Star Sparkle Blog

Today's video is Supernova by Dutch band Within Temptation . It's from their new album Resist which was released on 1st February. The band, who have been together for over 20 years, are trying out a new writing process and sound with Resist, their 7th studio album. After a difficult past year for lead singer Sharon den Adel and her bandmate and husband Robert Westerholt, she and the rest of the band decided they needed a break. Sharon released a solo album My Indigo during that time. It wasn't certain that Within Temptation would make another album, but they became inspired again and started work on Resist Their band's music has previously been defined as "melodic, symphonic rock,  metal and gothic metal (earlier music). Songs on the new album are metal mixed with some pop and electronic elements. The video for Supernova came out on 6th February. For more on the story behind Resist visit this link: https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-w...

Back in September I did a post about the American reality TV show Unexpected. You can read it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/09/unexpected.html There have been two seasons (or series as we also call it in the UK ) so far. There will be a 3rd one  featuring mums Lexus, Mckayla and Chloe (Chloe joined in Series 2). Emiley who joined in Season 2, says she isn't returning (see below) so. Laura (who also joined in S2) will also not be back (see below for more on that). Original cast member Lexus shared a casting call on her Instagram page in November, so it seems the company is looking for new girls due to give birth from March to June 2019. Check out the post here; https://www.instagram.com/p/BpzfLAjg8ek/ The gossip site Starcasm also reports that Unexpected's producers are casting for a new programme: https://starcasm.net/unexpected-producers-casting-pregnant-teens-from-same-high-school-or-tap-program-for-new-reality-series/  Note: Starcasm sometimes slows my ...

This week's video is Waves by Normani featuring 6LACK . Normani (full name Normani Koredei Hamilton) was a member of American girl group Fifth Harmony . The band went on hiatus in 2018 and the members have pursued solo careers. Normani launched her solo career in February last year when she featured on Khalid's Love Lies . She has also collaborated with Canadian singer Jessie Reyez , American rapper/singer Quavo (part of the hip hop/trap trio Migos ) and British DJ, singer/songwriter and record producer Calvin Harris . In January she and British singer Sam Smith released the single Dancing with a Stranger. Normani has released one EP, Normani x Calvin Harris. Her debut solo album is set for release this year. She was also a contestant on reality show Dancing with the Stars (the American version of Strictly Come Dancing ) in 2017. Waves which features the American singer and rapper 6LACK, was released as a single in November. 6LACK didn't appear on the original v...

It was only 6 months ago that American singer Ariana Grande released her last album Sweetener , but now she's back with a new one! thank u, next (written in lower case), her 5th studio album, came out on 8th February. Ariana released Sweetener last August  and started working on thank u, next in October. At the time she'd been undergoing some difficulties in her personal life, such as the death of her ex-boyfriend rapper Mac Miller in September and her break-up with fiance comedian and actor Pete Davidson in October. (Her previous album was recorded after the terrorist attacks at her Manchester Arena concert in May 2017). The album, which broke UK chart records when it debuted at No.1 on the UK official albums chart, consists of 12 tracks, including singles thank u, next, 7 rings, break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored, promotional single imagine, needy and NASA. The first single from thank u, next was the title track which was released in November and reached No. 1...

Today's video is Outside by Nigerian singer Burna Boy featuring Swedish/British singer Mabel . It's from his mixtape also called OUTSIDE which was released last year. It's an audio and was uploaded on 25th January. Note: On the video itself Mabel isn't credited but she is listed on the official track listing. :) Burna Boy also featured on the remix of Mabel's song Finder Keepers (along with Kojo Funds and Don-E) from her debut mixtape Ivy To Roses . Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0faQ2HXwV-U Want more Burna Boy and/or Mabel? Check out these links: Burna Boy- On The Low: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/weekly-music-video_9.html Mabel: One Shot: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/09/weekly-music-video_12.html One Shot remix:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/weekly-music-video_26.html Includes Don't Call Me Up: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/02/new-music-for-2019-western.html Plus: Vote ...

Time for the first C-pop Saturday of the year! I started it last April and planned to make it a regular feature, but only ended up doing it 3 times. Never mind, I can do better this year! lol. Lexie Liu- Nada First up is Nada by Lexie Liu . It's a mixture of Chinese (Mandarin, I think) and English Nada is the Spanish for "Nothing" and is about Lexie "taking over the world like it's nada". It was uploaded to YouTube on 18th December and is from her new EP 2030, which was released on 1st February. Lexie Liu feat KILLY- Outta Time Here's another one from Lexie. This song is called Outta Time and features Canadian rapper KILLY . It's also from 2030 and was uploaded on 1st Feb, the same day as the EP came out. Both songs have an R'n'B/hip hop vibe. Listen to 2030 on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/70vO4w3jAucW4yacH22RAy Fei feat Jackson Wang- Hello This is Hello by Fei (full name Wang Feifei), a former me...

This week's video is Born Again by American singer Tiffany Young .  Her real name is Stephanie Young Hwang, she's Korean American and is probably best known as a member of K-pop girl group Girls' Generation (and the sub group TTS ). She made her solo debut in May 2016 with the EP I Just Wanna Dance and single of the same name. She went on to release 5 more singles- Heartbreak Hotel featuring Korean rapper Simon Dominic , Remember Me (from the 2017 film Coco ), Over My Skin, Teach You, Peppermint and Born Again. Born Again is the first single from Tiffany's upcoming 2nd EP Lips on Lips, due for release on 22nd Febuary. (While Born Again is in English, I Just Wanna Dance is a mix of Korean and English, so not sure if Lips on Lips will be similar).  It came out on 25th January. For more on Tiffany visit these links: Official site: https://tiffanyyoung.com/ Official FB:  https://www.facebook.com/Tiffanyyoungofficial/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiffa...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I planned to do it yesterday but wasn't feeling well. :) I've been doing a series of posts about new music for 2019. I previously featured new J-pop and new K-pop. You can see these posts here: J-pop: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-music-for-2019-j-pop.html K-pop:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-music-for-2019-k-pop.html We're mow two months into the new year but there's more music to cover, so today I'm focusing on new Western releases (UK, America etc.) ZAYN- Satisfaction British singer ZAYN or Zayn (full name Zayn Mailk)'s new video for Satisfaction was released on YouTube on 9th January. It's from his new album Icarus Falls. Read more about the story behind the video here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/zayn-malik-satisfaction-video-watch-777015/ And visit this post for more songs from Icarus Falls: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-zayn-a...