Star Sparkle Blog

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...