Star Sparkle Blog

We're slightly more than halfway through the year already, which feels a bit strange! I've done several dances video posts during the first half of 2022, so today I'm sharing a round-up of them. And also, a video I haven't previously featured. :)  C-pop in Public (dances to Chinese music in public): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/01/c-pop-in-public-dances.html Dance Videos (first general dance videos post of the year- includes African, K-pop and belly dance):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/dance-videos.html Afropop and K-pop Dance Tutorials:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/03/afropop-and-k-pop-dance-tutorials.html African Dance Videos: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/05/african-dance-videos.html World Dance- Asian: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/06/world-dance-asian.html K-pop in Public Dances (2022):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/06/k-pop-in-public-dances-2022.html Dance Videos (2nd general dance video featuring ...

Today's video is Suéltame, the new single by American singer Christina Aguilera (one of my favourite singers) and featuring Argentinian singer TINI . It's from Christina's latest album, the Spanish language Aguilera. Aguilera is Christina's second Spanish album and was released on 30th May. It's a trilogy- a combination of the EPs La Fuerza ("The Strength" in English) which was released in January, La Tormenta (The Storm) which came out a day before Aguilera and the upcoming La Luz  (The Light), due out later this year.  La Fuerza is about female empowerment and independence, La Tormenta is about heartbreak and vulnerability, and La Luz is said to be about healing and Christina's difficult relationship with her father, who is Ecuadorian.   Suéltame (which translates as "Let Go" in English) is the lead single from La Tormenta. It was released on 30th May and the video premiered on 22nd July. Read more about Aguilera here: https://oceandriv...

Summer is in full swing now (especially after the heatwave this past week), so today I'm sharing some summer vibes! For the past couple of years, I've featured round-ups of summer themed songs on the blog. You can see them below: Summer Songs Round-up: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/06/summer-songs-round-up.html Summer Songs Round-up 2020-2021:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/07/summer-songs-round-up-2020-2021.html   And now here are a few more songs with summer vibes! :)    thuy feat. P-Lo- inhibitions inhibitions by American singer thuy (both song title and thuy's name are stylised in lower case) and featuring rapper P-lo was released back in April. I featured it as a Weekly Music Video in May and the video made me think of summer, so I'm including it in this post.  Watch it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/05/weekly-music-video_18.html   Pérola- Sincera Angolan singer Pérola 's latest single Sincera (released in April) also g...

This week's video is AM/PM by Kosovar singer KIDA and German born Albanian singer Butrint Imeri . KIDA's real name is Orhidea Latifi and she made her debut with the single Murder back in 2014. Her most successful singles to date include Ti,  Paranoia (featuring rapper Mozzik ), Pishmon (also featuring Mozzik) and Lila. KIDA released her debut album Orchide last December. She and Butrint have previously worked together on the 2021 single Dale, along with Ledri Vula . For more on Butrint, click on his name above or see the post linked below. AM and PM are two singles (Albanian language) and the video combines them both. It premiered on 2nd July.  Which is your favourite? For me it's PM. :)   For more on Kida visit these links:  Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAHVxL9FG3Sp8ltQtLEy_oA Official Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/kida/   And visit this post to watch the music video for Butrint's single M'ke rrejit  and read mor...

It's been a while since I've done a general dance videos post, so today I'm sharing a couple of videos featuring dances from different genres. :)   Happy Feet Legwork/Butterfly Legwork Dance Tutorial- ItsJustNife (Chop Daily) First up is some African dance. This a tutorial for the dance steps known as butterfly legwork or happy feet legwork, which originated in Nigeria. The teacher is Nifè (known as ItsJustNife online), who is from the UK. This is a simple tutorial that explains the steps well. The video is from last August and features on the YouTube channel Chop Daily. For more Afro dance videos check out Chop Daily: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChopDaily/ And follow Nifè here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJPnNk5-44bX6YhIcti1KPw/   Visit my World Dance- African post to see more African dance videos, including poco and legwork tutorials: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/09/world-dance-african.html   (KPOP IN PUBLIC) B.I. X Soulja Boy- BTBT feat. DeVita- LUMINANCE...

This week's video is Gas Me Up by Shaima. She is a singer-songwriter from London who is half English and half Asian. Her music explores her mixed background and she describes it as "pop with some chilli powder on it!". Shaima started out in the music industry aged 14. Her favourite types of music are pop, hip hop and R'n'B and she also uses traditional like the sitar , Arabic flute and tabla (Indian drums). Her other songs include Outsider and Rocky Road, and her debut EP UNVEILED is out now. I see on Shaima's social media that she just had a baby two months ago. Congratulations! 💓 Gas Me Up is an upbeat pop song with some Indian and Arabic beats. The video came out last September.   Stream and download UNVEILED here: https://shaima.lnk.to/UNVEILED   And for more on Shaima visit these links: Official site: https://www.shaimamusic.com/ FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ShaimaMusic/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaima/

Two weeks ago, I did a post about Asian boy bands. It ended up getting too long, so I planned to split it into two parts. Part 1 features Chinese, Japanese and Korean boy bands. You can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/06/asian-boy-bands-part-1.html Here is Part 2! This one features more Korean groups and "crossover" boy bands (i.e. Japanese/Korean). :)    C-pop/J-pop     WARPs Up WARPs Up is a collective boy group originally consisting of 5 members from Japan and China. However, SHO RI left in late 2020, so they are now a 4-piece. They debuted in December 2019 with the Chinese single Rock Tonight (and a Japanese version) and were originally known as WARPs. Almost a year later they released the English and Chinese language single Hali Gali. According to Japanese Music Wiki , RIKIMARU (real name Chikada Rikamaru) and SANTA (Uno Santa are inactive until next year (I'm not sure why), so WARPS Up is currently a duo. The two current active members are L...

This week's video is Sincera, the latest single by Angolan singer Pérola . It came out in April. Sincera is a Portuguese language song and the title means "sincere" in English. The video features Pérola and her lover on a boat, and it's giving me summer vibes! :)     Want more Angolan/Portuguese music? Check out these links: Pérola- Falo Do Que Quiseres (2011): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/09/weekly-music-video.html Pérola- Eu Espero (2016): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/01/weekly-music-video_18.html Anitta- Bang (Brazilian):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/07/weekly-music-video.html Chelsy & Nsoki- Vou Arriscar (Angolan/Portuguese): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/06/weekly-music-video.html  

I was planning to do my 2nd Asian Boy Bands post this week (the follow on to last week's Asian Boy Bands- Part 1 ). However, I've got quite a busy weekend with doing a dance workshop and I also need to write a post on my seasonal living blog , so I think it will have to be next week instead! Or maybe I'll space it out a bit more and post it in a couple of weeks. :) So for today's post I'm sharing a couple of new K-pop videos. :)   KARD- Ring The Alarm First up is the Ring The Alarm, the comeback single by mixed gender/co-ed group KARD (sometimes written as K.A.R.D). It's the title track from their 5th mini album Re, their first release since 2020's Way with Words (their debut single album). Both Ring The Alarm and Re were released on 22nd June. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube to see English subtitles! :)   For more music by KARD, visit these posts: Post about their debut mini album Hola Hola (2017):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/...