Star Sparkle Blog

A couple of weeks ago I started a series of "mini posts" (or maybe a mini series) related to the Eurovision Song Contest . (I did the same last year as well ). You can see the first post below, which is about AleXa, the winner of the first American Song Contest (a Eurovision spin-off): Eurovision Countdown- ASC 2022 Winner AleXa:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/04/eurovision-countdown-asc-2022-winner.html Today I'm sharing an update on 2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak. He entered for Norway in 2009 (he was born in Belarus and moved to Norway as a child) with the song Fairytale and won the contest.  As well as being a singer, Alexander is also a violinist and pianist, and he played the violin in his performance of Fairytale. Visit this post to see him perform at the final (scroll down):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/05/eurovision-songs-i-like.html He also entered Eurovision again for Norway with That's How You Write a Song in 2018. I've prev

This week's video is True Colors by Jalisa Rey. She is an American singer with Puerto Rican heritage, whose music is inspired by her love for hip hop and R'n'B.  Jalisa released her first single U Ain't Sh*t last July and her other singles are True Colors and It Ain't Fair. Her music has been compared to that of singers such as Jhené Aiko , Kehlani , Kali Uchis  and Brent Faiyaz . Jalisa randomly came up on my YouTube feed and it's probably because I listen to most of these artists, so it recommended someone similar! (I don't know Brent Faiyaz but will check him out.) True Colors was released on 6th February. It's from Jalisa's debut EP So Personal, which came out on 8th March.  Visit this link to stream So Personal:  https://bio.site/Jalisarey And follow Jalisa at these links:  Official YouTube channel:  https://youtube.com/@jalisarey Official Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jalisa.rey/

Sorry that the 2nd post is later again this week, I'm a bit behind with things. Hope to get back to the normal schedule next week! :) In the past I've done several round-ups featuring Bollywood posts on Star Sparkle Blog. You can see them at the links below:  Bollywood Round-up 2018- Part 1:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/08/bollywood-round-up-2018-part-1.html Bollywood Round-up 2018- Part 2:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/bollywood-round-up-2018-part-2.html Bollywood Round-up 2019-2020:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/10/bollywood-round-up-2019-2020.html Since my last round-up was in 2020, today I'm doing a new one featuring the posts on the blog since then. :) Bollywood Playback Singers- Shreya Ghoshal:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/bollywood-playback-singers-shreya.html Nadiyion Paar from the 2021 film Roohi: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/weekly-music-video_31.html Deerdar Dee from Chhalaang (2020):  https://starspark

Today's music video is Fair by American singer Normani  (who started out as a member of girl group Fifth Harmony  before going solo). It came out last year but I've only just come across it.  Fair is an R'n'B song which was released in March 2022, as the 2nd single from Normani's (as yet unreleased) debut album. It was the follow up to lead single Wild Side, featuring rapper Cardi B .  The song has a smooth vibe and reminds me of  slightly older style R'n'B, maybe the mid 00s to 2010. I feel like  there isn't as much R'n'B being released these days and I miss it! This is an audio; I don't think there's an official music video.  Normani fan?   Check out these posts : Music video for Love Lies with Khalid (2018): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/04/weekly-music-video_18.html   Waves, her 2019 single with 6lack (my fave Normani song):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/02/weekly-music-video_20.html Bad To You with Ariana Grand

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) The 67th Eurovision Song Contest is coming up in less than a month (seems crazy that it's almost time again!). I normally write  two annual Eurovision posts in the lead-up to the contest. Last year I wrote a couple of "mini posts" the month before as well, so I thought it would be cool to do that again for 2023. :) Today I'm focusing on AleXa (full name Alexandra Christine Schneiderman), the winner of the first American Song Contest, which was held last year.  The American Song Contest  (ASC) is the American version of Eurovision and was launched in spring 2022. It ran from March to May (with the Grand Final held the day before the first Eurovision semi-final) and it was televised on NBC. There hasn't been one this year, so I'm not sure if there are plans for any future contests.  AleXa is an American singer who started her career in South Korea as a K-pop star. She ent

This week's video is Without You, the brand-new single by  Korean group KARD (also known as K.A.R.D). It's their 3rd digital single and was released on 19th April.  Without You is a dance style song and is sung in a mixture of Korean and English. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)  Want more KARD? Check out these posts: Features the music video for their last single Ring The Alarm (released last summer):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/07/new-k-pop-videos.html Includes rapper BM's last solo single STRANGERS (2022): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/08/new-music-releases.html

I'm still not able to use my computer, but I am able to use Blogger on my phone, which is good. I may be doing shorter posts for now though because it's a bit harder to navigate in this format. 🙂 I've previously shared K-pop in Public  (dances to Korean music performed in public places), J-pop in Public  (Japanese), C-pop in Public  (Chinese) and  V-pop in Public (Vietnamese). So today I thought I would feature a Thai pop aka T-pop dance! :) [ T-POP IN PUBLIC ] YGX / Team C- MIRROR MIRROR - F-HERO X   MILLI FT . CHANGBIN|COVER P.I.E FROM VIETNAM   This is a cover of the 2021 single Mirror Mirror by Thai rapper F-HERO and  Thai rapper/singer MILLI and featuring South Korean rapper  Changbin from the K-pop group Stray Kids . It's performed by P-Eagles, aka P.I.E, a dance team from Vietnam. They cover dances from different genres including K-pop and V-pop.  The dancers are part of Street Dance Girls Fighter Team C and  the video was uploaded in December 2019. W

Today's  video is Sability by Nigerian singer Ayra Starr . It's her latest single and was released in February. Ayra's latest album release is the deluxe version of 19 & Dangerous, but I think Sability is a stand-alone song. Ayra fan ? Check out these posts :  Bloody Samaritan video:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/03/weekly-music-video.html Afropop Round-up (features the Bloody Samaritan remix with Kelly Rowland): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/10/afropop-round-up-2021-2022.html