Star Sparkle Blog

Today's video is Meera by Raja Kumari . Her real name is Svetha Rao and she's  an Indian American  rapper, singer and songwriter. Also known as "Indian Princess",  Raja has worked with (co-written songs or sung backing vocals for) several well known artists, including Gwen Stefani , Iggy Azalea , Fall Out Boy and Fifth Harmony . Last year she collaborated with American violinist Lindsey Stirling on  the song Mirage . She has been doing Indian classical dance since age 7. In summer 2016 Raja released her debut single Mute featuring hip hop artist Elvis Brown , and brought out the mixtape Curry Sauce and EP The Come Up that same year. Last year she signed a record deal with Sony Music India . Meera is from The Come Up which mixes contemporary R'n'B and classical Indian music. The video was uploaded to YouTube on 11th January. Raja is singing and rapping in English and Hindi (think it's Hindi). :) Listen to The Come Up on Spotify: The Come Up- Sp

I recently did a post about dance videos and came across a new music video of Mackenzie from the American reality series Dance Moms . That inspired me to write a post about what she and the other girls have been up to since the show ended last year. I'm going to split it into two parts because it will be quite long if I include updates on everyone in one post! Here is Part 1. Dance Moms finished  (at least with the current cast) after  7 series/seasons. Abby Lee Miller, the teacher and owner of the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC) is currently in prison after being sentenced for bankruptcy fraud. The original girls (those who were left), Nia, Kendall, Kalani plus newer dancer Camryn formed a team called The Irreplaceables and former dancer Chloe joined them. (The name came about because one of Abby's favourite phrases is "Everyone's replaceable!"). Brynn opted to stay with Abby and the Minis team. Here's a look at what the girls are doing now. :) Maddie

This week's video is Swag Se Swagat from the 2017 Bollywood film Tiger Zinda Hai . It stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif and is about  reclusive Indian Intelligence (RAW) Agent Tiger 8 (Salman) and Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) agent Zoya (Katrina) who get together to help rescue a group of Indian and Pakistani nurses being held hostage by a militant in an Iraqi hospital. Tiger Zinda Hai is based on real events and is the sequel to  Ek Tha Tiger/There Was a Tiger (2012). It was released just before Christmas (22nd December) and is currently showing at cinemas. The playback singers are Vishal Dadlani and Neha Bhasin .

Here is the second of my New Music for 2018 posts. You can read part 1 here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/new-music-for-2018-part-1.html African (Nigerian) Yemi Alade- Go Down Go Down is Yemi Alade's latest song. It's from her latest album Black Magic (Deluxe version) and was uploaded to YouTube on 15th January.

This week's video is Gave Your Love Away by Majid Jordan . It's from their second album The Space Between which came out in October. Gave Your Love Away was uploaded to YouTube on 11th January but I'm not sure if it's actually a single. Both song and video have a 90s vibe, which is especially nostalgic for those of us who grew up then!

It's been a while since I've featured some dance videos, so here's a new post. :) First up here is Rumer Noel and her students dancing to I Got You by American singer Bebe Rexha .  The video was uploaded to YouTube in November 2016. Update 4/9/21: The video is now gone. :( I will update if it ever comes back. Rumer has choreographed dances for the Dance Moms girls, that's where I first heard of her. Watch a couple of those videos at  the links below: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/01/dance-moms-choreography-video.html https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/02/another-dance-moms-girls-video.html She also choreographed and danced in the music video for former Dance Moms star Mackenzie Ziegler's latest single Breathe, which was released in November. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ23KGgQ6rE For more Rumer videos visit her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rumernoel Now here are some videos from 1MILLION

This week's video is Don't Think About it by Justine Skye . It was released on 7th December and is from her upcoming  debut album ULTRAVIOLET, due out on 19th January. Justine fan? Visit these links: Collide music video: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/weekly-music-video_24.html A Train audio: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/weekly-music-video_19.html Check out a preview of ULTRAVIOLET here: http://smarturl.it/JskyeULTRAVIOLET

Sorry the post is late this week, I started this one yesterday but it's not finished, so I'm  going to split it into 2 parts. ) Last year I did a new releases post for the beginning of 2017 . Now here's new music for the start of 2018! These songs came out at the very end of last year. :) African (Nigerian) Tiwa Savage- Sugarcane Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage has a new single called Sugarcane. It's the second one off her latest EP of the same name  and was released at the end of Dec. She's singing in Yoruba (I think) and English. For the first single from Sugarcane (Ma Lo) visit this post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/african-music.html C-pop Meng Jia & Jackson Wang- MOOD Meng Jia (former member of now disbanded Korean/Chinese girl group miss A ) and Jackson Wang (member of K-pop band GOT7 ) have collaborated on the song MOOD. It' s a mixture of Chinese language (although I'm not sure which dialect) and English

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. (Depending what you celebrate). Here's the first post of 2018! :) Today's video is Unconditional by British singer Sinead Harnett .  Her music style has been compared to Jhené Aiko and Jessie Ware's . She's collaborated with British rapper/grime artist Wiley and dance act Disclosure , and released her debut single Got Me in 2013. This was followed by her debut EP N.O.W in summer 2014. Sinead has brought out another EP Sinead Harnett (2016) and a mixtape Chapter One (2017). Her other singles include Paradise, She Ain't Me, Do It Anyway, Rather Be With You and Still Miss You. I was given some money to buy songs on iTunes as a Christmas present and since I'd already bought some songs from Chapter One, I bought the rest of the mixtape. Unconditional is one of the songs on there and is Sinead's latest single. It's about unconditional love.  Update 17/12/22: The video has been made private for some reason.