Star Sparkle Blog

It's the end of another year and will soon be a new decade! The past few years I've done Best Of posts rounding up my favourite posts of the year. You can read them below: 2016's Best of:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/best-of-2016.html 2017's:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/best-of-2017.html 2018's: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/best-of-2018.html And now on to 2019's! :) Music  As with last year, I did posts with new music for 2019, this time with several genres: New Music for 2019- J-pop: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-music-for-2019-j-pop.html New Music for 2019- K-pop: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-music-for-2019-k-pop.html New Music for 2019- Western: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/02/new-music-for-2019-western.html African I featured more African music this year. There was one feature, an Afropop round-up:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/afropop-roun...

Happy Boxing Day /Day after Christmas! As I mentioned in the Christmas Songs 2019 post , this week's Weekly Music Video post is on Thursday instead of Wednesday, because yesterday was Christmas Day. :) This week's video is MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, the new song by Korean boyband MONSTA X (also written as Monsta X). It's in English and is from their first English language album ALL ABOUT LUV , set for release next February. MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT was released on 6th December. MONSTA X have brought out several other English language singles this year. Check out two below: WHO DO U LOVE? feat. French Montana: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/07/weekly-music-video_31.html Includes SOMEONE'S SOMEONE: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/10/j-pop-and-k-pop-round-up-2019-new-videos.html Want more Korean boyband music? Visit this post: BTS and MONSTA X Videos:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/11/bts-and-monsta-x-videos.html Hope everyone had a good Chr...

It's less than a week till Christmas, so time for my annual Christmas post! Last year I did two which you can read at the links below: Christmas Music: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-music.html Christmas Round-up 2:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-round-up-2.html Today's post features some new songs for Christmas 2019. :) Mabel- Loneliest Time Of Year I featured this new Christmas song from Mabel as this week's Weekly Music Video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/12/weekly-music-video_18.html BoA feat. Crush- Starry Night Next up is Starry Night, a winter themed love song by popular Korean singer BoA and featuring Crush . It's from BoA's new mini album of the same name which was released on 11th December. The song is in Korean and the video is set in New York at Christmas. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" while watching on YouTube to see English subtitles! :) THEO (Zhu Zhengting)- T...

It's only a week till Christmas! It seems to have come quickly again. So today's video is festive themed. Here is Loneliest Time Of Year by Swedish/British singer Mabel which is about the fact that Christmas can be hard for some people. I know it might seem depressing to some, but it can be hard when we put so much pressure on ourselves for everything to be perfect at Christmas. And there are people who don't have any friends or family at this time of year. So it's an important message. :) Loneliest Time of Year was released on 22nd November and the video came out on 6th December. It's been a big year for Mabel with the release of successful singles Don't Call Me and Mad Love, and her debut album High Expectations coming out in August. Hope she has a great 2020 too! :) For more Mabel visit this post: Upcoming Album Releases- BANKS  and Mabel: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/upcoming-album-releases.html P.S. I'm planning to do another ...

I've done several Dance Videos posts this year, so here's one more before the end of 2019! :) Today I'm sharing a variety of videos from different genres. Nicole Scherzinger Dances Her Way Through a Cardio Workout I've had this video saved in my YouTube "To Watch" playlist for ages, so thought I'd share it today! It's from 2017 and features Pussycat Dolls lead singer and solo singer Nicole Scherzinger doing a cardio workout and teaching Emily Oberg , (the host of YouTube series Get Sweaty ) some dance moves. P.S. Did you know The Pussycat Dolls have reformed? (Minus Melody Thornton). They're set to go on tour in 2020. Watch them perform their new song React on The X Factor: Celebrity (UK) here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pussycat-dolls-reunion-x-factor-919995/ Belly Dance Fitness Calorie Burn Shimmy Challenge If you're a belly dancer then you might like to have a go at this shimmy challenge by Leilah Isaac o...

Today's music video is 3AM by New Zealand singer Janine . It's actually an audio and was uploaded to YouTube on 5th December. 3AM is a heartbreak song about now being able to get over your ex, with a chilled vibe. Please note that it contains explicit lyrics. :) Janine fan? Check out these posts: Never The Right Time music video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/05/weekly-music-video_8.html Features songs from her album 99: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/current-favourite-songs.html Includes Vacation audio: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/new-music-releases.html  

Time for the final C-pop Saturday of the year! I started this feature last year and planned to make it a regular feature. I've done more posts this year than during 2018 (5 including this one, compared to 3) so that's good, lol. I'd like to continue it next year as well. VaVa- Lie First up is Lie by Chinese rapper VaVa , which was released on 17th October. Jane Zhang- Exeed Jane Zhang  has a music video for the song Exeed which I think is also a Chinese TV advert for the EXEED car . Much like Nick Chou and Tia Ray's Lincoln MKC song ! It would be cool if they'd make car ads over here more interesting by making them into music videos, lol. The video came out on 25th October. Jane also released her first English language album Past Progressive in April, under her own label. It includes the singles Dust My Shoulders Off ,Work for It (Remix) and Pull Me Up. Watch the video for  the single Pull Me Up,  which was released in January here: https:/...

This week's video (or audio) is Too Much by American singer Justine Skye . It's from her 4th EP BARE WITH ME which came out in August. Please note that the song is explicit. :) You can also listen MAYBE another song from BARE WITH ME here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/08/weekly-music-video.html And for more music by Justine check out these posts: Collide music video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/06/weekly-music-video_24.html A Train audio: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/08/weekly-music-video_19.html Don't Think About It video:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/01/weekly-music-video_10.html

Head in the Clouds II is the 2nd album by 88rising Records and 12Tone Records . 88rising Records is part of the American mass media company 88rising , which primarily represents Asian artists. Head in The Clouds II is a compilation album, a follow up to the debut Head in the Clouds which was released in summer 2018. HITC II was released on 11th October and consists of 16 tracks by artists such as Indonesian rapper and singer Rich Brian, Indonesian singer NIKI, Japanese singer/rapper Joji and Hong Kong rapper and singer Jackson Wang. You can read more about it here: https://www.complex.com/music/2019/10/88rising-head-in-the-clouds-2-stream Rich Brian and Chung Ha- These Nights First up is These Nights by Rich Brian and featuring Korean singer Chung Ha . Rich Brian's real name is Brian Immnuel Soewarno, he's Chinese Indonesian and is from Jakarta, Indonesia. He launched his career online, posting videos on YouTube. He released his debut song Living the Dream on YouTube in ...

Today's video is Move For Me by South African rapper Cassper Nyovest and featuring Boskasie . Cassper's real name is Refiloe Maele Phooloo and he's from Mahikeng in the province North West. He released his debut single Gusheshe in 2013 and his debut album Tsholofelo the following year. He also set up his own record label Family Tree Records in 2014. Cassper is considered one of the most successful music artists in South Africa. To date he has released 4 studio albums- Tshofelo, 2015's Refiloe (his  real name), Thuto (2017) and Sweet and Short (2018). His singles include Phumakim, Mama I  Made It (#MIMI), Check On You featuring Nigerian singer Davido , Gets Getsa 2.0 and Move For Me. Move For Me was released in May. It's the 5th single from Cassper's latest album Short and Sweet (Deluxe) which came out in November last year. I just saw the video recently on a Afrobeats TV programme.  It also features American model Jessica Burciaga . For more on Cassp...

Note: The videos in my latest posts seem to not be loading at the top of the page sometimes, but once you go on the post itself you can view the video fine. :) In the past I've done round-up posts for Bollywood , but not for Tollywood (the Telugu language Indian film industry). So here's one for today! :) Konchem Konchem from the film Dee: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2011/09/random-music-video.html Maha Maha from Mantra/Manthra (Telugu version of The Black Eyed Peas' My Humps: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2011/10/random-music-video.html Note: The above posts are from not long after I started the blog when I  had Random Music Videos instead of a weekly one! Krishnamurakiki from Naramsimhudu:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/02/weekly-music-video_16.html Yeluko Nayaka from Narasimhudu: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/03/weeky-music-video_20.html   Mila Mila from Super: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/05/weekly-music-video.h...

This week's video is Blame It On You by American sister duo 2XO. Singer Jaz and rapper Tally Sagginario are from Los Angeles and Jaz (full name Jasmine) won Radio Disney's NBT(Next Big Thing) competition in 2009, going on to release several singles and a solo album. She and younger sister Tally (Talia) formed 2X0 in 2017 and released their debut single Summer Love featuring Ricky Garcia from the boyband Forever in Your Mind , that July. They also brought out their own version of Sleigh Ride in December 2017. Tally has been on the reality show The Rap Game and performed with Jordan Fisher at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. The girls describe their music as  "an infusion of pop, R'n'B, rap and Latin American influence" . People have commented that they're similar to Iggy Azalea and Ariana Grande ! They are currently Radio Disney's NBT's Featured Artist . Blame It On You came out in September. Follow 2XO at these links: Official ...

Back in 2017 I did a post about Asian music called Asian Music- K-pop, J-pop and Beyond. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/02/asian-music-k-pop-j-pop-and-beyond.html Here is the follow-up with some round-ups of different posts on Star Sparkle, and a couple of new artists (not previously featured before). I'm listing the genres in alphabetical order this time. :) Note: I also like Bollywood /Hindi music but as with the first post, I'm going to stick to East Asian music here. For some Bollywood post links see the bottom of the post. C-pop I've been listening to more Chinese pop in recent years. Last year I started an occasional feature called C-pop Saturday . I only did 4 C-pop Saturday posts during 2018 but have done 4 so far this year, with one more planned for next month. Check out these posts below for links to the C-pop Saturday 2018 posts and the 2019 ones to date: Dec '18 C-pop Sat: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/...

Note: The videos in my latest posts seem to not be loading at the top of the page sometimes, but once you go on the post itself you can view the video fine. :)* *It's working at  the moment! Today's video is Omo by Nigerian singer Burna Boy . It's the latest release from his 4th studio album African Giant, although I don't think it's an official single.  African Giant was released in July. The Omo video was uploaded on 6th November. A couple of scenes remind me of LL Cool J's Doin' It , viewing a stripper in a private room! lol. For more Burna Boy check out these posts: On The Low video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/weekly-music-video_9.html Outside feat. Mabel audio:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/02/weekly-music-video_13.html Miss You Bad with Mr Eazi:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/04/weekly-music-video.html And if you'd like more Afropop visit this post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/afro...

My last New Music Releases post was in June, so I thought it was time for a new one! Here are some of the latest songs from different genres. :) Jackson Wang- DWAY! First up is DWAY!, the new single by Hong Kong singer/rapper (and member of K-pop boyband GOT7; see below) Jackson Wang . It's from his debut album MIRRORS, which came out on 25th October. DWAY! was released on 21st October. Jackson- I Love You 3000 Chinese Version Next is another song from Jackson's album. This is the Chinese version of I Love You 3000, a chilled love song. There's also an English version called I Love You 3000 II with Indonesian singer Stephanie Poetri , which is available on  American media company 88rising's album Head in the Clouds II. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z5un3c8hbo Visit this C-pop Saturday post for the video for BULLET TO THE HEART (another song from MIRRORS): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/c-pop-saturday.html Va...