Star Sparkle Blog

In recent years there have been some interesting collaborations and music crossovers between artists from different countries and music genres. I think it's cool to see diverse styles coming together, so today I'm featuring a few. :)   CKay/Nora Fatehi- IT'S TRUE Nigerian singer and record producer CKay teamed up with Canadian dancer, actress and singer  Nora Fatehi for the song IT'S TRUE in 2024. It's from his album EMOTIONS which was released in October 2024. IT'S TRUE is an Afrobeats song with a mix of English, Pidgin and Hindi lyrics. Nora has Moroccan heritage but is based in India due to her work in Bollywood (and also South Indian film industries ) hence the Hindi lyrics.  I featured the audio (it wasn't released as a single) as a Weekly Music Video last year and it was No. 8 on my Top 10 African Songs post in January. Watch it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/weekly-music-video_22.html   LISA feat. Tyla- WHEN I'M WITH YOU In Jun...

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...

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 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 music video is Godsent by AGUM and featuring i.amsolo . AGUM is a singer-songwriter originally from Uganda but now based in Sydney, Australia. (I think her full name is Hannah Agum.) She describes her music as "redefining  soul with a timeless voice and raw, heartfelt storytelling".  AGUM has toured as a background singer with Australian singer and actress Delta Goodrem and Australian singer Jessica Mauboy . She was a finalist in the Needle in the Hay Competition 2024 and featured on Australian TV programme  triple j's soul ctrl . Her singles include Fragile Heart, Say It, OUTGROWN, Makes Sense and Godsent. Godsent is AGUM's latest single and was released on 24th January. It's an Afrobeats/soul song and features Australian producer/artist i.amsolo.     For more on AGUM visit these links: Personal FB page (no Follow option but she has some public posts):  https://www.facebook.com/hannahagum/   Official TikTok:  https://www.tiktok.com/@agu...

Last month I wrote a post featuring some new music for the new year. You can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/01/new-music-for-2026.html Now we're in February, so here are some more new releases, from various genres. :)    Pia Mia- Underneath Guam born singer Pia Mia brought out the single Underneath on 29th January. It was  originally released unofficially 10 years ago but has now been officially released. (Perhaps inspired by the current social media trend "2026 is the new 2016" !) Underneath is an R'n'B song with sexy lyrics! The original version was only 1 minute, 55 seconds but this one is a bit longer at 2 mins, 4 secs. There's only an audio currently.     B Young- Playdoh British rapper and singer B Young released his latest single Playdoh on 30th January. It was this week's Weekly Music Video: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/02/weekly-music-video.html   ZAYN- Die For Me Next up is some brand-new music from ZAYN (real na...

It's been ages since I've written a Top 10 post (my last one was Top 10 Britney Spears Songs back in 2017!). So today I thought I'd do another one sharing my Top 10 African songs.  They are my favourites across different countries and genres. :)     1. Mr Eazi and Simi- Doyin (Nigeria) Nigerian singer Mr Eazi (who is known for founding Banku Music, a mixture of Nigerian and Ghanaian music) collaborated with fellow Nigeran singer Simi on the single Doyin, in August 2019. It's my favourite song  of both singers and was a Weekly Music Video in September 2019. Watch it here:   https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/09/weekly-music-video_25.html   2. Bey T- Wololo (Kenya)  Kenyan rapper and singer Bey T (who also has Ethiopian heritage) released the single Wololo in May 2019. It's a catchy song that sticks in my head. Wololo was a Weekly Music Video in June 2019:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/weekly-music-video_26.html  ...

As with last year , I've written quite a few dance video posts this year (about once a month or more often). We're now coming to the end of 2025, so today I'm sharing my annual round-up of posts featured on the blog. (My first one was in  September 2020 and then I started doing them in December in 2021 .) So here are the previous posts, plus a couple of new dance videos! :)     Dance in Public/T-pop in Public- Bad Girls Like You (Tobii):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/dance-in-publict-pop-in-public-bad.html   P-pop in Public Dances (Pinoy/Filipino pop): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/04/p-pop-in-public-dances.html Asian Dance in Public Videos: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/02/asian-dance-in-public-videos.html Dance Videos- Couples' Edition 2! (features Bollywood, T-pop/Thai pop and Western R'n'B):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/dance-videos-couples-edition-2.html   K-pop in Public- Girl Group Classics: htt...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week. I wasn't feeling very inspired, but then I had a post idea and didn't get it finished in time yesterday. :) In August, Indian girl group W.i.S.H released their debut album Sweetburn. The 4 member group (India's first girl group in 23 years!) debuted back in March 2024. Their music (known as I-pop) is a  mix of Hindi and English, with both Indian and international influences .  W.i.S.H's creation was inspired by the rise of K-pop globally, although they want to create their own path . Sweetburn, which was released on 10th August, consists of 8 tracks, including W.i.S.H's debut single Lazeez and their other previous singles Galti featuring Mxrzi , Therapy and Headrush.  The lead single is Bolo Bolo featuring Panther, which came out in July and newer singles are Ishaare and Drameboss.  I think they've released about 7 official singles from the album. Their latest single is Desi Girl, which is a stand-alone single. It;'s ...

Back in February, I wrote a round-up of posts on the blog featuring live performances from the past couple of years (2023-2025). You can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/02/live-performances-2023-2025.html Today I thought I'd share some more live performances from this year. :)   First up, here are the posts shared on the blog since February:   Eurovision 2025 Favourites (the 2nd of my annual Eurovision Song Contest posts; the 1st one featured music videos):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/eurovision-2025-favourites.html Mariah Carey 20th TEOM Anniversary- Live Performances (features a live session of songs from MC's The Emancipation of Mimi album, to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/mariah-carey-20th-teom-anniversary-live.html C-pop Saturday (my most recent C-pop Saturday post includes a live performance of Baby by Karencici):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/06/c-pop-saturda...

This week's music video is ARIKE Remix by Kunmie , Simi and Mabel . It's a remix of Kunmie's single ARIKE. Kunmie (full name Oluwabukunmi Ariybi) is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He grew up in the church and stared playing drums when he was 8, later becoming a songwriter for other Nigerian artists. Kunmie has shared that he got into music  during a difficult time in his life  and it helped him to escape from loneliness.  His breakthrough came with the release of Arike in February. It went viral on TikTok and reached No. 2 on the Spotify Viral 50 Global playlist. In March, Kunmie released his debut EP Before We Became Strangers. His music is Afrobeats and Nigerian R'n'B. It has been  described as soulful and filled with Youruba-inspired drum patterns . Watch the music video for the original Arike here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgsa2p0lIPY   Arike is about romantic relationships. For the remix, Kunmie teamed up with fellow Nigerian singer Simi a...

This week's video is INTENTIONS by Nigerian singer Juno  (also written as JUNO). It's her latest single and was released on 7th August. The Afropop/R'n'B song is described as a "mirror to desire, doubt and the silent tension between two hearts". This is the lyric video.     For more Juno check out these links: Music video for Love Life (released last December):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/07/weekly-music-video.html   Lyric video for Love Life (uploaded on 7th August):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQPlDesX0s  

We're moving into mid-August and late summer, so before the season is over, I'm sharing some summer themed songs/videos! :) I've written several summer themed posts over the years. Here are 2024's: Vibes for Your Summer!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/07/vibes-for-your-summer.html Island Vibes!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/08/island-vibes.html     Similarly to last year , I struggled a bit to think of a title for the post, lol. I've called this one Late Summer Vibes.    Afgan feat. Jessi- Escape In June 2024, Indonesian singer Afgan released the single Escape. It was the 1st single from Sonder, his 2nd English language mini album, which also came out in June. Escape was preceded by Shallow Water  (released in February 2024) and followed Criminal (Over You) featuring American singer  thủy  (released this January). For Escape, Afgan teamed up with South Korean based American rapper Jessi , whose 2017 single Down feature...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) I haven't done that many general dance videos posts (featuring more than one more genre) lately. My last one was Dance Videos- Couples' Edition 2! in May but apart from that, I haven't written a lot this year. So today I'm featuring a variety of videos from different genres. :)   [TPOP IN PUBLIC | ONE TAKE] FEAT- PIXIE | SINGAPORE DANCE COVER OPEROSE First up, some T-pop (Thai pop) in Public ! This is a dance cover of FEAT by Thai girl group PiXXie . It was released in May last year as a digital single. The cover is performed by OPEROSE. They are a dance cover crew from Singapore.  The video premiered in April and features MEGZ as Mabelz, JIAYI as Pimma and REENA as Inghko. It' s a one-take video, meaning it was filmed all in one go.       Watch the music video for FEAT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FztEbqElt0 Follow OPEROSE/subscribe to their channel here: ht...