Star Sparkle Blog

We're moving into mid-August and late summer, so before the season is over, I'm sharing some summer themed songs/videos! :) I've written several summer themed posts over the years. Here are 2024's: Vibes for Your Summer!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/07/vibes-for-your-summer.html Island Vibes!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/08/island-vibes.html     Similarly to last year , I struggled a bit to think of a title for the post, lol. I've called this one Late Summer Vibes.    Afgan feat. Jessi- Escape In June 2024, Indonesian singer Afgan released the single Escape. It was the 1st single from Sonder, his 2nd English language mini album, which also came out in June. Escape was preceded by Shallow Water  (released in February 2024) and followed Criminal (Over You) featuring American singer  thủy  (released this January). For Escape, Afgan teamed up with South Korean based American rapper Jessi , whose 2017 single Down feature...

This week's music video is HOT GIRL SUMMER by Australian rapper and singer The Kid LAROI . It's his latest single and was released on 25th July. HOT GIRL SUMMER follows LAROI's recent singles ALL I WANT IS YOU and HOW DOES IT FEEL?, which were released in June. It's a hip hop style song about  hot girls who have it easy in the dating world and has been seen as a break-up anthem, especially since LAROI and his girlfriend Canadian singer Tate McRae are rumoured to have split up .  LAROI and Tate started dating over a year ago and also worked together professionally on the song  I know love (from Tate's album So Close To What, back in February. The video also has summery vibes!     Want more The Kid LAROI? Check out this post: Audio for ALL I WANT IS YOU (also has a link for HOW DOES IT FEEL?): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/weekly-music-video_25.html

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I haven't done that many general dance videos posts (featuring more than one more genre) lately. My last one was Dance Videos- Couples' Edition 2! in May but apart from that, I haven't written a lot this year. So today I'm featuring a variety of videos from different genres. :)   [TPOP IN PUBLIC | ONE TAKE] FEAT- PIXIE | SINGAPORE DANCE COVER OPEROSE First up, some T-pop (Thai pop) in Public ! This is a dance cover of FEAT by Thai girl group PiXXie . It was released in May last year as a digital single. The cover is performed by OPEROSE. They are a dance cover crew from Singapore.  The video premiered in April and features MEGZ as Mabelz, JIAYI as Pimma and REENA as Inghko. It' s a one-take video, meaning it was filmed all in one go.       Watch the music video for FEAT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FztEbqElt0 Follow OPEROSE/subscribe to their channel here: ht...

This week's video is KISSIK from the 2024 Tollywood (Telugu language) film Pushpa 2: The Rule .  The movie is the sequel to action drama  Pushpa: The Rise (released in 2021) and sees the title character (played by  Allu Arjun ) now head of the red sandalwood smuggling business and facing off against his enemy, police officer Bhanwar Singh Shekawat ( Fahadh Faasil ), who has a grudge against him.  There is also a dubbed Hindi version.  I featured the video for Oo Antava Mawa..Oo Antava Mawa from the first Pushpa in my Tollywood Videos Round-up 2 post back in 2023. You can see it here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/09/tollywood-videos-round-up-2.html KISSIK was released as the third single from Pushpa 2 last November, prior to the film's release in December. It was preceded by Pushpa Pushpa and Sooseki (The Couples Song) in May 2024. Two more singles followed in December- Peelings and Gango Renuka Thali. The video is an item number , I think and st...

I last shared a New Music Releases post at the beginning of June . So now that we're well into summer, I thought I'd share some new music from a mix of genres, for the current season! :)   KARD- Touch  First up, some K-pop! This is Touch, the latest single by Korean mixed gender/co-op group KARD . It's the lead single from their 8th mini album DRIFT and both came out on 2nd July. DRIFT features 7 tracks, including BETCHA, Touch, Pivot and instrumental versions of Touch and Pivot. Touch is an English and Korean language song with sexy lyrics, which reinterprets 2000s music . Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)    There's also a performance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKRAgL7THOg   Stream/buy DRIFT here:  https://lnkfi.re/KARD_DRIFT   And for more music from KARD, visit my New Music for 2025 post from the beginning of the year (features the visualiser for stand-alone single Detox):  https://starsparklex....

Today's video is All I Got by Maro . His real name is Marwan Daou and he is a Lebanese singer-songwriter and YouTuber. He was born in Beirut and has a Lebanese dad and Ukrainian mum. Maro's grandma taught him to play the piano and he also taught himself to play the guitar. He started his career by posting cover videos on his YouTube channel (inspired by Justin Bieber ). In 2018 his cover of Falling Down by the late American rappers  Lil Peep and XXXTenation  reached  over one million views and led to him going to Northern Europe , where he got a music manager and signed to tech music record label  SNAFU Records  the following year. In August 2020, Maru released his debut single carsick, which is about an on-off relationship . His 2nd single Take It Back followed in January 2021. He has released several other singles to date, including Addicted to Her Sadness, start again, Never Let You Go and All I Got. In November 2022, he brought out his debut album Words Fro...

It's been ages since I've shared some Turkish music (apart from Weekly Music Videos, my last Turkish music post was back in 2019!), so today I'm featuring some. :) You can see my last Turkish music post here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/03/turkish-music_30.html     First of all, here are a few posts featured on the blog since 2019: Otilia- Deli Gibi (Otlilia is Romanian but it's a Turkish language song): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/weekly-music-video.html Eurovision Countdown- Past Contestant Hadise (update on Turkey's 2009 Eurovision contestant): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/04/eurovision-countdown-past-contestant.html Murda feat. Hadise- Imdat: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/09/weekly-music-video_21.html   Now here is some music I haven't previously shared! :)     Hadise-  Fırtınam This is  Fırtınam, the most recent single by Turkish Belgian singer Hadise (my favourite Turkish singer!), who was Tu...

This week's video is Woman To Woman by Nigerian singer Simi . It's her most recent single and came out in March. Woman To Woman is the 4th single from Simi's 5th studio album Lost and Found, which was released in July last year, through her independent record label Studio Brat . It's an Afrobeats, R'n'B and soul album.  Woman To Woman follows previous singles All I Want, Men are Crazy and Borrow Me Your Baby. It's all about celebrating women and I think the lyrics are a mixture of English, a Nigerian language and Pidgin . This is the original music video and there's also a viral video (see below).      And here is the viral video (also released in March):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUjYM7PiTI   Want more Simi? Check out this post: Music video for her 2020 single THERE FOR YOU feat. Ms Banks (plus links to more music): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/01/weekly-music-video_20.html

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I've previously written several posts about the solo careers of band members, ( Fifth Harmony and BTS ). Today I'm focusing on the members of Korean girl group BLACKPINK . :)   BLACKPINK are one of the most internationally successful Korean girl groups (and groups in general, along with the likes of BTS), and were branded "the biggest pop band in the world" in 2020.  The group consists of 4 members-  4 members- JISOO (full name Kim Jisoo, or Jisoo Kim in Western terms), JENNIE (Kim Jennie),  ROSÉ  (real name Roseanne Park/Park Chae-young) and LISA (born Pranpriya Manoban but she has legally changed her first name to Lalisa). Despite JISOO and JENNIE having the same surname/family name (Kim), they aren't related (at least not recently)!  Random fact: Kim is one of the most common family names in South Korea , along with Park and Lee. Some of them may be dist...

This week's video is Do It Right by Em Simmaly . She's an American singer who also models and acts.  Do It Right is from Em's EP Bloom in Violet, which was released in May. Her previous singles include On One, Roll With Me and Replaceable with Jango Flex.  Do It Right is a sensual R'n'B song and the first track from the EP. The music video was uploaded in May.   Listen to Bloom in Violet on Spotify  https://open.spotify.com/album/6jpDdXrlAPohcrqvf0r2m9 And you can find more videos/audios from the EP on Em's YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@emsimmaly/videos   For more on Em visit these links:  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@emsimmaly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emsimmaly YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@emsimmaly/  

Here is another instalment of my Asian Groups series! Today I'm featuring Indian boyband  FIRST5 . :) They describe themselves as India's first next gen pop boy group ("next gen" meaning a new generation). They are like a male counterpart to W.i.S.H , India's first girl group in 22 years, who debuted last year. FIRST5 (also written as First5) was founded in 2023 by Indian singer/songwriter and content creator Aksh Baghla , who held online auditions on his  social media channels. The group consists of 4 members- Yoshi, Tan, Elton and Daksh. Aksh (who is from Himachal Pradesh) was originally part of the band (hence the name "FIRST5) but decided to take a backseat (due to investment and management challenges ) and take on a mentor/captain role for the others. The boys come from Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Uttar Pradesh but moved to Chandigarh to focus on the group. Inspired by international pop and K-pop in particular, FIRST5 started out by coverin...

Today's video is Love Life by JUNO. She is a Nigerian singer/artist, signed to The Gamma (a media and technology enterprise). JUNO  (real name Joy Dzeremo) made her debut with the single Intentions in August last year. To date she has released two other singles- Love Life and her latest, PIPE ME UP with Nigerian singer-songwriter Ruger . Her music is a blend of Afro soul and Afropop . Love Life is Juno's 2nd single and was released last December. I like the chilled vibes of the song. :)       Also check out the video for PIPE ME UP (released last month):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRh5J0J2F0g   And for more on JUNO visit these links:  Official FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/hearjunoo/   Official Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/hearjuno   Official YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@hearjuno     Want more African music? Check out these posts: Afropop Round-up 2022-2023:  https://sta...

Time for another instalment of C-pop Saturday, my semi- regular series sharing Chinese music! I've only done one other post this year ( in February ), so this is the 2nd one of 2025. Today I'm featuring C-pop and R'n'B. :)   ELL&s- Elevatah First up, a Taiwanese girl group! This is Elevatah by  ELL&s , who are signed to KJM Entertainment. The group consists of 5 members- 4 of whom were previously in pre-debut girl group SUNNY PARFUM . According to their Kprofiles , they are a sub-unit of SUNNY PARFUM. The members are lead vocalist Ashlee (real name Chan Hsai-chen/Xinchan), Theia (Zheng Yuhsin), Cherry (Chen Chen-wei/Huang Xiuwan/), Rosie (don't know her full name yet) and Shan/Shanshan (Chen Yu-shan).   All the girls apart from Rosie were members of SUNNY PARFUM * ELL&s debuted in July 2024 with the digital single Elevatah. They also released the special single Ride or Die (2024 Remaster Version) last September, a remake of a song originally released by ...