Star Sparkle Blog

Back in July I did a round-up of posts on the blog featuring live music performances. You can see that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/07/live-performances-round-up-2022-2023.html Today I'm featuring a few new live performances, by Denise Julia, Gen Neo and Tyla. :) Denise Julia- bum 2 me |Rooftop Live from Manila First up is Filipina singer Denise Julia . In June she sang her latest single bum 2 me (written in lower case) on a rooftop in the Philippines. It was her first time performing the song (released in April) in her hometown of Manila. The performance is part of a series called Rooftop Live, produced by Unbound Entertainment. It showcases artists around the world. This is Episode 12. bum 2 me is one of my current favourite songs and it's nice to see a live performance of it. As someone pointed out in the comments on YouTube, it seems to be the recorded version, so it's not strictly "live". But it's still good to see a performance. There are...

Today's video is Crush by Bella Poarch and Lauv . Bella (real name Denarie Bautista Taylor) is a Filipino American social media influencer and singer. She was born in the Philippines, adopted by an American and Filipina couple aged 3 and later moved to America. Bella sadly had a difficult childhood, growing up in an abusive home. She has said that working on her first EP Dolls helped her to confront the trauma from her past. Bella joined the US military in 2015 , aged 17. After leaving, she entered the public eye in 2020 when she started posting gaming, cosplay and lip syncing on the social media platform TikTok. She went on to join YouTube and Twitter. In May 2021, Bella launched her music career with the release of the single Build a B*tch, having signed a record deal with Warner Records . She released her debut EP Dolls in August 2022. Her other singles are Inferno with American singer Sub Urban , Dolls, Living Hell and Crush.  Lauv (real name Ari Staprans Leff) is an America...

Time for another instalment in my Asian Groups series, where I share music by East Asian and South East Asian groups. Today I'm featuring Filipino boy band ALAMAT and Thai girl group MXFRUIT . ALAMAT ALAMAT is a 6-member Pinoy (Filipino) pop group that was formed in 2020 by Viva Artists Agency and Ninuo Media. They are described as sing-rap-dance boy group and started out as a 9-piece. However, member Kin left in March 2021, and Valfer and Gami left a year later.  ALAMAT means "Legends" in English and the group aim to represent Philippine culture and the diversity within the country. They also address social issues such as racism and colourism in their music. They are a multiethnic and multilingual group and sing and rap in 7 local languages- Tagalog , Ilocano , Kapampangan , Bisaya (also known as Cebuano) , Hiligaynon , Bicolano and Waray-Waray . The members are leader Taneo (real name Brylle Jordan Sebastian Uyam) who is Ilocano and Cordilleran, Mo (real name Aaron ...

This week's video is Water by South African singer Tyla . It's her latest single and came out in July.  Water is an Afropop/Afrobeats song with Tyla's trademark amapiano (South African music genre) and pop/R'n'B style. The song went viral after there was a dance challenge on Instagram and TikTok. It's sung in English. This is the official audio. There's also a lyric video (see below).      Watch the official lyric video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBAMcKXcBKE   Update 6/10/23: there is now an official music video which was uploaded today:       Tyla fan? Check out these posts:   Music video for her hit song Getting Late feat. Kooldrink (released in 2019 but the video went viral in early 2020): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/10/weekly-music-video_20.html Features her recent single Girl next Door with Nigerian singer Ayra Starr (released in May): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/06/new-music-releases.html

Time for another C-pop Saturday post (my semi-regular series featuring Chinese music)! Here is another selection of C-pop (and sometimes other genres). :) Zunya- Love on a Boat First up is Love on a Boat by Taiwanese singer Zunya. His real name is Tong Li and his music combines modern pop with traditional Chinese instruments.  His popular songs include That's Called Life, Wu Yu and Beautiful Night featuring Taiwanese actress (and occasional singer) Gingle Wang . Zunya's latest release is the album Grateful, which came out in June and his most recent single is All Is Well. Love on a Boat is a lighthearted R'n'B song and it's about lovers on a boat who now have to communicate face to face, rather than through their mobile phones. (At least according to Google Translate and what I gather from the video!). The video (which was directed by Taiwanese singer and rapper J.Sheon ) was uploaded in June.   For more on Zunya visit these links: Viberate page: https://www.vibera...

This week's video is Ulala by Kim Kunni and featuring T.R.I. Kim is a Vietnamese R'n'B singer and songwriter who started out releasing covers on YouTube in 2017, before signing a record deal with Sony Music Vietnam last year. She brought out her debut EP Butterfly in 2020 (through Yin Yang Media). Her other singles include TIME, LULALILO, Butterfly, CHỜ and her latest Lovelyboy. A new single called GET ME is due for release tomorrow (14th September). T.R.I is a Vietnamese singer. I can't find much info on him currently (at least in English). Will update this if I do find more. Ulala was released in July. It's an R'n'B song (Vietnamese and English language). The video is summery (fitting since we've been having a late summer heatwave in the UK!).      Watch the video for Kim's latest single Lovelyboy (released in August) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sLylFU5o5U   For more on Kim visit these links:   Bandwagon Asia article: https://www.bandwa...

I've previously written a few posts about the careers of singers over the years. You can see them at the links below: JoJo Through the Years: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/08/jojo-through-years.html Ashanti Through the Years- Part 1: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/11/ashanti-through-years-part-1.html Ashanti Through the Years- Part 2: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/02/ashanti-through-years-part-2.html Today I'm taking a look at the career of Brandy , another American singer. I've split it into two parts, since she has been singing for nearly 30 years (!!), and this is already a long post! This is Part 1. :) Brandy (full name Brandy Norwood) has been involved in music since she was a child. She comes from a musical family, since her dad Willie is a gospel singer and choir director, and her cousins are the rappers Snoop Dogg and the late Nate Dogg . (Her other cousin wrestler Mercedes Mone is also in the public eye, although not related to music.) H...

Today's video is Poison by NCT DREAM , the 3rd sub-unit of Korean boy band NCT . The other 4 sub-units are NCT U , NCT 127 , WayV and NCT DOJAEJUNG . It's from their 3rd studio album IST, which was released on 17th July. The title is based on one of the personality types from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire. The lead single was Broken Melodies which was released in June and the title track ITSJ (released the same day as the album) was the second single. Poison is an R'n'B love song and the track video came out on 7th July. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)    NCT fan? Check out these posts:  WayV- Diamonds (released last December): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/12/weekly-music-video_28.html NCT DOJAEJUNG- Perfume (the debut single from the newest unit, released in April):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/07/weekly-music-video_12.html NCT U- Baggy Jeans (their latest single which came out mont...

Back in 2019 I did a round-up of Tollywood (Telugu language South Indian film industry) videos on the blog. You can see that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/11/tollywood-round-up.html Since then, I've posted a few more Tollywood videos, so I'm doing a quick round-up. I'm also sharing a couple of videos that I haven't previously. :) Karma Theme from the 2020 film U Turn (both Telugu and Tamil versions): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/01/weekly-music-video.html Aiipo Rangeela from Beautiful (2019): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/08/weekly-music-video_12.html Jala Jala Jalapaatham from Uppena (2021): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/03/weekly-music-video_16.html   Oo Antava Mawa..Oo Oo Antava from Pushpa: The Rise- Part 1 This is Oo Antava Mawa..Oo Oa Antava from the film Pushpa: The Rise- Part 1 , which was released in December 2021. It's about the title character Pushpa Raj (played by Allu Arjun ) who becomes successful through bec...