Star Sparkle Blog

This week's video is Chineke Meh by British singer Ezi Emela. Ezi (real name Ezichimemela Ezeh) is British Nigerian, her parents are from Nigeria and she was born in Manchester. She was in a singing group with her sister in her teens and sang in her church choir. Her first single was Catch my Heat and her other songs include NO LELE and Broken. Nicknamed "The Princess of Afro Beats", Ezi is also a model. Chineke Meh was released in January. It's sung in a mixture on English and a Nigerian language. I'm not sure which Nigerian language it is (Yoruba?) but will update as soon as I know more. :) Update 5/4/17 : A friend has told me that Chineke Meh is an Igbo phrase and means "My God". For more on Ezi check out these links: Artist profile:  http://africax5.tv/artist/ezi-emela-mseziemela Official FB: https://www.facebook.com/EziEmelaMusic/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/eziemelamusic

Sorry there wasn't a second post last week, I've been having computer problems. It was to do with the mouse. I'm getting a new one so it should be back to the normal schedule later this week. :)

Today's video is Finders Keepers by Mabel featuring Kojo Funds . It's from her upcoming EP Bedroom which will be released on 26th May. This is the official audio but I'll update if there's a video in future. :) Update 23/8/17 : Mabel now has an official video for this. The audio video has been removed. I don't see why they had to get rid of it, they could have kept it as well. Never mind! I've replaced the audio with the music video. :)

Steps are back! If you were a child or teenager in the UK in the late 90s, then you probably remember the group Steps. When I first saw their video for 5, 6, 7, 8 I wasn't that impressed but I later became a fan! lol. Steps were formed in 1997 and debuted in November that year with the single 5,6.,7,8. The band consists of Claire Richards, H (real name Ian Watkins), Faye Tozer, Lisa Scott-Lee and Lee Latchford-Evans. They became very successful in the UK and also did well in other European countries, Japan and Australia. Their hits include Tragedy (probably the most successful), One For Sorrow, Deeper Shade of Blue, Better Best Forgotten and Stomp. Steps released their debut studio album Step One in September 1998 and went on to release 3 more, Steptacular (1999), Buzz (2000) and Light Up The World (2012). They broke-up in 2001 and H and Claire went on to form a duo, a move which upset the other members. In 2011 the group reunited for a TV special called Steps: Reunion where t...

This week's video is Good Girls by American band LANY . It's the first single from their debut album LANY which is set for release on 30th June. Good Girls came out on 3rd March. It's just an audio at the moment but I'll update if there's an official video in future. :) Update 8/7/17: For the official video for Good Girls visit this post: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/debut-lany-album.html

American singer Bebe Rexha released her latest EP All Your Fault Pt. 1 last month. It contains 6 tracks, Atmosphere, I Got You (which was released as a single last October), Small Doses, FFF featuring rapper G-Easy (who she previously collaborated with on his single Me, Myself  & I), Gateway Drug and Bad B**ch featuring rapper Ty Dolla $ign . I got All Your Fault for my birthday recently and it's good. I like all the songs really but my favourites are Atmosphere, FFF, Gateway Drug and Bad B**ch. Here are a few of my faves. As you can tell, the album is explicit. :) Here's Atmosphere. When she sings the verses in this, Bebe reminds me of  American singer Natalie .

This week's video is Redrum by Kosovar (Kosovan Albanian) singer Era Istrefi and featuring  Felix Snow . As I mentioned before, she's been compared to Rihanna voice wise and she reminds me of Pia Mia , especially looks wise! Redrum is out now. It's an English language song. (Era also sings in Gheg Albanian ). 

Here are some new releases from the J-pop and K-pop worlds. :) J-pop Note:  Avex videos are now blocked from being shown on third party applications. If you click on the videos you can watch them fine on YouTube. :) Koda Kumi- Ultraviolet Koda Kumi *is set to release her 13th/14th studio albums on 8th March. It will be a double album release and is called W FACE ~inside~ and W FACE~outside~. It's her first album for 2 years; the last was Walk of my Life in 2015 and contains two previously released singles, Kimi Omoy and Shh! This is Ultraviolet from W FACE ~outside. It's an Avex video, so it's not full length. (They tend to show short versions). Update 16/3/19: Video is now gone. Can't find a replacement currently. :(  But if you're a YouTube Premium member you can listen to the W FACE ~outside playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCrHegCHY4o&list=OLAK5uy_mRLHpbuClehIAm6DW8p34SRmT3RGVjJyk&index=3 FAKY- Surrender And girl grou...