Vibes for Your Summer!

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and wasn't able to get it finished yesterday. :)

After quite a dreary summer in the UK so far, it's finally warming up! So today I'm sharing some summer themed songs/videos. :)

I've previously written several summer songs posts. You can see my most recent (including links to past posts) below:

Summer Vibes: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/07/summer-vibes.html

More Summer Vibes: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/07/more-summer-vibes.html

I struggled a bit with thinking of a title for this post, so I've called it Vibes for Your Summer! Lol. 

Katy Perry- Harleys In Hawaii

American singer Katy Perry released the single Harleys in Hawaii back in October 2019. It was a stand alone single at the time but later appeared on her 6th studio album Smile, which came out the following August.

The song is about riding on the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle with a lover and is a mix of tropical, pop, trap, reggae and R'n'B. It was inspired by the time Katy and her fiance actor Orlando Bloom spent in Hawaii, when Katy was filming reality show American Idol. 

Harleys in Hawaii has summer retro vibes and the video features the beautiful scenes of Hawaii. Just a simple song that you can relax to! It reminds me of another summer song of Katy's, Teenage Dream (see below).

 

Nearly 8 years ago, I featured Katy's single Teenage Dream in my Top 10 Summer Songs post: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/08/top-10-summer-songs.html

BINI- Pantropiko

Last month I did a post called Dance in Public- V-pop and P-pop Videos, sharing public dance covers of Vietnamese and Pinoy/Filipino songs. Check it out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/06/dance-in-public-v-pop-and-p-pop-videos.html

One of the covers was of Filipina girl group BINI's 2023 single Pantropiko. It was the 2nd pre-release single from their debut EP Talaarawan and came out last November. The EP was released this March.

As I mentioned in the post, although Pantropiko was released in November (late autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and  towards the end of the rainy season in the Philippines), it's become associated with summer. That's probably likely because it charted between February and April this year, as the hot dry season started in the Philippines and also because of the general theme. It also went viral on TikTok, sparking a dance craze which led to the Dance in Public videos.

Pantrokpiko has been described as a "summer bubblegum pop anthem". The title translates as "Tropical" in English and the song is influenced by African, Latin and Caribbean music styles.

BINI have been called "P-pop Summer Queens", due to their summer themed music, including their 2020 pre-debut single of Da Coconut Nut (a remake of a popular Filipino novelty song).

This is the official performance video, which was filmed on a beach in Subic Bay in the province of Zambales and is perfect for summer! Click "Closed captions/subtitles" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)

 

Also check out the video for Da Coconut Nut, BINI's fist summer song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZfeW9WDwmA

The Kid LAROI- GIRLS

Recently GIRLS, the latest single by Australian rapper and singer The Kid LAROI was a Weekly Music Video. While not specifically about summer, it has a fun, party vibe that fits with the season, so I'm including it here!

It was released in June and is thought to be a track on LAROI's upcoming SUMMER ALBUM, said to be due for release on 26th July (which is actually winter in Australia!). I can't find official confirmation on this but anyway, it goes well with the summer theme, lol.

Watch the video here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/07/weekly-music-video.html

 

KISS OF LIFE- Sticky

And now for some more Asian music, this time K-pop! This is Sticky by Korean girl group KISS OF LIFE. The 4-member group (also known as KIOF) was formed by S2 Entertainment in 2023 and their name reflects their ambition to "breathe new life into the K-pop industry".

The members are Julie (full name Julie Han), Natty (real name Anatchaya Suputtipong), Belle (Shim Hye-won/Anabelle Shim) and Haneul (Won Hanuel). Hanuel is Korean, Julie and Belle  are Korean American and Natty is Thai.  Belle's dad is Korean singer Shim Shin, who was popular in the 90s.* 

Natty started out as a soloist, releasing a single album called Nineteen in 2020. All 4 girls also released solo songs in the lead-up to their group debut. 

KISS OF LIFE debuted in July 2023 with the single Shhh and EP KISS OF LIFE. Their 2nd EP Born to be XX followed in November.

The group also brought out two single albums this year- Midas Touch in April and Sticky this month. Their other singles are Bad News, Nobody Knows, Midas Touch and Sticky.  

Sticky is a digital single and the title track from KIOF's 2nd single album. It was released on 1st July. 

This is the official music video: 

And here is the performance video:

 

For more on KISS OF LIFE visit these links:

Kprofile: https://kprofiles.com/kiss-of-life-members-profile/

Official site: https://kissoflife-official.com/

Official YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@kissoflife_official

 

And for more Asian summer songs check out this post: 

Asian Songs for Summer:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/07/asian-songs-for-summer.html

Hope you liked the post! :) And hope you're having a good summer so far! (Or good winter/whatever season it is for you currently!) What are your fave summer songs? 

P.S. For songs to relax to this summer, check out this post:

Chilled R'n'B Songs: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/08/chilled-rnb-songs.html

*A couple of these are Korean names with the surname/family name written first.