Star Sparkle Blog

This week's video is Rolling Stone by British rapper and singer B Young and featuring Ghanaian singer King Promise . It's B Young's latest single and the video premiered on 27th September. His debut album Differences was released last year but this is a "stand alone" single, not from the album.     B Young fan? Check out these posts: Music video for Differences, the title track from the album: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/04/weekly-music-video_27.html My Summer Vibes post which includes his previous single OCEAN feat. BNXN (I'm already missing summer!): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/07/summer-vibes.html   And for more from King Promise, visit these links:   His official site:  https://www.iamkingpromise.com/ Video for Dabebi feat. King Promise and Maleek Berry:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/weekly-music-video.html

Last December I shared a live performance by American singer JoJo . She sang Worst (I Assume) a single from her EP trying not to think about it (written all in lower case), which was released last October. And in January this year she uploaded another live video, this time a performance of Spiral SZN, also from the EP. I featured it as a Weekly Music video. You can see the posts below:  Live performance of Worst (I Assume) https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/12/jojo-live-performance.html   Live performance of SpiralSZN live https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/01/weekly.html   This month JoJo did a couple of new live performances, so I'm sharing them today. :)   Spiral SZN  First up is another performance of Spiral SZN. It's a stripped-down version with two backing singers and a guitarist. The video was uploaded on 6th September. Feel Alright And here is a live performance of Feel Alright, another song from trying not to think about it . The softer backing gives it a diffe

Today's video is Imdat by Turkish Dutch rapper Murda and Turkish Belgian singer Hadise . Murda's real name is Önder Doğan. He has Turkish heritage and is from the Netherlands.  Murda started out making music in Holland but his career really took off after her started making Turkish songs. He has released many singles and EPs and brought out his first studio album, the Dutch language We Doen Ons Best ("We Do Our Best" in English) in May 2016. In October the following year he collaborated with BangBros (a Dutch group, not to be confused with the American p**n site!) and Dutch rapper Hef on the album Bruin Brood. In 2019 and 2020 Murda released the Turkish language albums BABA and DOĞA. In August 2020 he released a joint album with Turkish rapper Ezhel   called Made in Turkey.  For Imdat he teamed up with Hadise Açıkgöz (my favourite Turkish singer!), who is from Belgium and has Turkish parents. She represented Turkey in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contes t with Dum Tek

American reality show Teen Mom (a spin-off of the TV series 16 and Pregnant which followed pregnant teenagers) first began in late 2009. I'm a long-time fan who also watched 16 and Pregnant, and has watched Teen Mom and its sister show Teen Mom 2 over the years. Both programmes featured 4 girls from 16 and Pregnant. Now both Teen Mom (later renamed Teen Mom OG aka Original Girls) and Teen Mom 2 have been combined into one show called Teen Mom: The Next Chapter (Teen Mom Legacy was a working title at one point). News of the "mega-show" began circulating earlier this year and then the new series premiered in the US on 6th September. It starts in the UK next week, so today I'm taking a look at the show. The Next Chapter features girls (or women now!) from both programmes- Maci Bookout (now also known as Maci Bookout McKinney), Amber Portwood, Catelyn Lowell (Baltierra) and Ashley Jones from TM OG, and Leah Messer, Briana DeJesus, Cheyenne Floyd and Jade Cline from TM

Today's video is J'élimine by French singer Ronisia . It's her latest single and was released on 26th August.  J'élimine is a French language song and the title translates as "I eliminate" in English.  Ronisia fan? Check out these posts:  Music video for her single Désolée (2019): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/06/weekly-music-video.html Toxic (released last year): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/weekly-music-video_21.html     P.S . If you 're in France (or able to travel there), you can see her in concert in Bordeaux on 29th September and Paris on 2nd October. Visit this link to buy a ticket:  https://web.digitick.com/ext/billetterie5/?site=ronisia

Last week I wrote a post featuring Korean girl group BLACKPINK's performance at the recent 2022 MTV Video Music Awards. You can read it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/09/2022-vma-performances-blackpink.html In this week's follow-up post I'm sharing performances from Jack Harlow, (who was a co-host of the show along with LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj ) and Fergie, and Brazilian singer Anitta.   Update 10/9/23: As I said in the BLACKPINK post, they've made the previous year's performance videos private, which is really annoying! I will update this with what videos I can find. Jack Harlow feat Fergie- First Class American rapper and VMA co-host Jack Harlow opened the show by performing his latest single First Class, joined by Fergie , the singer of Glamorous, which First Class samples.  Jack (full name Jackman Thomas Harlow) started out by making mixtapes while still in high school and self-released his first, Extra Credit in June 2011.  He went on to r

Today's video is WHISPER by Korean boy band THE BOYZ . It's from their 7th mini album BE AWARE, which was released on 16th August.  WHISPER is the second single from the mini album, following Timeless (released on 8th August). It came out on the same days as BE AWARE. The lyrics were co-written by members Sunwoo (who is currently on hiatus due to health issues ) and Jacob (who co-presented the music show Simply K-pop with fellow member Kevin from 2018 until earlier this year),  as well as the lyricist Jo Yoon-kyung. Eric also went on hiatus in March. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)     Also check out the music video for Timeless here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6h63H_MevE And visit this post for the video for SHE'S THE BOSS, THE BOYZ' latest Japanese single (scroll down):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/05/newish-k-pop-and-j-pop-videos.html

Last week was the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards , held live at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey in the US. The show was hosted by LL Cool J (one of my favourite rappers !), Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow .  While the awards took place on Sunday 28th August, the show wasn't broadcast in the UK until the following day (I think because of the time difference). I watched some of the show but missed the start, so I'm catching up on performances on YouTube. I'm going to share a few performances from the show, starting with BLACKPINK in this post. :)  BLACKPINK- Pink Venom Korean girl group BLACKPINK performed their new single Pink Venom live on the night. Due to the rise in popularity of Korean music , there is now a K-pop category in the VMAS! This year BLACKPINK member Lisa won Best Kop for her 2019 single LALISA. BLACKPINK was formed by YG Entertainment , with the search for a new girl group starting in 2011. The final group debuted in 2016 and consists of 4 members- J