Star Sparkle Blog

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/