Star Sparkle Blog

Occasionally I share live performances on the blog. Apart from one about Asian girl groups  earlier this year, my last general post was in October . So today I'm featuring some newer performances from 2025 into 2026. :)   Coco Jones - On Sight (Live Performance) First up is a live performance from American singer Coco Jones . It was the 5th single from her debut album Why Not More?, originally released in April 2025, with the digital special edition Why Not More? (MORE!) following last August.  On Sight was also released in April last year. This live performance (which took place in October) sees Coco accompanied by backing singers and musicians. It gives the smooth R'n'B song a slightly more mellow vibe, although it's already pretty chilled!  The video was directed by cinematographer and producer Joshua Libertine . Please note that the song contains mild swearing. :)      Watch the music video for On Sight here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.co...

Today's video is Playboy by Shevya . Her full name is Shevya Awasthi and she is an Indian American singer, originally from San Diego, California and now based in New York City.  A rising star in the Indian pop (I-pop) aka Desi pop genre, Shevya describes herself as "Your new fav pop star" in her YouTube bio! She started learning Hindustani classical music as a child and also sang in acapella groups, plus wrote and composed her own music. In 2021 she released her first single Aao Na. Since then she has released several singles including Nasha, Chaand, Shah Rukh Kaun?, Parasite and Playboy.  Shevya's music is a mix of Hindi and R'n'B. She also posts covers of Western and K-pop songs on social media but with a difference- she writes her own Hindi lyrics and adds them to the songs .  Playboy is her most recent single and was released in April. It's a  high energy Indian pop song , with a mix of English and Hindi lyrics and is about difficulties in love.  This ...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished. :)  American girl group GIRLSET  (formerly known as VCHA) are notable for being the first American girl group formed using the K-pop system. So it's not surprising that they are also popular in the cover dance world, which is known for  K-pop in Public (dance covers of K-pop songs performed in public places).  I previously featured a GIRLSET cover in my Dance in Public Videos post in February. There are lots more covers, so today I'm sharing more videos of different GIRLSET songs. :) They're listed variously as Dance in Public, Pop in Public or K-pop in Public. Note: There are older dance covers from when the group was VCHA but in this post I'm focusing only on their music as GIRLSET.     [KPOP IN PUBLIC] GIRLSET - Commas | DANCE COVER | ALPHA SQUAD FROM VENEZUELA First up is a dance cover of Commas, the group's first single as the rebranded GIRLSET. It was released in August ...

Today's video is Meet Me Halfway by British rapper and singer B Young . It's his latest single, following the previous one Playdoh (released in January). Meet Me Halfway is a laid back song in B Young's usual R'n'B and Afrobeats style. It has summer vibes, fitting as we move into summer. Although the heatwave we had recently (as mentioned last week ) has now gone and we've got colder, rainy weather! Meet Me Halfway was released on 7th May (although another audio was uploaded to YouTube in April). This is the official audio.     B Young fan? Check out this post: Music video for Playdoh (plus links to more music):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/02/weekly-music-video.html          

In March I wrote a post about the 25th anniversary of Jennifer Lopez's  2nd studio album J.Lo. It ended up being quite long, so I split it into two parts. You can see Part 1 here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/03/25th-anniversary-of-jennifer-lopezs-jlo.html Now here is Part 2! It's taken a couple of months but never mind, lol. In this post I'm sharing more songs I like, plus new/previously unreleased tracks from the 25th anniversary edition of the album. :)    I'm Gonna Be Alright The original I'm Gonna Be Alright is a track from J.Lo but was not released as a single. It only has vocals by Jennifer  and samples the 1980 single 8th Wonder by American hip hop group The Sugarhill Gang .  The original version is more poppy and Latin style. This is the official audio.   I'm Gonna Be Alright (Track Masters Remix)  The song was remixed for Jennifer's 2002 album J to Tha L-O! The Remixes (her first remix album) and released as a single. The rem...

This week's video is Blush by Filipina girl group BINI . It's their latest single and is from their new EP Signals, both on which were released on 9th April. It's been an eventful year for the group so far, after they became the  first Filipino act to perform at the 2026 Coachella festival in California, US, last month. It was also a milestone for  P-pop (Pinoy/Filipino pop ), which showed how the genre is becoming more popular internationally. The track is described as "an anthem for a summer crush" that "blends breezy pop energy with feel-good rhythm". It's about the feeling of excitement experienced when the person you like walks into a room, leading you to blush when they look at you!  BINI have become known as the "Summer Queens" of P-pop, due to releasing summer themed music and Blush follows in this tradition. It's also a good fit because of the early/pre-summer heatwave we're currently having in the UK! This is the official...

In the past couple of years T-pop (Thai pop) has been growing in popularity internationally and is also becoming more popular in the cover dance world. So these days there are more T-pop Dance in Public covers (dance covers of songs performed in public places), expanding beyond K-pop and J-pop . I've written a few posts sharing T-pop in Public videos, most recently last November and then  in February . However, the Feb one also featured a GIRLSET cover so here is my first all-T-pop post of the year! I've called it "T-pop/Dance in Public Videos" because some videos are listed as Dance in Public. They're all T-pop/Thai songs though. :)   [TPOP IN PUBLIC] HUH? - PIXXIE | Dance Cover by WHYNOT From Hong Kong First up is a dance cover of the single HUH? by Thai girl group PiXXiE . It was released in December.  The cover is performed by WHYNOT, a K-pop cover crew from Hong Kong. The video premiered in January and features Alice as MABELZ, Heliey as PIMMA and Belle (wh...

Today's video is Take Care Of You, the new single by American singer Alina Baraz . It's her first release since the EP Urban Flora: Lost Sequels with Danish music producer Galimatias , which came out last October. It consists of two tracks (More To Life and Blue) and was released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut joint EP Urban Flora). Take Care Of You is a gentle song with Alina's usual dreamy, chilled vibes. Nice relaxing video too! It was released on 1st May.   Want more Alina? Check out this post: Official lyric video for More To Life from Urban Flora: Lost Sequels (also features links to the lyric video for Blue, plus more music):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/01/weekly-music-video.html   P.S. This year's Eurovision was won by Bulgaria's DARA  with the song Bangaranga , the first ever win for the country. Congratulations! :) My favourites were Germany and Cyprus and I voted for them both (I also voted for Cyprus in the second semi-...

The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest is tonight, so it's time for my second Eurovision post of the year! You can see the first one here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2026.html Similarly to last 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 later). Here are my favourites from this year's contest. :)    Sarah Engels- Fire (Germany) Sarah Engels is representing Germany with the song Fire. As part of the "Big 5" (the countries which contribute the most financially to Eurovision), Germany automatically qualify for the final, along with us (the UK), France, Spain and Italy. However, it's the Big 4 in 2026, since Spain is  one of 5 countries not competing due to objections over Israel's participation in the contest.  Sarah first became ...

Today's video is Certified Lover Girl, the new single by Australian girl group H3rizon . It has been a while since the girls released new music. However, they recently appeared on Star Search   (the  American TV show which was rebooted at the beginning of the year on Netflix ). They went on to release  a cover of WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! by British singer RAYE (which came out last September) as a single last month.  Certified Lover Girl was released on 8th May. It's a laid-back R'n'B song and as people have mentioned in the comments on YouTube, it has early 00s vibes!   Want more H3rizon? Check out these links: Asian/Pacific Groups- Australian Girl Group + Hawaiian Boy Band (also features CROSSING RAIN/PARTYFOUL):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/03/asianpacific-groups.html Audio for WHRE IS MY HUSBAND! cover:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vitTQ4Eq--0  

Eurovision season is here once again! The 2026 Grand Final will be on Saturday 16th May. In 2026 it is the 70th Eurovision Song Contest , so a landmark year! It will be held in Vienna, Austria, after the 2025 contest was won by JJ with his song Wasted Love . The UK's entry is  LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER with Eins, Zwei, Drei .  I normally write two posts in the lead-up to Eurovision (occasionally a couple of "mini countdown" posts too). Here are my posts from last year:  Countdown to Eurovision 2025!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2025.html   Eurovision Favourites 2025: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/eurovision-2025-favourites.html   And here is the first one of 2026! Today I'm taking a look at Eurovision spin-off contests. :)  Update 10/5/26: I've updated this post to include the Junior version of ESC! :)     American Song Contest  An American spin-off of ESC called the  American Song Con...

Sorry there wasn't a 2nd post last week, I was going through a bit of a stressful time and didn't manage to get one finished. :) This week's video is I CONDEMN by Australian singer and rapper The Kid LAROI . It was the first single from the deluxe version of his second album BEFORE I FORGET. The original album was released in January and the deluxe version came out on 24th April. It contains 9 extra tracks, including  I CONDEMN and latest single PIECES. I wasn't aware that there was a deluxe version until I saw that some new songs had appeared on Spotify! I like BEFORE I FORGET and my favourite songs from the original version are ME + YOU, JULY,  COME DOWN and RATHER BE featuring Australian rapper and singer Lithe . One of my fave songs on the deluxe version is QUIT YOU, and I also like HOLD STILL and I CONDEMN. The newest single PIECES came out on out the same day as the album. I CONDEMN was released on 17th April. As with the songs on the original BEFORE I FORGET, it...

Today's video is MURAL by American singers Swae Lee and  Jhené Aiko . Swae (one half of hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd , along with his brother Slim Jxmmi) and Jhené previously teamed up a couple of times before- first for the single/song Sativa in 2018 (from Jhené's album Trip; the single version features both Swae and Slim Jxmmi as Rae Sremmurd) and again for In The Dark back in 2021. In The Dark was from the soundtrack for the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings .  MURAL is from Swae's debut studio album SAME DIFFERENCE, which was released on 3rd April. It's his  first official solo album (although he previously released one as part of Rae Sremmurd's triple album SR3MM in 2018). MURAL is the third single from the album, following FLAMMABLE and DON'T EVEN CALL featuring rapper  Rich The Kid (released in February and March respectively). It came out on 6th April and is a chilled hip hop song. The music video is somewhat "trippy" with Swa...

 Last month I started a mini series called New Generation Girl Groups, which features new girl groups. You can see the first post about American group GIRLSET here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/03/new-generation-girl-groups-girlset.html Now here is the next post in the mini series! Today I'm featuring American/global group fiveALIVE . :) fiveALIVE is a 5-member independent girl group, formed in 2023. They describe themselves as a global pop group and are also called an Asian American group because the members all have Asian heritage (Ciara is Eurasian).  The members are Jia (who is has Chinese and Vietnamese heritage), Ellie Park (Korean), Nini (Filipina/Vietnamese), Ciara (British/Filipina) and Bay (real name Bailey Park; Korean). All the girls are American and from California. They are currently based in Orange County, Southern California. Note: As mentioned in the comments on their  Kprofiles profile , I don't think that Ellie and Bailey are related, despite...

Today's music video is 2GOOD4U by Filipina singer Denise Julia . It's her latest single and was released on 11th April.  Denise's most recent mini album is Sweet Nothings (Chapter 2) which came out in November 2024. Last November she released an anniversary video for sweet nothings with popular Filipino singer Jay R , which is on the mini album. 2GOOD4U is Denise's first release of 2025. It's a chilled R'n'B song about moving on from a relationship. Denise uploaded a short visualiser to YouTube on 8th April. This is the official visualiser, which followed on the 11th. Please note that the song contains swearing. :)       Update 30/4/26: There's now an official video for the song. It premiered yesterday (29th April).   Want more Denise? Check out these links: Music video fo r bet (stand-alone single released in 2024): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/06/weekly-music-video_27.html Anniversary video for sweet nothings: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Yesterday was Star Sparkle's 15th birthday! I started the blog on 17th April 2011. You can see my first ever post here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2011/04/welcome-to-star-sparkle-blog.html I've previously written two birthday posts- in 2018 for the 7th "blogiversary" and in 2021 for the 10th. (I didn't mark the 5th but I had celebrated the birthday of my blog Falling Petals that year, so decided to do one here too). You can see them at the links below: 7th bday:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/04/star-sparkles-birthday-fave-posts.html 10th bday: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/star-sparkles-10th-birthday-fave-posts.html Back in 2021, I wrote that it seemed strange that I'd been blogging for 10 years. Now it's been 15 years, so even more time has gone by! Star Sparkle is my main blog about entertainment.  As I've previously said, starting it gave me the confidence to branch out into other areas and I went on to start two more bl...

Today's video is Nothing To Say by Nigerian American singer  Adanna Duru . It's her latest single and was released on 11th March. Her most recent EP was stuck in a record deal, which came out in September 2024. Nothing To Say is a stand-alone single. It's a chilled R'n'B love song. Please note that it contains explicit lyrics! :)       Want more Adanna? Check out these links:  Music video for Put It Down feat. Mannywellz (one of my favourite songs from last year):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/02/weekly-music-video_21.html   Lyric video for WILL SMITH, with MNEK (released last Nov):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu_WIh5KTD4    

Sorry the 2nd post is later again this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) Last month I started a mini series called K-pop Comebacks, featuring the comebacks of K-pop groups during 2026. The first one was about BLACKPINK and you can see it here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/03/k-pop-comebacks-blackpink.html Today I'm focusing on BTS (one of the most popular Korean boybands ). They debuted in 2013 and are a 7-member group, made up of leader RM, formerly known as Rap Monster (real name Kim Nam Joon), SUGA (Min Yoon Gi), Jin (full name Kim Seok Jin), j-hope (Jung Ho-seok), Jimin (Park Ji Min), V (Kim Tae Hyung) and Jungkook (Jeon Jung Kook). * Since then, the boys have been very successful, not only in South Korea but internationally. They are probably one of the most well-known K-pop bands worldwide.  In June 2022, the group took a break while the members served their  mandatory military service in Korea and have also been concentrat...