Star Sparkle Blog

Today's video is Princess GaL (Harajuku Y2K ver.) by Japanese singer Hamano Haruki (or Haruki Hamano in Western terms). She is a Japanese singer-songwriter from Fukuoka. Haruki's music is a mixture of J-pop, hip hop and rap and her lyrics are described as  "sensual and realistic, with a touch of venom" . Born in 2000 herself, she is popular with Generation Z women and has stated that her goal is to "be a friend to all women". Haruki released her debut EP 2000 in 2021 and has since released 4 more- nichijounonakaniaruhinichijou (2022), To the past me, so that I can laugh. (2022), Hamano Haruki "Re:Arranged (2023), LovE ToXic (2023). She just brought out her 1st album NET BaBy on 7th May. Her singles include WATASHI NO MONOSASHI, Tokyo, sexless, Princess GaL, CuL and her most recent, Chu <3 (a collaboration song with the lip brand CHOOSY ) which came out last month.  Princess GaL (Harajuku Y2K ver.) is a new version of Haruki's digital single Prin...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post sharing some new music for 2025. You can read it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/new-music-for-2025.html   Today I'm sharing some more new releases from various genres. Please note that some of the songs contain swearing/explicit lyrics. :) Sukriti and Prakriti Kakkar- Aa Zara Indian twin musical duo Sukriti and Prakriti Kakkar's new single Aa Zara (released on 24th January) was this week's Weekly Music Video. Watch it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/weekly-music-video_29.html   JoJo- Ready To Love American singer JoJo recently released the single Ready To Love. It's one of the latest singles from her new EP NGL, her 5th, following on 2021's trying not to think about it . The EP title stands for "Not Gonna Lie" and it came out on 24th January. NGL is mainly R'n'B and consists of 8 tracks including previous singles, lead single Porcelain, plus the "stripped down" version...

Sorry this week's post is later; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :)   It's a new year, so time for some new music! Since 2017 I've been writing posts sharing new music releases for the new year. You can see 2024's at the links below: New Music for 2024: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-music-for-2024.html More New Music for 2024:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/02/more-new-music-for-2024.html   So here are some new releases from a variety of genres. :) KARD- Detox First up, some K-pop! This is Detox, the latest single by Korean mixed gender/co-ed group KARD . It was actually released in December but I thought I'd include it. :) The group released their 7th mini album Where To Now? Part 1: Yellow Light last summer, along with the singles Tell My Momma and SPIN.  Detox is a stand-alone/non-album single but it may be intended for Part 2 of Where To Now? in the future. Detox is a pop/dance song about "detoxing" from all t...

It's been ages since I've done a post solely about J-pop (not since last summer !). So today I'm featuring a selection of Japanese music and dance. As with other J-pop posts, some videos are new and others a bit older, so it's new(ish).  :)  [DANCE IN PUBLIC ONE TAKE] MISAMO Do no touch dance cover- Mermaids Taiwan First up, some J-pop in Public ! This is a dance cover of Do not touch by MISAMO , the first sub-unit of  K-pop girl group TWICE . The unit is made up of the band's 3 Japanese members, Momo, Sana and Mina, so they have released music in Japanese. Do not touch came out last July as the lead single from MISAMO's debut Japanese EP Masterpiece. The dance cover is performed by Mermaids Taiwan and features Ling as Mina, Yiwei as Sana and Anta as Momo. The video was uploaded in October.     Visit my last New(ish) J-pop Videos posts to see the music video for Do not touch (scroll down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/08/new-j-pop-videos.html   A...

It's been ages since I've done an-all J-pop post (apart from my J-pop in Public ones ). Although I've written a couple of posts sharing some K-pop and J-pop videos  and a couple of  Weekly Music Videos ( Koda Kumi and RIRI ). I think the last New Videos post with just J-pop was in 2021 ! So here is some new Japanese music. :) I've called it "New(ish)" as with previous posts  because a couple of the videos are from June! NOA- BURN First up is BURN, the latest single by solo singer NOA (full name Kazama Noa, or Noa Kazama in Western terms). He released his debut album NO. A in February but I think this is a stand-alone single. BURN is a Japanese and English language song and came out on 20th June.  MISAMO - Do not touch   MISAMO  (also written as MiSaMo) is the first sub-unit of popular K-pop girl group TWICE . It consists of the band's 3 Japanese members, Momo (full name Hirai MoMo), Sana (Minatozaki Sana) and Mina (Myoui Mina). The group is named afte...

Today's music video is I Need U by Japanese singer RIRI . It's her latest single and was released in February, but I only just came across it now.  I Need U is an English language pop song with R'n'B and dance vibes! There is a Japanese version as well. Listen to the Japanese version here:  https://youtu.be/4umQ6rwLtcY It's been a while since I've featured J-pop on the blog, so maybe I'll share some more soon! :) RIRI fan? Check out these posts: Includes Summertime (appropriate for this time of year!):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/06/summer-songs-round-up.html Features Wheel of Fortune and Luv Deja vu (2021):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/08/newish-j-pop-and-k-pop-videos.html   P.S . Today is the "official" start of summer, since it's the Summer Solstice (also known as Litha) . So Happy Summer! (Or Happy Winter if you're in the Southern Hemisphere!) :) 

This week's music video is [Trigger] by my favourite Japanese singer Koda Kumi (or Kumi Koda in Western terms). It's from her latest release, WINGS, a music and live package EP which was released in January. The album contains 6 songs, including the title track which came out as a digital single last August, Trigger and It's 'K' Magic, released in March 2022. The video for Trigger was uploaded on 17th January, a day before the EP came out. It's an R'n'B song with a good beat, that provides a cool contrast to the ballad [Wings]. Note: Avex videos are blocked from being shown on third party applications. If you click on the video, you can watch them fine on YouTube. :)     Watch the video for Wings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgMPcA3KLo4   Kumi fan? Check out these posts: Happy 20th Anniversary Koda Kumi! (celebrating her 20th music anniversary in 2020):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/12/happy-20th-anniversary-koda-kumi.html Features th...

Today I'm sharing a selection of Japanese and Korean videos! As with my 2020 J-pop videos post and this year's J-pop and K-pop post ,  I've titled it "New(ish) since there are a couple of songs that are older. :) G-EGG B team- Santa Monica (Japanese version) First up is Santa Monic by G-EGG . They are a Japanese/Korean boy group project. I came across this video a while ago and the group has just debuted in Korea, so they've now released a Korean version too.  G-EGG is short for Global Egg and was created by Jung Yoonhak , the leader of K-pop boyband SUPERNOVA .  They were put together with the intention of forming a final group and took part in the survival TV programme G-EGG. The final group is called NIK and consists of the top 11 members. There were 4 G-EGG teams- A, B, C and D. I won't list all the members but just the ones from the B team, since Santa Monica is their song. :)  B team was made up of 5 members (including a few who made it into NIK)- Gunmi...

My favourite Japanese singer Koda Kumi (Kumi Koda in Western terms) is celebrating her 20th anniversary in the music business this month! She released her debut single TAKE BACK on 6th December 2000. I've mentioned before that I was a bit confused because she started her celebrations last year. But I think that she was celebrating a 19th to 20th anniversary event.  To date Koda has released 16 studio albums, including her debut Affection (2002), Grow into One (2003), Secret (2005), Black Cherry (2006), Kindom (2008), TRICK (2009), Dejavu (2011), Japonesque (2012), WALK OF MY LIFE (2015), W FACE- INSIDE/OUTSIDE (2017), DNA (2018) and re (CORD) (2019). She has also brought out quite a few compilations, remix album and EPs, plus two cover albums. Her 57 singles include TAKE BACK, So into You, Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba, Chase, Himitsu,  feel, Butterfly, feel, Love Me Back, Fance in The Rain, STRIP  and Puff. She has collaborated with several artists including KM-MARKIT on ...

Back in May I did a post featuring videos my J-pop and K-pop playlist on YouTube. You can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/videos-from-my-youtube-playlist-k-pop.html I just shared some Korean videos then, but today I'm also sharing some Japanese ones. I recently updated it, so there are some new ones on there. :) Mariya- Motion (J-pop) First up is Motion by Mariya . She is a Japanese model, actress and singer from Fukuoka Prefecture. Her full name is Mariya Nishuichi (or Nishiuchi Mariya in Japanese terms) and she is the younger sister of Hiromui Nishuici who was a member of J-pop group BeForU .* Mariya launched her singing career in August 2014 with the single Love Evolution, and her other singles are 7 Wonders, Arigato Forever, Save Me, Chu Chu/Hello, Believe and Motion. She is one of the top models in Japan, and has won several Best New Artist Awards with her music. Motion came out in February 2017 and was Mariya's 7th single. I believe she is more of...

Today's music video is Eyes on Me by Japanese singer Jasmine (stylised as JASMINE). The song features hip hop artist Jinmenusagi and is a laid-back J-R'B love song.  Eyes On Me is from Jasmine's new EP M and the video came out in September.  Also check out the new song Talkin' About You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_PPFyuyVf4     For more music by JASMINE visit these links : Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCocE9WdQE_u2LR-MbOqMJ1w My post which features her single FALLIN': https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/09/selection-of-j-pop-videos.html

It's been a while since I've done a J-pop specific post (the last one was in April ), so today I'm sharing a selection of J-pop videos. :)  KIRA- Bye Bye Boy First up is by Bye Bye Boy by KIRA . She is from Osaka and was the first Japanese singer at Macau Casino. She debuted in 2014 with the single Nadeshiko Soul, and brought out her debut album LISTENER KILLER. She released the mini album SURVIVE in 2016 and her 2nd album NAKED in 2018. KIRA's hit singles include a remix of Nadeshiko Soul featuring MINMI, TERRY JANE with Yosuke Kubokuza from LINE and Bye Bye Baby.  Her latest release is the digital single Don't text me, which came out in August. KIRA's music is more J-R'n'B than J-pop. Some other J-R'n'B singers I like are Hiromi and Jasmine. Two of my favourite Japanese singers Koda Kumi and Namie Amuro have also released more R'n'B style music as well as J-pop. See below for more on Jasmine and Koda Kumi. :) Bye Bye Boy is the lead s...

Today is the first official day of summer of the Northern Hemisphere. It's the Summer Solstice (also known as Litha ) which occurs around 21st June every year. If you're interested in reading more about it, check out this Litha + Summer Inspiration post over on my other blog The Seasonal Life: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/06/litha-summer-inspiration.html For the past few years I've done posts featuring summer songs, so this year  I thought I would do a round-up of previous blog posts, plus share a couple of new ones. And later on in the summer I'll probably do a new post. Although this summer is likely to look different to previous ones, due to the coronavirus pandemic  and resulting lockdowns/quarantines and restrictions still in place in many countries, hopefully we can still enjoy it. So here's the round-up and I hope the songs get you inspired for summer. :) Top 10 Summer Songs: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/08/top-10-summer-songs.html Mor...

This week's video is by luv luv by Japanese singer RIRI and featuring Junoflo . RIRI's full name is Arai Riri (Riri Arai in Western terms) and she's from Gunma Prefecture . RIRI started singing aged 4 and went on to win the Next Generation Star singing show in 2011, aged 11. She signed to the agency  MIC-A-HOLIC-INC and the following year performed in America. She released her debut single GOLD and EP I love to sing in 2016. GOLD was produced by the singer A.I. I have A.I's album MIC-A-HOLIC A.I but haven't heard any of her more recent stuff. Will check it out in future! :) RIRI's music is Japanese pop and R'n'B. Her other singles include Maybe One Day, That's My Baby, HONEY and her latest Episode 0. She  also did a Japanese cover of Russian German  DJ Zedd's single Stay. To date she has brought out a 2nd EP Rush (2017) and two studio albums, RIRI (February 2018) and NEO (November 2018). In May 2019 she released her 3rd EP Summertime, and also ...