically since leader Anna grew up abroad and Akina is Japanese and American and from America). It's called You and came out as a digital single in October but the video was just uploaded to YouTube at the end of January. You was released with other singles Afterglow and Candy.

The other week I posted a video of the girls from reality show Dance Moms doing a dance to Tinashe's Player with choreographer Rumer Noel . You can check it out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/01/dance-moms-choreography-video.html Here's another choreo (as it's called in the video description) to Justine Skye's On & On. I like Justine Skye but I don't think I'd heard her song On & On before. This video features Maddie, Kendall and Kalani in one group, 3 girls from ALDC LA (the Abbey Lee Dance Company's LA school), Kelly Grace, Brynn Rumfallo and Saryna Garcia and Mackenzie and Rumer dancing together. Update 10/6/22: Video is now private, so I've removed it. For more Rumer Noel videos visit her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rumernoel Update 10/2/16: I realised last weekend that Dance Moms is back on in the UK. I'd missed about 3 episodes of the new series/season (S6)! Anyway it's on every Monday ...

Today's video is Pillowtalk by Zayn (or ZAYN). His full name is Zain Javvad Malik and he is of course a former member of British boyband One Direction (who are currently on hiatus). Zayn auditioned for British reality show The X Factor in 2010. He didn't get through as a solo singer but was put together with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne to form the boyband One Direction. They came 3rd on The X Factor and went on to become one of the most successful acts from the show. Zayn left the group in March 2015. He worked with British producer Naughty Boy and then signed a record deal with RCA Records in July. His debut album Mind of Mine is set to be released on 25th March. Pillowtalk is the first single from the album and is out now. Zayn's girlfriend model Gigi Hadid features in the video. Please note that the song is explicit. :) For more on Zayn visit his website: http://inzayn.com