Star Sparkle Blog

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Or that you enjoyed another festival if you celebrated one. :) This week's video is Where You Been Hiding by British singer Sinead Harnett . It's the first single from the deluxe version of her latest album Ready is Always Too Late, which came out in May. The deluxe version is due for release early next year.  The video premiered on 3rd December.   Visit this post for the music video for Distraction, my favourite song from Ready is Always Too Late: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/weekly-music-video.html   This may be the final post of the year. I'm going to do a Best of 2021 but I'm also working on an end of year post on my spiritual/self-help blog Falling Petals ,  so I might not be able to finish the Best Of before the end of the year.  Thank you for visiting the blog this year. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and good start to 2022! :)

It's only 3 days tills Christmas (!!), so this week's video is Christmas themed again. :)  This is Christmas Eve by Canadian singer Justin Bieber . It's the title track from the new visual album Christmas Eve, which was created in honour of the 10th anniversary of Justin's debut Christmas album Under The Mistletoe.  Christmas Eve is a romantic song about spending the day with the person you love. This is the official lyric video, uploaded on 14th December. Check out the full playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1LVouBkBMY&list=PLsifFPg4DahKxuAQ7JiWSucnx9Q4pl5Ox   And here are a couple of videos of songs from Under The Mistletoe that I've previously posted:  All I Want for Christmas Is You (SuperFestive!), a new version of my favourite singer Mariah Carey's classic song: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/12/weekly-music-video_19.html Fa La La with Boyz II Men (posted on Christmas Eve 2014!): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/12/weekly-mus...

It's a week till Christmas today (seems to have come round quick again!), so this week's post is festive themed. :) Back in 2018 I wrote a post called Christmas Music, featuring previous posts with Christmas videos and sharing some songs not previously posted. You can see that here (heavy on Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande!): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-music.html For 2021 I'm sharing Christmas songs posted in the last 3 years, plus some new ones. :)   Hello! WM- Timing (2018 winter/Christmas collaboration by K-pop groups B1A4, OH MY GIRL and ONF): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/weekly-musi-video.html Christmas Songs 2019:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/12/christmas-songs-2019.html Christmas Songs for 2020: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/12/christmas-songs-for-2020.html Mariah Carey feat. Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson- Oh Santa! (2020 remix version):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/12/christmas-is-now-2-days-a...

Today's video is Christmas/winter themed since Christmas is coming and winter "officially" starts next week ! This is snowing in LA by Vietnamese American singer-songwriter thuy. Her full name is Thuy Tran (Thuy is pronounced "Twee" and stylised as thuy). Originally from the Bay Area in California, thuy moved to Los Angeles two years ago. She started her career by releasing the song Hands On Me which won radio station KMEL 106.1's Home Turf contest, back in 2015.  She moved to LA to pursue music full time and released chances (written in lower case) featuring DCMBR this March. Her other singles include universe, in my bag (described as a "bad b*tch anthem!) and  in my head. Her debut EP i hope u see this came out in October, along with the title single. snowing in la is a love song with a relaxed vibe about wanting to be with your partner during the Christmas/holiday season. It was released on 8th December. thuy says that she wanted the video to be ...

American singer JoJo has uploaded a video of her performing her single Worst (I Assume) live. The song is from her latest album trying not to think about it (written all in lower case).  Worst (I Assume) was released in August. The acoustic live performance video premiered on 8th December. Please note that the song contains some swearing. :)     Watch the Worst (I Assume) music video here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/weekly-music-video_26.html And listen to more songs from trying not think about it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/10/new-music-releases-pia-mia-and-jojo.html   Want more live music? Check out these posts: Justine Skye's live performance of We: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/06/weekly-music-video_30.html   Ariana Grande performing songs from her latest album Positions:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/ariana-grande-live-performances.html Jennifer Lopez performing classics such as If You Had My Lov...

This week's video is Lights Down by Australian singer Celina Sharma , Ghanaian dancehall singer Stonebwoy and British rapper Ivorian Doll . It's the lead single from Celina's debut EP CECE, which came out in October. Read more about CECE here: https://outnowmagazine.com/celina-sharma-cece/ Lights Down is a dancehall and reggae/poppy song. It was released on 15th October. Also check out the video for 24/7, Celina's collab with British singer Harris J , here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIFf9KLqzHw     Visit this post for more on Celina and her 2020 music video CHALO:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/02/weekly-music-video.html Follow Stonebwoy here:  https://www.facebook.com/stonebwoyburniton And keep up with Ivorian Doll here: https://www.ivoriandoll.com/        

We're almost at the end of the year, so I thought I'd share a round-up of dance video posts featured on the blog in 2021! I'm also featuring a couple of new ones today. :)  Dance Videos (features African, Western and K-pop dance): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/02/dance-videos.html Chinese Dance in Public: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/chinese-dance-in-public.html Dance Videos (featuring Western, K-pop and Bollywood): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/dance-videos.html K-pop in Public- Boys' Edition!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/05/k-pop-in-public-boys-edition.html V-pop (Vietnamese pop) in Public: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/06/v-pop-in-public.html Dance Videos (Mostly) Couples' Edition! (K-pop group dance and African, Korean/Western, Bollywood couple dances):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/07/dance-videos.html More K-pop in Public Dances:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/more-k-pop-in-public-danc...

Today's video is Bansuri from the new Bollywood film Hum Do Hamare Do . It's a comedy about entrepreneur Dhruv (played by Rajkummar Rao ) and social media star Anya ( Kriti Sanon ), who fall in love. Kriti tells Dhruv she only wants to marry a man who has a sweet family and a cute dog. There's one catch- Dhruv is an orphan. He sets out to find some "parents" to make a fake family, enabling him to marry the girl of his dreams! The movie premiered on Disney Hotstar on 29th October, just before Diwali . I've not seen it, but it looks funny. Bansuri was composed by duo Sachin-Jigar and the playback singers are Asees Kaur , IP Singh , Dev Negi and Madhubanti Bagchi . Asees and Dev also sang the new version of Deedar De , from last year's Chhalaang. The video was released on 15th October.      Find the lyrics with an English translation here:  https://lyricsraag.com/translation/bansuri-hum-do-hamare-do-kriti-sanon/ And watch the trailer here (English subtitl...

Time for a new instalment of my semi-regular series C-pop Saturday! This will probably be my last one of the year.:) Diana Wang- Make You Feel First up is Make You Feel by Dutch Chinese singer Diana Wang , a song with R'n'B vibes. It was released in August. Also check out the video for Diana's latest single Machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpdmHoTHilA Rainie Yang-INDULGING Here is INDULGING by Taiwanese singer Rainie Yang , who is also an actress and TV presenter. I think her full name is Yang Chen Lin (Yang is her surname/family name) and she is from Taipei. Rainie started out in the Taiwanese girl group 4 in Love in 2000 and was given the stage name Rainie. After the group disbanded, she moved into TV hosting and acting. In September 2005 Rainie released her debut solo album My Intuition (Chinese title Ai Mei), in Manadarin. To date she has released 11 more albums, including Meeting Love (2006), Not Yet a Woman (2008), Longing For (2011), Delete Reset Grow (2019)...

This week's video is On Call by American songwriter turned singer Nija . Her full name is Nija (pronounced "Nee-zjuh", I think) Charles, she was born in New Jersey and is now based in LA. Nija started her career by writing and co-writing songs for popular artists, including Beyoncé and Jay Z's Heard About Us and Love Happy, Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's Rain On Me, Cardi B 's I Do with SZA ,  Major Lazer and Anitta's Make It Hot , Mabel's Take It Home and Jackson Wang and Internet Money's Drive You Home.  In August she launched her own singing career with the single Ease My Mind (Come Over), which combines R'n'B and drill music . It was followed by Finesse in October. She is due to release a debut project this autumn. On Call is Nija's 3rd single which came out on 12th November. This is the offiicial visualizer (or visualiser!). Update 23/12/21: There is now a music video for On Call:     For more from Nija, follow her at these l...

Back in August, I wrote a post called Samples and Covers which featured original songs that had been sampled and the new/cover versions. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/samples-and-covers.html Today I'm featuring a few artists who recorded the same song, or at least a very similar version. Rather than covers of older and/or well-known songs, these singers (and one group!) released the songs around the same time, covering different markets.    Mila Mila from the Tollywood film Super/by Tata Young First up is Mila Mila, a song from the Tollywood (Indian Telugu language) film Super, which was released in July 2005. The playback singer is Anushka Manchanda (who is also an actress and has sung for Bollywood and Kollywood films too). Thai singer Tata Young also recorded a mostly English version of Mila Mila which featured on her 2006 album Temperature Rising. I featured them both in a Weekly Music Video post back in 2013: https://starsparklex.blogs...

This week's video is Highway by NOA. His full name is Kazama Noa (or Noa Kazama in Western terms) and he is a Japanese singer and songwriter who is trilingual  (in addition to Japanese, he speaks English and Korean). Aged 12, he was scouted by South Korean record company YG Entertainment and became their first ever Japanese trainee.  NOA made his debut with the release of digital single LIGHTS UP in January 2020. In June he brought out his 2nd digital single TAXI featuring Japanese record producer and DJ tofubeats , which was No. 1 on the Spotify viral chart in Thailand. This January he released his debut EP Too Young. His other singles include Don't Waste My Time and LET GO which features JEON WOONG of Korean group AB6IX . Highway is NOA's 3rd digital single and is Japanese language with some English lyrics. It came out on 10th October.  Find the lyrics and an English translation here: https://www.lyrical-nonsense.com/global/lyrics/noamusic/highway/   For more on NO...

In September I did a world dance post focusing on African dance. One of the categories I featured was Ethiopian dance. You can see that post here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/world-dance-african.html At the time I came across a couple of Ethiopian and Eritrean music videos. I thought it would be cool to share some music from those countries today. :)  Note: If you're unsure where it is, Eritrea is a country in East Africa and borders Ethiopia. Both countries are in a region called the Horn of Africa .   Yared Negu and Millen Hailu- BIRA-BIRO  First up is BIRA BIRO by Ethiopian singer Yared Negu and Eritrean singer Millen Hailu, which was released in June. I believe they are singing in Amharic and Birobiro means "Butterfly " in English.  Apologies if I'm wrong. Please let me know if you can translate the lyrics. :)     Follow Yared and Millen at the links below: Yared's official FB fan page: https://www.facebook.com/yarednegufan Official Inst...

Today's video is One of Dem Nights by Moneybagg Yo and featuring Jhené Aiko . Moneybagg Yo (real name DeMario DeWayne White Jr) is an American rapper who started out releasing mixtapes in 2012 ( From da Block 2 Da Booth in April and October 20th in October).   In November 2018 he released his debut studio album Reset. To date he has brought out 3 more albums- 43va Heartless (2019), Time Served (2020), and A Gangsta's Pain (released this April). A deluxe version of his latest album called A Gangsta's Pain: Reloaded, just came out on 22nd October. His singles include Dior featuring Gunna , All Dat with his ex-girlfriend Megan Thee Stallion , Wockesha, Scorpio, One of Dem Nights and Switches & Dracs with Lil Durk and EST Gee . For One of Dem Nights Moneybagg Yo teams up with singer Jhené. It's from his latest album A Gangsta's Pain/Reloaded and the video premiered in October.  Follow Moneybagg at these links: Official FB:  https://www.facebook.com/moneybaggyo I...

When I did my K-pop Music and Dance Round-up post in September I mentioned that I was going to have a look for some J-pop in Public videos. If you don't know, K-pop in Public is the title of videos featuring dance covers of K-pop songs. If you search on YouTube, you can find many videos listed.  J-pop in Public (dancing to Japanese songs) does not appear to be as popular, but I found a few that I'm sharing today! :) (J-POP IN PUBLIC JAPAN) (Daichi Miura) FEVER Dance Cover by 2X2X First up is a dance cover of Daichi Miura's 2015 song FEVER by 2X2X. They are a 5 member boys dance group from Japan who perform J-pop and K-pop covers. The members are IORI, II, RYUKU, MASAHIRO and TAKERU. The boys are performing in Shibuya (a district in Tokyo) and the video was uploaded in August.  Note: Avex videos (or ones containing their music) are blocked from being shown on third party applications. If you click on the video, you can watch it fine on YouTube. :)   Watch the FEVER musi...

Today's video is Mi Amor by German born, Kosovo-Albanian singer Dhurata Dora and featuring Albanian rapper and singer Noizy . While the title is Spanish ("My Love" in English), it is an Albanian language song.  Mi Amor was released in July.     You can find an English translation of the lyrics here:  https://letras-lyrics.com.br/2021SS/08/S21/Mi-Amor-Dhurata-Dora-Noizy-Lyrics-English-Translation-en-US.html   For more music by Dhurata Dora visit these posts: Music video for Jake Jake : https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/08/weekly-music-video_21.html Also here is a direct link to the Jake Jake video, since the original was removed from YouTube: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6n8msw Harrom video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/01/weekly-music-video_27.html     Find more Albanian music at the links below: Albanian Music feature: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/09/albanian-music.html Dy Zemra by Butrint Imeri and Nora Istrefi, p...

It's Hallowe'en in a couple of days (Sunday 31st October) so time for my annual post! Last year I did my 2nd Hallowe'en Round-up post. You can see both that and my first one from 2016 below:  Hallowe'en Faves + Round-up: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/10/halloween-faves-round-up.html Hallowe'en Round-up 2:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/10/halloween-round-up-2.html   This year I'm sharing some spooky music videos! :)  Shakedown- At Night Back on Hallowe'en 2012 (9 years ago now!!) I featured At Night by Swiss dance duo Shakedown as a Weekly Music video. The single was released in 2002. Watch it here https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2012/10/weekly-music-video_31.html   Red Velvet- RBB Next here is RBB (Really Bad Boy) by Korean girl group Red Velvet. This was a Weekly Music Video the day before Hallowe'en 2019: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/10/weekly-music-video_30.html     Nadiyon Paar (Let the Music Play/Play Again) from R...

This week's video is Em Đi Đâu by Vietnamese music producer and singer Machiot. His real name is Đỗ Minh Nghĩa (I think that Nghia is his first name, since Asian names are usually written with the surname/family name first). He started out in producing and then moved into being a vocalist, releasing EP Có Những Lúc ("There Are Times" in English, I think) in 2020. Em Đi Đâu is from Có Những Lúc and it was released in February last year. The song title translates in English as "Where Are You Going" (at least according to Google Translate!). I hope that this info is right, since I translated most of it from Vietnamese (using online translators)! :) Check out the video for Machiot's latest release Cô Đơn Vắt Vai here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAeeWt9lrKQ And you can listen to the EP here (Vietnamese language article):  https://billboardvn.vn/producer-machiot-chuyen-huong-lam-ca-si-phat-hanh-ep-dau-tay-co-nhung-luc/ Follow Machiot at these links: Offic...

Last month Jennifer Lopez (one of my favourite singers) took part in Global Citizen Live. It was a 24-hour music event that took place on 25th and 26th September, with the purpose of uniting the world to tackle climate change, eradicate poverty and provide vaccines to people who don't have access to them. Artists from around the world performed live. You can read more here: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/live/ Jennifer performed several songs, including If You Had My Love, Jenny from the Block,  All I Have with LL Cool J , I'm Real and Ain't it Funny with Ja Rule . Some of those songs were a real blast from the past, especially All I Have and I'm Real which feature my two favourite rappers! :) I didn't catch all of the performances at the time but the videos are on YouTube. Check out my faves below. If You Had My Love, Love Don't Cost a Thing, I'm Glad Medley First up is a medley of Jennifer's 1999 debut single If You Had My Love (my fave J.Lo song) wh...

This week's video is Getting Late by Tyla and featuring Kooldrink . Tyla Seethal is a 19-year-old South African model and singer who is coloured (South African mixed race) and has Mauritian, Indian, Zulu and Irish heritage . She started out in music by posting videos of herself singing on Instagram and then made her music debut with the single Getting Late. Her latest release is the song Overdue with DJ Lag and Kooldrink.  In addition to singing and modelling Tyla writes, paints, acts and dances. She has a big following on TikTok . Getting Late was released last year but the video came this January and went viral on YouTube. I actually only just saw it the other day on an African music programme on MTV Base. Tyla reminded me of Ariana Grande and I see she's been called the "South African Ariana"!  Tyla collaborated with producer Kooldrink on the song, which she describes as "fusion music". It's a mixture of pop, R'n'B and the South African gen...

Today I'm sharing a selection of Japanese and Korean videos! As with my 2020 J-pop videos post and this year's J-pop and K-pop post ,  I've titled it "New(ish) since there are a couple of songs that are older. :) G-EGG B team- Santa Monica (Japanese version) First up is Santa Monic by G-EGG . They are a Japanese/Korean boy group project. I came across this video a while ago and the group has just debuted in Korea, so they've now released a Korean version too.  G-EGG is short for Global Egg and was created by Jung Yoonhak , the leader of K-pop boyband SUPERNOVA .  They were put together with the intention of forming a final group and took part in the survival TV programme G-EGG. The final group is called NIK and consists of the top 11 members. There were 4 G-EGG teams- A, B, C and D. I won't list all the members but just the ones from the B team, since Santa Monica is their song. :)  B team was made up of 5 members (including a few who made it into NIK)- Gunmi...

Today's video is In The Dark by Swae Lee and featuring Jhené Aiko . Swae (real name Khalif Malik Ibn Shaman Brown) is one half of American hip duo Rae Sremmurd , along with his older brother Slim Jxmmi (Aaquil Iben Shamon Brown). The group name is "Ear Drummers" backwards (I never even noticed that!). They are probably best known for their 2016 hit single Black Beatles.   Swae has also branched out on his own, releasing solo music and collaborating with others, including rappers French Montana on Unforgettable and Post Malone with Sunflower from the 2018 Spider Man movie Into the Spider-Verse (also songs I like, especially Sunflower!). He released his debut solo album Swaecation in May 2018, as part of a triple album set. The rest of the set contains Rae Sremmurd's 3rd album SR3MM and Slim Jxmmi's Jxmtro.   Swae's 2nd album Human Nature has been expected to be released this year, although there's been  no update lately. His latest single is Ball Is Life ...

American singer Alina Baraz recently released a new EP. It's called Sunbeam and came out on 23rd September. I only actually found out about it the other week and was pleased to see she had new music out! :) Sunbeam (Alina's 4th EP) contains 4 tracks- If You Let Me, Between Us, Alone With You and I Could Imagine. Alone With You was released as a single in July. Since its full title is Sunbeam, part 1, I presume there is another instalment to come!   The EP is Alina's usual chilled R'n'B style, so if you like that, you'll enjoy the new songs. :) I bought Alone With You on iTunes when it came out and my other favourites are If You Let Me and I Could Imagine. I do like Between Us as well.  Here are the official lyric videos. They add to the overall feelings (vibes) of the songs.    If You Let Me  If You Let Me is about being the person someone else can confide in when they're struggling, if they're willing let you in. I love the "dreamy" vibe of t...

This week's video is in my toes (title written in lower case) by Australian singer Kimberly Chen . It's a romantic R'n'B slow jam and was recorded during the start of the pandemic. It's on the 2021 mini album WFH (short for Work From Home, I presume). I hope the info is right, I used Google Translate to translate it from Chinese! :)  While Taiwan based Kimberly often sings in Chinese (Mandarin), in my toes is an English language song. This is the official audio and was uploaded in June. Please note that the song contains swearing. :) Kimberly just released a new Chinese song last month, no biggie featuring Abin/Ng KiPin from the Taiwanese indie rock band EggplantEgg . Watch the music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCxqnUWOq9s

Two singers I like are releasing new music this month, so today I'm sharing music from Pia Mia and JoJo . :)  Please note that a couple of the songs contain explicit lyrics. :) Pia Mia First up is Guam born, LA based singer Pia Mia (full name Pia Mia Perez). Her new EP (her 3rd) My Side was released yesterday.  I didn't know it was coming out, so it was a nice surprise! Pia's last release was The Gift EP back in December 2017. The EP was released on Pia's own label Cherry Pie Records and contains 5 tracks- My Side, Only One, Active, 730 and Remember Me and is chilled R'n'B.  Read more about My Side here:  https://www.pmstudio.com/music/music.html?page=20210926-14968   730 Pia released the audio for 730 on 10th September. I featured it as a Weekly Music Video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/weekly-music.html   My Side This is the title track, a slow, reflective song about a relationship going wrong, due to your partner not listening to your side...