Star Sparkle Blog

This week's video is How We Do It by Jamaican dancehall rapper and singer Sean Paul and featuring Pia Mia . Sean (full name Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques has had an almost 30-year career starting out in the music business in 1994,  although he didn't release music until later. His hit songs include Get Busy, We Be Burnin and Temperature. He released his debut album Stage One in March 2000 and to date has brought out 6 more, including Dutty Rock (2002), The Trinity (2005) and his latest, Live N Livin (2021). He also brought oy the EP Mad Love the Prequel in 2018. Sean has worked with many other artists, including Beyoncé on her single Baby Boy, American singer Blu Cantrell on hit single Breathe, Rihanna on the song Break It Off,  Beyoncé 's fellow Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland on How Deep Is Your Love, British singer Dua Lipa for his single No Lie, and Clean Bandit and Anne Marie on the song Rock a Bye. He teamed up with Guam born singer Pia Mia  for How We...

Occasionally I feature live music performances on Star Sparkle. And of course, every year there is the Eurovision Song Contest which I'm a fan of, so I share more live music then. I'm looking forward to the 2022 contest in May! Today I'm doing a round-up of live performance posts on the blog, plus sharing a new video. :) Dutch band Within Temptation performing Candles and Memories from their Elements concert in 2012 (I saw it in 2015):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/07/within-tempation-concert.html American singer Justine Skye performs We from her 3rd album Space and Time, released last year (Vevo live performance): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/06/weekly-music-video_30.html Ariana Grande performing songs from her latest album Positions (2021):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/ariana-grande-live-performances.html Jennifer Lopez performing classics such as If You Had My Love, All I Have and I'm Real remix at last September's Global Aid Ci...

This week's video is LOVE ME LIKE by Korean boyband OMEGA X . They are an 11-member group who debuted in June last year. The members are Jaehan (full name Kim Jae Han), Hwichan (Lee Hwi Chan), Sebin (Jang Se Bin), Hangyeom (Song Hang Yeom), Tadong (Kim Tae Dong), Xen (real name Lee Jin Woo), Jehyun (Moon Je Hyun), Kevin (real name Park Jin Woo), Junghoon (Han Jeong Hoon), Hyuk (Yang Hyuk) and Yechan (Shin Ye Chan). *All of them have previously been on K-pop survival shows or in other groups. OMEGA X released their debut mini album VAMOS and single of the same name on 30th June 2021, following it up with their first single album WHAT'S GOIN' ON and the title track in September. Their second mini album LOVE ME LIKE came out on 5th January and so far, two singles have been released- lead single LOVE ME LIKE and LIAR. The mini album title track LOVE ME LIKE was also released on 5th Jan. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :) Watch the v...

Here is some dance inspiration for your Saturday/your weekend  (it may be Sunday depending where you live!). Today I'm sharing a couple of videos from African/Afropop and Korean/K-pop dance teachers. :)  BUTTERFLY LEGWORK TUTORIAL|HOW TO DANCE- Presh Okosi First up is a legwork tutorial by Nigeran dancer and teacher Presh Okosi . It's a dance called the butterfly legwork from Nigeria.  The video is from last June and Presh hasn't posted since. She mentions in the video that she hadn't posted for a long time before that after losing her mum, so I hope she's doing ok. :) For more videos by Presh, visit my World Dance- African post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/world-dance-african.html TIPS ON HOW I LEARN K-POP DANCES- Innah Bee And next is a video from Innah Bee with tips on how she learns K-pop dances. Innah is a dancer and dance teacher from the Philippines who mainly does K-pop dance covers. She also covered O SAKI SAKI from the Bollywood film Batla ...

Today's video is Jala Jala Jalapaatham from the 2021 Tollywood (Telugu language Indian film industry) film Uppena . The movie is about the love story between fisherman Aasirvadham, known as "Aasi" (played by Panja Vaisshnav Tej , also known as Vaisshnav ) and Sanjeetha aka "Bebbamma" ( Krithi Shetty ), daughter of the village head. The couple face opposition to their romance, due to Bebbamma's father Raayanam ( Vijay Sethupathi ) objecting to Aasi being a different caste .  The music video for Jala Jala Jalapaatham was released in March last year. The playback singers are Jazpreet Jasz and Shreya Ghoshal , both of whom also sing for Bollywood films.   Interesting info: Uppena was the debut film for both the lead actors Vaisshnav and Krithi (although Vaisshnav did a bit of acting as a child). Vaisshnav is the nephew of Tollywood/South Indian film star Chiranjeevi .   Watch the trailer for Uppena here (English subtitles available!):  https://www.youtube.com...

Trigger warning: Most of the films are based on crimes (often murder or abuse) and I realise these are difficult subjects, so read with caution if you're sensitive to these types of films, or feel you may be triggered. I've tried to avoid spoilers in this post. :)   It's been a long time since I've done a true movies post on the blog (nearly 2 years ago), so today I thought I would do a round-up, plus share a couple of ones not featured before! :) I've previously written 4 posts about true movies (films based on true stories), here are the links: Top 10 True Movies: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/05/top-10-true-movies.html More True Movies:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/07/more-true-movies.html And More True Movies!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/04/and-more-true-movies.html Selection of True Movies:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/04/selection-of-true-movies.html     My Son Johnny (1991) 17-year-old Anthony Co...

This week's video is Attention by Canadian singer Justin Bieber and Nigerian singer and producer Omah Lay . Omah (real name Stanley Omah Didia) is probably best known for his hit song Bad Influence , released in 2020. Attention is an Afrobeats pop/R'n'B song and came out on 4th March.     Justin fan? Check out these posts: Videos from Purpose (2015): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/11/justin-bieber-videos.html Music video for Monster, his 2020 collab with fellow Canadian singer Shawn Mendes:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/11/weekly-music-video_25.html Stay, his 2021 single with Australian singer The Kid LAROI: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/07/weekly-music-video_14.html   Features Don't Go, where Justin teamed up with Skrillex and Don Toliver (2021):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/new-music-releases.html   And follow Omah Lay at these links: Official FB: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOmahLay    Instagram:...

About a year ago I did a round-up of Asian music I'd previously featured on Star Sparkle. It includes links to my earlier posts Asian Music- J-pop, K-pop and Beyond (from 2017) and Asian Music- Part 2 (2019).  You can read the round-up post here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/asian-music-round-up.html Since then, I've continued to share music from various Asian genres (including K-pop, J-pop, C-pop and Vietnamese music), so here is a follow-up post. :)   Note: I also like Bollywood /Hindi music but as with the past posts, I'm going to stick to East Asian music here. For some Bollywood and more Indian music, see the bottom of the post.   C-pop As I've mentioned before, Japanese and Korean pop are my favourite Asian music genres, but I also enjoy listening to Chinese pop. In 2018 I started a "semi-regular" feature called C-pop Saturday. You can find links to the C-pop Saturday posts from 2018 and up to Sept 2019 in the Asian Music- Part 2 post ...

Today's video is Bloody Samaritan by Nigerian singer Ayra Starr . Her real name is Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe and she was born in Benin to Nigerian parents, growing up in both Benin and Nigeria. Ayra started out as a model before moving into music, covering songs. After posting her own song to Instagram she was discovered by Nigerian record producer and singer Don Jazzy and signed to his label Mavin Records.  In January 2021 Ayra released her self-titled debut EP, followed by her debut album 19 & Dangerous in August. Her singles include Away, DITR, Sare, Bloody Samaritan and Beggie Beggie featuring CKay . Ayra's music style includes Afropop and R'n'B influences and she sings in a mixture of English, Pidgin and Yoruba .  Bloody Samaritan is the lead single from 19 & Dangerous and came out last July. It's about pursuing your dreams despite the negativity of others.   Check out the video for her latest single Beggie Beggie (with CKay) here: https://www.youtu...