Star Sparkle Blog

In the past few years, I've written occasional posts about my current favourite songs. More recently, I've also done posts featuring my fave songs from the year as a whole (like my Favourite Songs of 2025 post ). So here they are for the first half of 2026! You can see my previous posts at the links below: June 2019: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/current-favourite-songs.html May 2020: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/current-favourite-songs.html April 2021:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/current-favourite-songs.html Feb 2022: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/current-favourite-songs.html April 2024:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/04/current-favourite-songs.html   March 2025: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/03/current-favourite-songs.html   Here are the songs I like at the moment. :)     The Kid LAROI- COME DOWN Back in January, I featured some new music by Australian singer and rapper The Kid LA...

This week's video is Sideways by Charlie Puth and featuring Coco Jones . Charlie is an American singer who stared out on YouTube, uploading comedy videos and song covers in 2009. He went on to release his own music, brining out a music video for the song These Are My Sexy Shades in 2010 and releasing his debut EP The Otto Tapes independently in December 2010. The following year, Charlie won the online video competition Can You Sing?  alongside Emily Luther , with a cover of British singer Adele's  Someone Like You. The two singers then signed to eleveneleven , the record label of American comedian and TV host Ellen DeGeneres and released the single Break Again in December 2011. However, after Charlie recovered his first EP with them, eleveneleven disappeared and had dissolved by 2012. He self-released his second EP Ego in October 2013, for streaming and mostly concentrated on production and song writing for other artists over the next year or so. In 2015, Charlie signe...

Note: I'm currently having trouble with video previews displaying on the blog. But if you click through, it works fine. :) Time for another instalment in my Asian Groups series! Today I'm featuring new Thai girl group NAMP . :) They are a 4-member group signed to Thai record label and entertainment agency XO Entertainment  (whose other groups include boyband ATLAS and girl group 4EVE ). Their name comes from the first letter of each members' name and stands for "Not A Minor Player".  The members are Nita (full name Pranita Utaichalurm), Azarra (real name Sasithorn Twaits), Miles (Natthamon Obboon) and Pammie (Pimpicha Charoensak). Azarra is Thai-Australian and the others are Thai.  NAMP made their debut in January with the release of their first single KAKA. In March they brought out their second single HURRICANE.    KAKA KAKA is the girls' debut single. It was released digitally in January.  It's a high energy pop song with a mix of Thai and English lyri...

Today's video is Goals by LISA ,  Anitta and Rema . The 3 artists have collaborated on the song for  FIFA World Cup 2026 , which is being hosted in North America this year (the US, Mexico and Canada). Thai singer LISA is a member of one of  the most well known K-pop groups  BLACKPINK and also has a successful solo career .   Brazilian singer Anitta is one of Brazil's most popular artists (having been nicknamed the  "Queen of Brazilian Pop" ) and has also expanded her career internationally, helped by her multilingual skills (she is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English).  Nigerian singer and rapper Rema is successful in his native country, having risen to fame after his debut single Dumebi (released in March 2019) became a hit. He went on to became famous internationally, with the release of the single Calm Down in February 2022 and the remix featuring American singer  Selena Gomez , which came out in August 2022. In 2025 he became...

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