Star Sparkle Blog

I'm working on my annual Best Of post featuring the best of Star Sparkle Blog from this year. However, I won't be able to finish it before the end of the year, so I'm doing a post sharing my favourite songs from 2022 instead. I have an occasional feature called Current Favourite Songs and my last one was in February. You can see that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/current-favourite-songs.html They aren't always new songs though, just what I'm currently listening to. So here are my favourite songs from this year! :)     Sinead Harnett- Let Go Back in January, British singer Sinead Harnett released the single Let Go, which was from the deluxe version of her 2nd album studio Ready is Always Too Late. I featured it as a Weekly Music Video in February: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/weekly-music-video_23.html BANKS- Holding Back In April American singer BANKS released her 3rd album Serpentina . My favourite song from it is Holding Back, which...

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! Or if you celebrated another festival, I hope you enjoyed that one. :) Sorry there was no 2nd post last week, I'd been working on another Christmas music one but didn't manage to get it finished. I'll probably save it for next year! Today's video is Diamonds Only by Chinese group WayV , the first Chinese sub-unit of Korean boy band NCT . It's a song from their brand-new 4th mini album Phantom, which was just released today (28th December)! The Diamonds Only video was uploaded on 22nd December. Also check out the video for the title track Phantom, which premiered today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1NuPFnuvEc Listen to and download Phantom (the mini album) at this link:  https://wayv.lnk.to/Phantom   Visit this C-pop Saturday post for Miracle, WayV's single from a year ago: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/01/c-pop-saturday.html   P.S. For more WayV and other Asian boy bands, check out these posts: Asian Boy Bands- Pa...

It's only 4 (!!) days till Christmas, so today's video is festive themed! :) This is Christmas Time Again by American singer Ashanti . It's from Ashanti's Christmas, her 3rd studio and 1st Christmas album, which was released back in November 2003. It features a mix of classic Christmas covers and new (at the time) tracks co-written by Ashanti. She also released an holiday EP in December 2013, called A Wonderful Christmas with Ashanti. Christmas Time Again is an original song with a mellow R'n'B vibe. This is the visualiser. While the song isn't new, the video was uploaded to YouTube on 26th November.   Visit this YouTube playlist to listen to more songs from Ashanti's Christmas (plus watch a medley video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz8xxwKkN3g&list=OLAK5uy_mCGuY-WMnrbwE6fsyFP17Mg2rUVyDF_h0

It's just over a week till Christmas (the time seems to have gone quickly again!), so today's post is festive themed! Back in 2017 I wrote a post called K-pop Christmas! It wasn't actually about Christmas themed K-pop songs, just sharing the Korean music posts from that year (similar to 2015's Bollywood Boxing Day! ). You can read it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/k-pop-christmas.html However, since then I have featured several K-pop Christmas songs on the blog, so that's what I'm sharing today. Plus, a brand-new song! :)     GOT7- Miracle   In my 2018 Christmas Music post I featured Korean boy band GOT7's song Miracle. It was a single from their re-released 3rd studio album Present: YOU &ME, which came out in December that year. The video is Christmas/winter themed.  Visit the post to watch it (scroll down):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-music.html Or watch directly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtR...

This week's video is Pressure by Australian singer RINI . It's from his new EP Ultraviolet, which came out on 2nd December. Pressure is in RINI's usual laidback R'n'B style (good for helping you chill out! ) and the video also premiered on 2nd December.    Visit this link to listen to Ultraviolet: https://rini.lnk.to/Ultraviolet   And for more RINI check out these links: Music video for his 2020 single Out of the Blue:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/12/weekly-music-video_9.html Red Lights featuring American rapper Wale:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/weekly-music-video_22.html   trust with American singer thuy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w6tuJdZw0U

Back in July I did a round-up of dance video posts featured on Star Sparkle during the first half of the year. It's called Dance Videos Round-up 2022- Part 1 and you can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/07/dance-videos-round-up-2022-part-1.html Now we're in December and 2022 is nearly over (seems strange that it's already this time of year!), so here is Part 2. This post features the dance video posts from the second half of the year. There are less posts in this one, so I'm sharing a few new videos too. :)  K-pop in Public- BLACKPINK Dances: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/10/k-pop-in-public-blackpink.html More J-pop in Public Dances:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/10/more-j-pop-in-public-dances.html Dance Videos (features J-pop, Bollywood and African dances):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/11/dance-videos.html   Now for some new(ish) K-pop dance!   [KPOP IN PUBLIC CHALLENGE] BLACKPINK 'PINK VENOM'- Dance Cover by B.K...

Today's video is Patek by Mr Eazi and featuring DJ Tárico and Joey B . It's a pan-African song, since Mr Eazi is Nigerian, DJ Tárico is Mozambican and Joey B is Ghanaian. Mr Eazi is the founder of Banku Music (a mixture of Nigerian and Ghanian music) and set up emPawa Africa in 2019, which is an initiative/mentorship programme to support up and coming African artists. emPawa100 Artists and finalists include Joeboy (Nigerian) ,  Bey T and Karun (both Kenyan), and Michael Magow (Tanzanian). Patek is the first song of Mr Eazi's that is part of the South African amapiano genre and it's sung in a mixture of languages, including Pidgin (maybe Ghanaian Pidgin ?) and French. It was released on 3rd December.   For more music by Mr Eazi visit these posts: Video for his 2015 single Skintight with Efya: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/11/weekly-music-video_92.html Doyin with Simi from 2019 (my favourite song of his):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/weekly-m...

This summer I wrote two posts featuring Asian boy bands and I also did a post about Filipino groups . I enjoy discovering new Asian music, and so today I'm featuring two more Asian groups that I've come across recently- a boy band from the Philippines and a girl group from Indonesia. BGYO  (Filipino) First up is BGYO . They are a 5-member Filipino boy band, formed in 2018 by the media network ABS-CBN, through the Star Hunt Academy programme. Their name stands for B ecoming the change, G oing further, Y ou and I, O riginally Filipino (the first letter of each sentence forms the initial). Their sister group is girl band BINI , who I previously featured in my Filipino Groups post ! The members are leader Gelo (real name Angelo Troy Rivera), Akira (full name Akira Morishita), JL (John Lloyd Toreliza), Mikki (Michael Claver Jr) and Nate (Nathaniel Porcalla). They are all from the Philippines apart from Nate, who is American. Akira is Japanese and Filipino, and Mikki has Chinese her...

This week's video is 5AM by Kosovar (Kosovo Albanian) singer Era Istrefi and rapper Buta (real name Betim Januzaj, who is also from Kosovo. Buta is a well-known rapper who started releasing music in 2017 and has collaborated with several other rappers. He is known as the King of Albanian Trap . To date has released 5 EPs including Z. Ndjenja (2016), Dr Zhivago (2016) and his latest, Babayega' (2021), and two albums Pranvere/ Vere '17 (2017) which translates as "Spring/Summer" in English and Vjeshte/Dimer '18 (2018). Era (younger sister of Nora Istrefi ) is a popular singer whose career took off with the release of her 2015 single Bonbon. 5AM is the latest single for both Era and Buta, and was released on 10th November. It's an Albanian language song with the occasional English line.   For more music by Era visit these posts: Includes her hit single Bonbon: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/09/albanian-music.html The music video for last single TKRKT...

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the release of This is Me...Then, the 3rd studio album by Jennifer Lopez (one of my favourite singers). It came out on 25th November 2002. Can't believe it's been so long!  And Jennifer (also known by her nickname J.Lo) has just announced she will be releasing a new album called This Is Me... Now next year. It will be her first album since 2014's AKA (apart from the soundtrack to the recent film Marry Me ). This Is Me...Then includes songs such as the  lead single Jenny from the Block, which was a hit in many countries, All I Have featuring LL Cool J (one of my fave songs from the album) I'm Glad, Dear Ben (a tribute to actor to Ben Affleck who was Jennifer's boyfriend and later fiance at the time) and Baby, I Love U! In fact, the whole album was inspired by her relationship with Ben. It's strange to look back on it because she and Ben got back together and married this year, 20 years after they first got engaged! My t...

This week's video (or audio) is Middle Man by American singer Bazzi . It's from his latest album Infinite Dream, the follow up to his 2018 debut Cosmic. It was released on 16th September but I only just came across it on Spotify. 4 singles have been released from the album so far- I Like That, Will It Ever Feel The Same? and Heaven. Middle Man is my favourite song. I like its laidback vibes. :) To honest I haven't liked the singles as much, apart from I Like That. This is the official audio.   I also like dlma (which stands for Don't Leave Me Alone) with the band LANY . Future single maybe? Listen to that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRvsnkb7uBI Visit these links to listen to Infinite Dream:  Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/album/7CY2Iv5eX7eGAOdRNHfIBr YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Jh7a7oFhY&list=OLAK5uy_kOBrhULrfP0-T6IP4mULE6ex0NVegr4Do   Bazzi fan? Check out these posts: Video for the 2017 single Mine (the song that launched hi...

American singer Ashanti (who has been called the Princess of Hip Hop and R'n'B) recently released a new single called Falling For You. I used to listen to her music back when she first debuted in 2002. It's hard to believe that it was 20 years ago now! To celebrate 20 years of Ashanti's career, here's a look back at some of her past hits. :) I've had to split this up into two parts, since it was turning into a really long post. So, this is Part 1. :) Ashanti (full name Ashanti Douglas; she is named after the Ashanti Empire in Ghana) started out performing locally as a teenager and was also a child/teen extra. She got her first record deal aged 14 but it was several years before her career took off. She was eventually noticed by Irv Gotti , the boss of Murder Inc. Records (also known as The Inc. at one time), which launched the career of one of my favourite rappers, Ja Rule . She signed to Murder Inc. and sang backing vocals for other artists before being fea...

Today's video is superficial energy by Denise Julia. Her real name is Julia Denise Lee and she is a 20- year-old Filipina R'n'B singer and songwriter. Her career took off when her single NVMD (pronounced "Never Mind") went viral on TikTok , after its release in February. Denise, whose other songs include Pity Ya and Nobody, is inspired by the 90s R'n'B she grew up listening to, as well as music from the early 2000s and modern R'n'B. She has been compared to American singer Ariana Grande . superficial energy (written in lower case) was released in September and the video premiered on 7th Sept. It's a chilled R'n'B song with late 90s/early 00s vibes.   For more on Julia visit these links:   NYLON Manila feature: https://nylonmanila.com/denise-julia-filipina-musician-nvmd-ariana-grande/ Bandwagon Asia interview: https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/introducing-filipino-singer-songwriter-denise-julia-interview-nvmd-tiktok-release-music-vide...

It's been a while since I did a C-pop Saturday post (my last one was in the summer), so today I'm sharing another selection of Chinese music! :)   38- Flower by A-Lin First up is 38-Flower by Taiwanese singer A-Lin . Her real name is Lisang Pacidal Kouyan and she is an aboriginal singer of Amis descent. She started out in the music business in 2006, with her debut album Lovelorn, Not Guilty (English translation), released under Avex Taiwan. To date A-Lin has released 9 more albums, including Diva (2008), Happiness, And Then (2012), Guilt (2014), A-Lin (2017) and her latest LINK. She left Avex after several albums and signed to Sony Music in 2014. Her singles include Anti-Perfect, Passenger, I'm Not Sorry, Best Friend and 38-Flower.  Her music is a mixture of Mandopop (Mandarin language) and other genres such as rock and R'n'B. She has been compared to fellow Taiwanese aboriginal singer A-Mei . 38- Flower is from A-Lin's latest album LINK, which was relea...

Today's video is Baddie by Nigerian singer Yemi Alade . It's her latest single and came out on 28th October.  Baddie is an Afropop/Afrobeats song with some dancehall vibes. This is the official visualiser and it features the lyrics.  Update 6/12/22: There is now a music video for Baddie:    For more Yemi visit these links: Begging music video from this summer: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/08/weekly-music-video_10.html Video for Bubble It, her previous single featuring Jamaican singer Spice : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5mv9kFs_uc    African music fan? Check out my recent round-up post: Afropop Round-up 2021- 2022: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/10/afropop-round-up-2021-2022.html

It's been a while since I did a general dance videos post, so today I'm sharing some videos featuring dances from different genres, including Bollywood and Afropop. :)   [DANCE IN PUBLIC] XG- Tippy Toes- Dance Cover by Hustle  First up is a dance cover of Tippy Toes, the debut single by Japanese girl group XG ,  released in March. They are also considered a global group and their two singles so far have been in English, so that's why the video is listed as "Dance in Public" rather than J-pop in Public (although some videos are listed under J-pop). The cover is performed by Hustle, an all-girl dance crew from Melbourne, Australia that formed in 2015. They mostly do K-pop covers. The video was uploaded in July and the dancers are Natalie Lim, Kirstie Ho, Tran Le, Sarah Chua, Carmen Teoh, Nancy Sanjoto and Pearl Tasbur.     Watch the music video for Tippy Toes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bONJFH9A9A   For more on Hustle, visit these links:  Inst...

Today's video is Shut Down, the latest single by Korean girl group BLACKPINK . It's from their latest album BORN PINK which came out in September. Shut Down is sung in a mixture of Korean and English. It's the second single from the album, and both and single and album were released on 16th September.   Visit the official YouTube playlist to hear the rest of the songs from BORN PINK and watch previous music videos:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQlMMD8auMs&list=OLAK5uy_kg4p_YIox6P7lTzFXcr-4nnsanGQUNt74   BLACKPINK fan? Check out these posts:  2022 VMA Performances- BLACKPINK (features their performance of Pink Venom at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/09/2022-vma-performances-blackpink.html K-pop in Public Dances- BLACKPINK (features K-pop dance covers of Ready for Love, Pink Venom and Shut Down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/10/k-pop-in-public-blackpink.html

It's almost Halloween (or Hallowe'en, the alternative spelling which I like), so it's time for my yearly post! This year it's on Monday (31st October). I also celebrate the pagan festival Samhain on this date. I thought that for 2022, I would feature a selection of different videos and previous posts related to supernatural and scary subjects (similar to my past Hallowe'en Inspiration post )!   Ghosts  Films The Disappeared (2008) In my More Hallowe'en Films + TV post from 2017, I featured the British horror The Disappeared, which is about a teenage boy who believes he is being haunted by his little brother, who has disappeared but is thought to be dead. You can read more about it and see a trailer here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/10/more-halloween-films.html   Darling (2007) Darling is a Bollywood horror film about a man haunted by the ghost of his murdered mistress. I also featured it in the More Hallowe'en Films + TV post (scroll down): http...