Star Sparkle Blog

It's almost the end of 2018, so here's a round-up of the best post of the year! :) Read 2016's Best Of here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/best-of-2016.html And 2017's here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/best-of-2017.html Music At the beginning of the year I did two posts with new music for 2018: New Music for 2018- Part 1: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/new-music-for-2018-part-1.html New Music for 2018- Part 2: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/new-music-for-2018-part-2.html African No African features this year (like last year's African Music), but African artists featured in New Music (see below). Includes Tiwa Savage's Sugarcane:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/new-music-for-2018-part-1.html And in several Weekly Music Videos: Sugarboy feat. Chop- Ycee (Nigerian) : https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/04/weekly-music-video_11.html Vanessa Mdee- Bounce (Tanzanian):  http

Happy Boxing Day! Or if it's not Boxing Day where you are, Happy Day After Christmas! :) Today's video is One Shot Remix by Swedish/British singer Mabel . The original One Shot single came out in August and the music video came out in September. The remix which features British rapper Yungen and Avelino , was released in October. Listen to the original One Shot audio and watch the video here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/09/weekly-music-video_12.html Hope you all had a good Christmas! Or enjoyed another festival if you celebrated :) This is the last Weekly Music Video of the year, but I'll be back later this week with a Best of 2018 post. Check out this Bollywood Boxing Day! post from 2015 :  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/12/bollywood-boxing-day.html

Two years ago I did a Christmas round-up post of Christmas themed posts on the blog, plus some  of my festive favourites. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/christmas-round-up.html This year I'm doing a follow-up post for Christmas 2018. Post contains spoilers. :) First up here are my Christmas posts from the last two years: Lindsey Stirling's Carol of the Bells:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/weekly-music-video_13.html K-pop Christmas! (no Christmas songs apart from TWICE's release but just some K-pop songs for the holidays):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/k-pop-christmas.html   Christmas Music and Films: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/christmas-music-and-films.html Christmas Music:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-music.html Hello! WM- Timing video (K-pop): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/weekly-musi-video.html Now here's some more Christmas entertainm

It's just under a week till Christmas, so today's video is Timing, a collaboration between by K-pop groups B1A4 , OH MY GIRL and ONF , who all belong to the record label WM Entertainment. It's a winter/Christmas holiday song released under their group name Hello! WM. Timing is about the right time to let someone know you like them. It was released on 10th December.  The song has a Christmas themed video with all the groups celebrating together. Click "Subtitles/Closed captions"  to see an English translation of the lyrics. (Better viewed directly on YouTube). The subtitles are a bit hard to see at times though, since they're on a white background. :) For more K-pop Christmas music check out this post :  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-music.html

Christmas is less than 2 weeks away (always seems to come round quickly!), so this week's post is Christmas themed. Here's some music for the festive season. :) First here are the previous Christmas music posts on the blog: 2013's Christmas themed video, Japanese singer Namie Amuro's White Light: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/12/weekly-music-video_24.html 2014's Christmas video, Fa La La by Justin Bieber featuring American group Boys II Men:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/12/weekly-music-video_24.html Lindsey Stirling's Carol of the Bells:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/weekly-music-video_13.html   Mariah Carey: All I Want For Christmas Is You 2011 version with Justin Bieber: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/12/weekly-music-video_19.html When Christmas Comes with John Legend:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/weekly-music-video_21.html Includes Mariah's s All I Want For Christmas Is You (So So Def

Today's video is BEAUTIFUL, the latest song by Japanese girl group  BananaLemon . They are now a 3 piece after member R!NO left due to health issues. The song is about how everyone is beautiful, an uplifting message to those feeling down. It's a lyric video and premiered on 26th November. If you click on "Subtitles/closed captions" when viewing the video on YouTube itself, you can see English translation subtitles. :) J-pop fan? Check out these posts:  J-pop Round-up 2018: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/10/j-pop-round-up-2018.html E-girls vs THE RAMPAGE:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/10/girls-vs-boys-j-pop.html

Back in August I did a round-up of the Bollywood posts on the blog in 2018 so far. I said that Part 2 would follow later this year and we're now in December, so here it is! :) Find Part 1 here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/08/bollywood-round-up-2018-part-1.html Belly + Bollywood dance videos: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/08/belly-dance-bollywood-dance-videos.html Kamariya from the film Stree: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/09/weekly-music-video_5.html Bollywood Horror: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/10/bollywood-horror.html Akh Lad Jaave from Loveyatri:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/11/weekly-music-video_28.html Bonus This is a smaller round-up than the first post, but here are a couple of bonus videos. ZAYN- Allah Duhai Hai (cover) First up here is Allah Duhai Hai by British singer ZAYN aka Zayn Malik , a cover of the song from the Bollywood film Race 3. This is an audio and it was uploaded in November. Update 29/1/

This week's video is Dabebi by Nigerian singer Mr Eazi featuring Ghanaian singer King Promise and British Nigerian producer and singer Maleek Berry . Mr Eazi lives in Ghana and he founded Banku music, a mix of Nigerian and Ghanaian styles. Dabebi is from his 3rd mixtape Life is Eazi, Vol 2- Lagos to London which was released this year. The video is a "visualiser", an animation. It was uploaded to YouTube last month and I included in November's New Music/Videos post . Update 19/12/18: The official music video for Dabebi premiered today, so here it is: Check out more Afropop/Afrobeats music here: Mabel feat. Kojo Funds- Finders Keepers:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/03/weekly-music-video_22.html Mr Eazi feat Efya- Skintight:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/11/weekly-music-video_92.html Sugarboy feat. Ycee- Chop: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/04/weekly-music-video_11.html Mr. Easi's new video for Surrender with Sim

Back in April I started the feature C-pop Saturday. I planned to make it a regular feature but so far I've done it twice (the first time in April and then in August )! Never mind, I can do better in 2019, lol. So now here is the last C-pop Saturday post of 2018. :) Kris Wu- Tough Pill (Chinese version) First up here is Chinese Canadian singer Kris Wu's song Tough Pill, from his debut album Antares, which was released on 2nd November, 3 days before his birthday. There's also an English version but this is the Mandarin one. Update 2/12/18: I've just seen that there's now a music video for Tough Pill, so here it is: Tian Di is another good one. I featured it in the last C-Pop Saturday post and as a Weekly Music Video in June. Check it out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/06/weekly-music-video_13.html Lexie Liu- Like A Mercedes Lexie Liu   (Chinese name Liu Boxin) is a Chinese singer who came 4th in the South Korean reality TV show K

Today's video is Akh Lad Jaave from the new Bollywood film Loveyatri . It's about Sushrut (played by Aayush Sharma ) who is planning to become a Garba (Indian dance) teacher, and falls in love with NRI (Non resident Indian) college student Michelle ( Warina Hussain) who is visiting India from the UK. They meet at the festival of Navaratri/Navratri , which takes place during 9 days in September and October. After Michelle returns home Sushrut plans to go to London to see her again. Directed by Bollywood star Salman Khan , the movie's original title was "Loveratri" but it was changed after there was controversy over the title due to it sounding similar to Navratri. Its full title is Loveyatri: Journey of Love and I've seen the English titles "Love Travellers" and "Love Will Take Over" online. Loveyatri was released on 5th October. The playback singers for Akh Lad Jaave are Asees Kaur ,  Jubin Nautiyal and rapper Badshah . Navara

My favourite singer Mariah Carey has a new album out! It's her first album in 4 years (the last one being Me. I Am Mariah...The Elusive Chanteuse which came out in May 2014). The new one is called Caution and was released on 16th November. It's Mariah's 15th studio album. Despite being a long term Mariah fan, I wasn't that keen on Me. I Am Mariah; I just didn't like it as much as previous albums. My favourite song was Faded (only song I've bought currently, but there are others I like listening to on Spotify that I may buy in future, such as You Don't Know What To Do and Meteorite ). The last full Mariah album I got was 2009's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (I do also have some songs from 2010's Merry Christmas II You). These days with online music and sites and apps such as iTunes, YouTube, Spotify etc. , people don't tend to buy full albums as much, but I still love CDs! I have a lot less physical CD albums nowadays though. Anyway, I was exc

Today's video is thank u, next , the latest single by Ariana Grande . It will be on her next album of the same name. The song is about Ariana's past relationships and she thanks her exes (including rapper Mac Miller who sadly died earlier this year, and former fiance comedian Pete Davidson ) for what they've taught her. She also mentions how she's now in a relationship that she knows is going to last, since it's with herself. Thank u, next was released on 3rd November. I included it in last week's New Music/Videos post . The single has reached No 1. in several countries, including the US and the UK. There has actually been controversy over Chinese Canadian singer Kris Wu's music beating it to No.1 on the iTunes charts, and he's been accused of using bots to do it ! (Kris's song November Rain  happened to be last week's Weekly Music Video ! (I didn't know about the drama until reading comments on thank u, next!). This is a lyric video. A

There are less than two months left of the year. It doesn't feel that long since I wrote about new music for 2018! There's some good music still coming out in late 2018,  so here's the round-up of the latest music and videos I've been listening to/watching! :) Update 19/11/18: Added a couple more that I forgot to list! Dua Lipa & BLACKPINK- Kiss and Make Up (audio) (English/Korean) Vera Brezhneva- song  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFQAcEcSJqY (Russian )* Lay (EXO member)- NAMANANA  LANY- Let Me Know ZAYN- Fingers (audio) Kris Wu- Antares album (mostly audios) Tough Pill (Chinese title) Coupe feat. Rich The Kid November Rain  Coupe (video) Listen to full album here: Kris Wu Spotify Mariah Carey - Caution album With You (video) The Distance A No No Caution Portrait Listen to the full album at either of the links below: YouTube:  Caution album YouTube Spotify Mariah Carey Spotify Kristina- Russian title (Russian?) Jasmin

This week's video is November Rain by Chinese Canadian singer Kris Wu (former member of Korean/Chinese boyband EXO who went solo in 2014).. It's from his debut album Antares which was released on 2nd November. I don't think November Rain is an actual single release but  it on the album. Singles from Antares so far are Deserve featuring Travis Scott, Like That and Freedom which features Jhené Aiko . The video for November Rain was uploaded on 5th November. It's an English language song (Kris also sings in Mandarin ).  Want more Kris? Check out these posts: Music video for Deserve feat. Travis Scott: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/10/weekly-music-video_18.html   Like That: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/05/weekly-music-video_86.html Freedom feat. Jhené  Aiko:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/10/weekly-music-video_10.html

A new series of Teen Mom OG recently started in the UK, and a new season of Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant is just about to start. Here's an update on both shows. :) Teen Mom OG Season 8 of Teen Mom OG (short for "Original Girls") is a little different to past series, since original mum Farrah Abraham has now left the show and two new girls have joined- Bristol Palin and Cheyenne Floyd. Read more about the girls below. Bristol Palin Bristol , 28, the daughter of former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin , became a teen mum almost 10 years ago when she gave birth to son Tripp Easton Mitchell in December 2008. Her pregnancy was announced when her mum was running for the position of American Vice President. (I remember all the fuss about Bristol being pregnant at the time!). She got engaged to Tripp's dad Levi Johnston, but they split up in March 2009. In 2015 Bristol got together with former US Marine Dakota Meyer and had their first child together, daughter Sailor G