Star Sparkle Blog

Today's music video is Ride For Me by Korean singer DeVita and featuring Korean rapper Dawn (former member of K-pop group PENTAGON , who was also known as E'DAWN). DeVita's real name is Jo Yoon-kyung (or Yoon-kyung Jo in Western terms) and her stage name was inspired by the character Salvatore Di Vita in the film Cinema Paradiso and Evita Peron, the former first lady of Argentina.  She participated in music reality shows as a teenager and also released music on SoundCloud. She then made her debut under hip hop record label AOMG (run by Korean American singer Jay Park ) with the single EVITA! in April 2020. And she released her debut EP CREME in the same month.  In February 2022, DeVita brought out her 2nd EP American Gothic. Her singles include Eat Your Heart Out, Buddy Kane!, Bonnie & Clyde, BTBT with Korean singer and rapper B.I  (former leader of boy band iKON ) and American rapper Soulja Boy , Like California with Singaporean singer Gen Neo  and her latest, Naught

It's American singer Ariana Grande's  30th birthday on Monday (26th June). In the past I've written  posts for my favourite singers Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey's  milestone bdays (50th). So here is Ariana's birthday post. :) Ariana started out in showbusiness aged 13 , when she played cheerleader Charlotte in the Broadway musical 13 in 2008. She went on to play Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon TV show Victorious , and later starred in Sam & Cat  (a spin-off and Victorious and iCarly .  In December 2011 she released her debut single Put Your Hearts Up and also recorded music for the Victorious soundtrack.  Ariana's music career really got started in March 2013, when she released her single The Way featuring rapper Mac Miller . Mac, who later dated Ariana, sadly died in 2018. The Way was the lead single from Ariana's debut album Yours Truly, which came out in August 2013. To date Ariana had released 5 more albums- My Everything (2014), Dangerous Woman

Today's music video is I Need U by Japanese singer RIRI . It's her latest single and was released in February, but I only just came across it now.  I Need U is an English language pop song with R'n'B and dance vibes! There is a Japanese version as well. Listen to the Japanese version here:  https://youtu.be/4umQ6rwLtcY It's been a while since I've featured J-pop on the blog, so maybe I'll share some more soon! :) RIRI fan? Check out these posts: Includes Summertime (appropriate for this time of year!):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/06/summer-songs-round-up.html Features Wheel of Fortune and Luv Deja vu (2021):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/newish-j-pop-and-k-pop-videos.html   P.S . Today is the "official" start of summer, since it's the Summer Solstice (also known as Litha) . So Happy Summer! (Or Happy Winter if you're in the Southern Hemisphere!) :) 

It's been a while since I did a post about new music (the last one was in March ) and also summer is starting, so here are some new songs for the new season! (Or new songs for winter you're in the Southern Hemisphere!) Dua Lipa -  Dance The Night   British/Albanian singer Dua Lipa released Dance The Night (the lead single from the upcoming Barbie The Movie) in late May. Watch the music video here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/05/weekly-music-video_31.html Tyla and Ayra Starr -  Girl Next Door   Two African stars recently teamed up for a new single. The song Girl Next Door features vocals from Tyla (South African) and Ayra Starr  (Nigerian). It came out on 11th May.   This is the official music video and it also has the lyrics on the screen. Gen Neo - Called i t Love   Singaporean singer Gen Neo  released Called it Love at the end of last month. It's his 5th English single in all and follows Blame it On Me, RELAPSE (my favourite), In The Morning (all re

This week's video is Iris by Bulgarian Russian singer  Kristian Kostov  (who represented Bulgaria in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest ) and VOSTOK.  VOSTOK is an audiovisual project project created by Kristian, his brother Daniel Kostov and Sasha Xuman. It was launched in October 2020  with the release of the single Psycho. VOSTOK's other singles are Time, 2020 and Intentional. Iris is an English language song with a relaxing vibe. This is the official audio. I originally came across it on a  Russian YouTube channel (it was uploaded in March), and it was then uploaded to Kristian's official channel in May.  Kristian fan? C heck out these   links: Music video for his 2020 single Honest:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/03/weekly-music-video_11.html Includes Thinking (2020):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/08/new-music-releases.html His latest single Mine:  https://youtu.be/dJnZTiypHcw And follow VOSTOK on Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamvostok

It's been a while since I've done a dance themed post, so today I'm sharing some videos! It's actually my first general dance videos post of the year and we're already halfway through 2023! Lol.  Popular K-pop dances that everyone knows!-  Sandy&Mandy First up is a K-pop video! Taiwanese twins Sandy and Mandy  are performing popular K-pop dances, including Genie by Girls' Generation ,  Bubble Pop!  by HyunA , BLACKPINK's   As If It's Your Last and  Red Velvet's Bad Boy  (one of my fave songs of theirs!). Sandy and Mandy have also launched a music career! They released their debut single BOMBSHELL last summer and their second single Freak this April.  Watch the music video for Freak here:  https://youtu.be/LW7qQpPtH3Y And to see how the twins learn a dance, check out this Dance Videos post from 2021 (scroll down):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/dance-videos.html DANCE   IN PUBLIC XG  ' Shooting Star'   Dance Cover -

This week's video is LEFT RIGHT REMIXX by Japanese girl group XG . It's the remix of their single LEFT RIGHT and features additional vocals from American singer Ciara and Hong Kong rapper and singer (and member of K-pop boy band GOT7 ) Jackson Wang . It's a cool combo of artists! :) LEFT RIGHT came out in January, as an extra track along with XG's 3rd single SHOOTING STAR.  The remix video was uploaded in May. It's a visualiser which features the lyrics on screen.  Plus, here is the music video for the original LEFT RIGHT:  Visit this post to see the video for SHOOTING STAR:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/02/weekly-music-video.html P.S . Jackson Wang and Ciara also teamed up for the single Slow (released last month). Watch it here:  https://youtu.be/yWL9dLK2meM

Nearly two years ago I wrote a post about songs that had sampled older tracks or were covers of previous songs. You can read that here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/samples-and-covers.html    I've had the idea for a while to do a follow-up post, so here are more samples and covers! :)   Note : As with the first post, I've listed the original song first. Case feat . Foxy Brown and Mary   J. Blige- Touch Me , Tease Me American singer Case (full name Case Woodward) released the R'n'B song Touch Me, Tease Me back in April 1996. It was the second single from his self-titled debut album, which came out later that year. In addition, it featured on the soundtrack from the 1996 film  The Nutty Professor  (a remake of the 1963 film ), starring Eddie Murphy .  Touch Me, Tease Me featured rapper Foxy Brown and singer Mary J. Blige , as well as backing vocals by Vernell Sales aka Vee from the American duo Koffee Brown . Vee also worked  with the group Next on th