Star Sparkle Blog

Today's video is Princess GaL (Harajuku Y2K ver.) by Japanese singer Hamano Haruki (or Haruki Hamano in Western terms). She is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Fukuoka. Haruki's music is a mixture of J-pop, hip hop and rap and her lyrics are described as  "sensual and realistic, with a touch of venom" . Born in 2000 herself, she is popular with Generation Z women and has stated that her goal is to "be a friend to all women". Haruki released her debut EP 2000 in 2021 and has since released 4 more- nichijounonakaniaruhinichijou (2022), To the past me, so that I can laugh. (2022), Hamano Haruki "Re:Arranged (2023), LovE ToXic (2023). She just brought out her 1st album NET BaBy on 7th May. Her singles include WATASHI NO MONOSASHI, Tokyo, sexless, Princess GaL, CuL and her most recent, Chu <3 (a collaboration song with the lip brand CHOOSY ) which came out last month.  Princess GaL (Harajuku Y2K ver.) is a new version of Haruki's digital single Prin...

Time for another instalment of my Asian Groups series! Today I'm featuring two Thai groups- girl group THX  and boyband/boy group NEVONE . :)   THX THX are an 8 member girl group from Thailand. Their name stands for "Together, Heading to the Xtraordinary". The group was formed through E29 Trainees , by Thai record label E29 Music Identities . The members are leader Bambam (real name Butree Kaljurek), Tata (Punnawan Leelaburanatanakul), Barrie (Apichaya Mollin), Fresh (Jibhassorn Laoluechai), Cindy (full name Cindy Schmid), Cheer (Jiyapat Tantikittichaikul), Ray (Ravisara Chiewvej) and Puttjung (Napassanan Ronnakiat).   THX debuted in November 2024 with the digital single HORIZION LOVE. They released their 2nd single You Like Me Too? in February. HORIZON LOVE This is Horizon Love (also stylised as HORIZION LOVE), the girls' debut single, which was released last November. It's a pop song with a mix of Thai and English lyrics.     You Like Me Too? And here is...

Today's video is On Sight, the latest single by American singer Coco Jones . It's the 5th single from her debut album Why Not More?, which was released on 25th April. On Sight is a smooth, R'n'B song. It follows previous singles from the album, Here We Go (Uh Oh), which has a solo version and a remix featuring American singer Leon Thomas III , Most Beautiful Design with record producer and rapper London on da Track and rapper Future , You and Taste.  As well as On Sight, I like Taste (I featured it as a Weekly Music Video last month; see below) and AEOMG (my favourite song from the album). The music video for On Sight (which sees Coco becoming fixated on potential love interests!) was uploaded on the same day that the album came out. Please note that the song contains mild swearing. :)     Visit this link to stream/buy Why Not More? here: https://cocojones.lnk.to/WhyNotMore   And watch the music video for Taste (released in February) here, plus find links to more so...

The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest is tonight, so this is the second of my annual posts. You can see the first one here:  Countdown to Eurovision 2025!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2025.html     This year I saw the second semi-final (the one the UK could vote in) and some of the first one. I don't always watch them both because then I've heard all the songs beforehand (I listen to the ones that didn't get through afterwards). Here are my favourites from this year's contest. :)   Klavdia- Asteromáta (Greece) My favourite song in the second semi-final was Greece's entry, Asteromáta by Klavdia . I voted for her and she got through, so will be in the final.  Klavdia (full name Klavdia Papadopoulou) took her first steps in the entertainment business aged 15 appearing on Series/Season 5 on Ellada eheis talento (Greece's Got Talent). She then competed on S5 of The Voice of Greece , reaching the final and was ment...

This week's video is MONA LISA by Korean rapper and singer (and member of K-pop boyband BTS ) j-hope (real name Jung Ho-seok, or Ho-seok Jung in Western terms). It's his latest solo single and the third one to be released since he completed his military service (mandatory for men in South Korea) last October. It's a stand-alone single, not appearing on j-hope's EP/soundtrack HOPE ON THE STREET VOL.1 (VER.1 PRELUDE), which was released in March 2024. It follows LV Bag with American rapper and singer Don Toliver , Speedy ( Don's Louis Vuitton bag !) and American musician and singer Pharrell Williams , which came out in February, and Sweet Dreams featuring American singer Miguel , which was released in early March. MONA LISA is a laidback R'n'B and hip hop track, with all-English lyrics about how j-hope likes his girls! It's described as a "love song that pays tribute to celebrating one's unique beauty" . It was released on 21st March.    Fo...

It's Eurovision season again! This year's final will be on Saturday 17th May, a bit later than the past couple of years . The 69th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in St. Jakobshalle, Basel, Switzerland, after Nemo won with The Code last year. The UK's entry is country pop girl group Remember Monday with What The Hell Just Happened? . I normally write two Eurovision posts (and occasionally a couple of extra "mini countdown" posts), so here is the first one! Today I'm featuring previous Eurovision posts, plus a few new music videos from former contestants. :)   Eurovision Round-up (features posts from when I first started writing about the contest in 2012, up to 2017):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/05/eurovision-round-up.html Eurovision Round-up 2 (posts from 2017 to 2023; includes the countdown posts):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/05/eurovision-round-up-2.html Eurovision 2023 Favourites: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/05/eur...

Today's video is Az Sum Ti by Bulgarian Russian singer Kristian Kostov (who represented Bulgaria in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest , 8 years ago now!). Az Sum Ti is Kristian's latest single and his first time singing in Bulgarian for almost 10 years. It's part of an audio-visual project.  The song title translates as "I Am You" in English. The video premiered on 15th March.   Want more Kristian? Check out these posts: Music video for Iris, his 2023 single with VOSTOK (plus links to more music): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/06/weekly-music-video_14.html Audio for Espresso (released last year): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/05/weekly-music-video_15.html   P.S. Speaking of Eurovision , this year's contest is coming up! The Grand Final is on Saturday 17th May (with the semi-finals on the Tuesday and Thursday before). Keep up with Eurovision  news here:  https://eurovision.tv/event/basel-2025

Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote a dance videos post featuring couples' dances (plus one group dance). You can see that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/07/dance-videos.html I thought it would be fun to do another edition, so here it is! :)   Sonali X Aadil- Dhoom Dhoom  First up, some Bollywood! Here is a dance to Dhoom Dhoom by Thai singer Tata Young , from the 2004 Bollywood film Dhoom . There's also another version called Dhoom Machale . It's performed by Sonali of LiveToDance with Sonali and Aadil. It's a YouTube short and was uploaded a couple of months ago.   Visit this post to see the videos for both Dhoom Dhoom and Dhoom Machale: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2013/10/weekly-music-video_23.html    Sonali X Aadil- Dhadhand Dhang- Rowdy Rathore And here is another dance by Sonali and Aadi, this time to Dhadhang Dhang from Rowdy Rathore (2012), an action film that stars Akshay Kumar . This is also a short and was uploaded last month.  ...