Star Sparkle Blog

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...

This week's video is Love Like This by American singer Nija . It's her latest single and was released in July. Love Like This is a laidback R'n'B love song. This is the official audio. And here's the official lyric video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRqddONzV_o     Visit this post to see the visualiser video for Nija's single Beautiful Lies, from her debut EP Don't Say I Didn't Warn You:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/06/weekly-music-video_15.html  

Almost a year ago I did a post called J-pop in Public Dances which featured dance covers of Japanese songs performed in public places. K-pop in Public (dance covers of Korean songs) are very popular but there don't seem to be as many Japanese ones (which is probably because J-pop has not become as global as K-pop). I have also featured C-pop (Chinese pop) in Public dances too.  You can see the first J-pop in Public post here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/11/j-pop-in-public-dances.html Today I'm sharing some more J-pop in Public videos. :)   [2X2X original song] Glorious First up is a dance by Japanese boys group 2X2X , which is made up of 5 members- IORI, II, RYUKU, MASAHIRO and TAKERU. While they often cover K-pop and J-pop groups' dances (plus do vocal covers), this dance is to their own original song Glorious! :) The video was uploaded in May. For more dances by 2X2X, visit the first J-pop in Public Dances post and my World Dances Asian post (scroll to the bot...

Today's video is Manike from the upcoming Bollywood film Thank God . The movie is a fantasy comedy and is about estate agent Aayan Kapoor ( Sidharth Malhotra ) who has a car accident and is transported to an in-between realm, where he meets the Hindi deity Chitragupta (played by veteran actor Ajay Devgn ).  Aayan is told by Chitragupta (who is tasked with keeping score of human beings' sins) that he has to play the "Game of Life" which will determine if he will go back to earth or be sent to hell. All his actions to date will now be evaluated. I hope I have got this right; I'm not Hindu so I hadn't heard of Chitragupta but the concept of sins and an in-between place like purgatory is similar to the ones in Christianity. The plot does actually sound similar to a Western film :)  Thank God is due for release on 25th October, a day after the Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival Diwali starts.  Manike is sung by Sri Lankan singer Yohani and Indian singers Jubin Nautiy...

I've previously written two posts featuring a round-up of Afropop (African popular music) posts on Star Sparkle, in 2019 and then in 2021. You can see them at the links below: Afropop Round-up: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/afropop-round-up.html Afropop Round-up 2019-2021:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/06/afropop-round-up-2019-2021.html     The 2nd post was written in September last year, so today I'm doing a new round-up of Afropop posts featured since then. :)  Tyla feat. Kooldrink- Getting Late (South African): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/10/weekly-music-video_20.html Ethiopian and Eritrean Videos (not strictly Afropop but I thought I'd include it!):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/11/ethopian-and-eritrean-videos.html Nabila- Ça Ira (Cameroonian):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/01/weekly-music-video_26.html B Young feat. Tayc- So Distant (British/Cameroonian French), also feature a BANKS song: https://sta...

This week's video is girls like me don't cry by American singer thuy . (The song title is stylised in lower case, like thuy's name.) It's the lead single from her new EP of the same name , (the follow up to 2021's i hope u see this ), which was released on 6th October. It also features previously released singles trust with Australian singer RINI and playing tricks . girls like me don't cry is about struggling to show emotion during a tough time, but finding relief when you let all your feelings out. Growing up thuy was nicknamed "Crybaby" by her uncle but the message of the song is that women (or anyone) can cry and still be strong. Check out the description on YouTube to read more about the story behind the song and to see the lyrics. :) I do believe it's important to feel our emotions, in fact I've written a series about it over on my spriitual/self-help blog Falling Petals! girls like me don't cry is a R'n'B song which also...

It's been a while since I did a K-pop in Public post, so today I'm sharing some new Korean music dance covers. This is the BLACKPINK edition! :)   [K-POP IN PUBLIC] [ONE TAKE] BLACKPINK X PUBG MOBILE- Ready for Love- LUMNINANCE First up is a K-pop cover from this summer- Russian dance group LUMINANCE's version of BLACKPINK's Ready For Love (a collaboration with mobile video game PUBG MOBILE which Turkish Belgian singer Hadise also teamed up with last year!), which was released in July. The dancers are Dinara, Polly, Nata and Mint. It's a one take video (shot all in one go) and it premiered on 15th August.    Watch the Ready For Love music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WyHtSlvHD4   And visit this post for more from LUMINANCE (features a cover of POP! by NAYEON from girl group TWICE, plus a link to their collab with MON_STA, dancing to B.I's BTBT): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/07/dance-videos-round-up-2022-part-1.html [KPOP IN PUBLIC N...

Today's video is Nothing Even Matters by American singer SiR . His full name is Sir Darryl Farris and he comes from a musical family, with his mum and uncle being involved in the music business. SiR has a degree in recording arts and started out as songwriter, later releasing his first mixtape Wooden Voodoo in September 2012. In July 2015 he released his debut album Seven Sundays through an independent record label and went on to sign to Top Dawg Entertainment in early 2017. In addition to Wooden Voodoo and Second Sunday, SiR has brought out the 2014 mixtape Long Live Dilla; two EPS, HER (2016) and HER TOO (2017); and two more albums November (2018) and Chasing Summer (2019). He was worked with several other artists, including American rapper Anderson .Paak and rapper/singer Kendrick Lamar .  SiR's music is R'n'B/soul and his singles include Hair Down with Kendrick, Rapper Weed featuring Boogie , Satisfaction and Life Is Good featuring British rapper Scribz Riley . Noth...

My favourite singer Mariah Carey recently released a 25th anniversary edition of her 6th studio album Butterfly. The original album was released on 16th September 1997 and featured songs such as her hit single Honey, The Roof and My All. It was actually the first album I ever bought (on cassette tape, lol) and I still consider it one of my fave MC albums. :) Butterfly was the first album that Mariah had more control over and it is R'n'B, rather than the pop (and later pop/R'n'B) of her previous releases. It also has pop and hip hop influences. The expanded edition contain 8 extra tracks (the original standard edition has 12)- a duet version of Whenever You Call with Brian McKnight , a new take on The Roof featuring Brandy , live versions of Butterfly and My All, acapella versions of Fourth of July and Outside, an Amorphous Anniversary Club Mix of Butterfly (with DJ Amorphous ) and a remix of Honey (Another Taste of Honey David Morales Mix). I had previously heard the D...