Star Sparkle Blog

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, annd 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, i...

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...

This week's video is LUVAGIRL by American singer Coco Jones . It's her latest single and was released on 23rd March. LUVAGIRL is Coco's first release of 2026 , following her debut album Why Not More? which was released in April 2025 and the digital special edition Why Not More? (More!) which came out last August. The track sees her in her "luva era" (as she describes it) after  getting engaged to American basketball player  Donovan Mitchell last summer. It's a love song reminiscent of early 2000s R'n'B . This is the official music video and there's also a lyric video.      Watch the lyric video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lhs1WEjloo   Coco fan? Check out this post: Music video for On Sight from Why Not More? (released in April 2025), plus links to more of her music:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/weekly-music-video_21.html      

Last year I wrote two posts sharing K-pop in Public (dance covers of Korean songs performed in public places) covers of older songs by girl groups. Today I'm doing a round-up (or more like a "mini round-up", lol) of past posts featuring girl group classic covers, plus a couple of new videos. :)   K-pop in Public- Girl Group Classics:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/k-pop-in-public-girl-group-classics.html K-pop in Public Dances Round-up (features a cover of  HELLO VENUS' Sticky Sticky by OnePear from Australia):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/08/k-pop-in-public-dances-round-up.html K-pop in Public- More Girl Group Classics: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/09/k-pop-in-public-more-girl-group-classics.html Dance Videos Round- up 2025 (includes a cover of AOA's Miniskirt by KPOC from the US): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/12/dance-videos-round-up-2025.html   And now here are a couple of  new videos. :)    [KPOP IN P...

This week's video is DMC by Myles Lloyd , GEMINI , Karencici and JUNNY . Myles is a Canadian R'n'B singer-songwriter from Montreal. He is an independent singer, and released his first song Step Down in August 2017 and his debut album Goodbye in September 2019. His other albums include Forever Yours (2022) and WHAT MORE CAN I SAY ? (2024). His recent singles include Closer, Grapevine and Voodoo. DMC is a newer version/remix of Drive Me Crazy, which Myles originally released in November 2024. A music video premiered in July 2025.  For DMC, Myles teamed up with South Korean R'n'B/alternative artist GEMINI, Chinese American singer Karencici and fellow Canadian singer-songwriter JUNNY. GEMINI (real name Kim Jae-Min)  debuted in 2020 , appearing on   Jay Park's  and Cha Malone's  record label H1GHR MUSIC's  compilation album [HIGHR : BLUE TAPE]. * He went on to sign with record label AT AREA and released his debut single Going. To date he has released 4 EP...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) The 90s and 00s were the era of girl groups in the West, in the US and the UK in particular, with groups like En Vogue , the Spice Girls , Destiny's Child , Atomic Kitten , Sugababes ,  Mis-Teeq and Pussycat Dolls dominating the charts. In the years since, girl groups (along with boybands) have largely faded away and there are predominately solo singers. In other parts of  the world, especially Asia, girl groups have remained popular. You'll see this in the K-pop industry particularly. I have often featured Korean girl groups on the blog and also from other Asian countries in my Asian Groups series in recent years. (The series covers both female and male groups.)  I've also written a couple of  posts about international girl groups  (African and South East Asian). Some of them are older groups though.  There are a few exceptions in the West, such as Fifth Harmony ...

Today's video is MOVE ON, the new single by Kosovar (Kosovo Albanian) singer Era Istrefi . It came out on 8th March ( International Women's Day ) and is her first release of 2026. MOVE ON was written by Era herself and is a mostly Albanian language song, with the occasional English line. It's in the style of her signature brand of pop and dance with reggae influences.      Want more Era? Check out this post:  Music video for AMA DO LOVE X HADJE (released last October), plus links to more music:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/10/weekly-music-video_22.html

Jennifer Lopez (one of my favourite singers) has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of her 2nd studio album J.Lo. It was released on 16th January 2001 in the US (22nd January in the UK) and is one of her most successful albums to date. I'm a bit behind with this post about it but never mind! :)  This has turned into quite a long post, so I'm splitting it up into two parts. Here is Part 1! :)   The anniversary comes after her other album milestones- the  20th anniversay of her 3rd album This Is Me...Then in November 2022 and the 20th anniversary of her 4th album Rebirth  in March 2025. To celebrate the J.Lo anniversary, Jennifer released a 25th anniversary edition which features one new song (Crazy (Nobody Else), exclusive tracks only previously available on international editions and a new remix of Play (Trixie Mattel Remix). The album's title is a reference to Jennifer's nickname J.Lo, given to her by fans. Its music style is  primarily dance-pop, La...

This week's video is Lullaby Remix by  JayDon and featuring Paradise , Jay Park and LOUIS of LNGSHOT . American singer JayDon released the original Lullaby (a smooth R'n'B song) in February 2025 as the lead single from his debut mixtape Me My Songs & I, which came out in October 2025. Other singles from the mixtape are I'll Be Good, The Way You Move and Jealous Of The Moon. JayDon's latest single is FLAMED UP (a stand-alone single) which was released last month. For the Lullaby remix, JayDon and singer Paradise (who is the son of American record producer L.A. Reid ) teamed up with American rapper and singer Jay (who has Korean heritage and is a K-pop turned K-R'n'B and hip hop artist) and LOUIS from Korean boyband LNGSHOT. So it's an American/Korean collaboration, which is cool! :)  Lullaby Remix was released last November. Another remix called Lullaby (mega remix) followed in December. It features singer Usher , who co-owns JayDon's record ...

This week's video is by Homewrecker by American singer sombr . It's his latest single and was released on 5th February.  Homewrecker is described as an upbeat pop song about an emotionally unavailable love interest . It's a stand-alone single, not from his debut album I Barely Know Her (released last August). The music video features sombr, American influencer/social media star and model Quenlin Blackwell and American actor Milo Manheim (the son of actress Camryn Manheim ).            

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) 2026 is shaping up to be the year of K-pop  comebacks, with several popular groups reuniting (including two of the biggest internationally known groups BLACKPINK and BTS , so I thought I'd feature them in a miniseries. :)   First up is girl group  BLACKPINK . Since debuting in 2016, the 4-member group (made up of JENNIE, LISA, JISOO and  ROSÉ) has been very successful, both in Korea and around the world. In recent years the girls have concentrated on their solo careers . Their individual contracts with YG Entertainment (one of the biggest South Korean entertainment companies/record labels) expired but they  continued to work with YG for group activities and embarked on the <DEADLINE> world tour last summer, which lasted until this January.  Now the members have reunited for their first release since 2022's BORN PINK (their second studio album), an EP also c...

This week's video is Blink by Corbyn Besson and TZUYU (of  TWICE ).  Corbyn is a solo singer and former member of American boyband Why Don't We , who officially disbanded last year. He started out by sharing music online and after his popularity grew, he released his debut solo single The Only One in December 2014. His second single Marathons followed in 2015. He joined Why Don't We in 2016. Corbyn's other singles include Love Me Better, Don't Run, Tied Up and SUMMER with American singer Jeremih . He just released his debut EP HEAD FIRST on 16th January. TZUYU (full name Chou Tzu-yu or Tzu-yu Chou in Western terms) is a member of Korean girl group TWICE . She is originally from Taiwan but moved to Korea in 2012 to train as a K-pop idol and went on to join the group. TZUYU made her solo debut in September 2024 with the EP abouTZU. The lead single Run Away was her first No. 1 single on the Billboard Taiwan Songs chart. Blink is an electronic R'n'B funk son...