Star Sparkle Blog

Time for another instalment of my semi-regular series C-pop Saturday! Today I'm sharing some Chinese pop,R'n'B and dance. :)   MEME- Wei Xian Ren Wu First up is Wei Xian Ren Wu by Taiwanese girl group MEME (also written as ME ME). It consists of 5 members- Xiao Feng,  Xiao Ti, Strawberry and An Ru. I believe their Chinese name is a homophone of "secret", which, according to info on their  YouTube channel , "evokes a sense of mystery and reflects the members' commitment to innovate and bring unpredictable surprises to their audience" through their work.  Please note: I used Google Translate, so I hope this information is accurate! :) MEME debuted in June 2024 with the single MY BLACK EYES. To date they have released two more singles- Seaside Tour in February this year and Tian Kong Qing Niao (Bluebird in the Sky/Sky Bluebird) in April. Individual members have also released songs.  The title of this song is written in Chinese but I think that the Roma...

This week's video is Love Like This, the new single by British singer ZAYN  (full name Zayn Malik), the former One Direction  member turned solo star. It's his first music release in a while. His last single was a cover of the late singer Jimi Hendrix's  1970 song Angel. It was released in November 2022, for what would have been Jimi's 80th birthday. Zayn's last album was 2021's Nobody Is Listening. He was dropped by his record label RCA Records  in late 2021, but signed to the relaunched  Mercury Records  this June. He also signed to United Talent Agency  in January. Love Like This is Zayn's first release on Mercury. It's the lead single from his upcoming 4th studio album and came out on 21st July.  It's a pop and dance song with a laidback vibe. Zayn fan? Check out these posts:   Post about his 2nd album Icarus Falls (2018):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/01/new-zayn-album.html Features the 2019 video for Sour Diesel from...

A few artists I like have some new releases out, so here are some new songs for the end of summer! :)   Katy B- Under My Skin First up is a new song by British singer Katy B . I was surprised but happy to see that she has a new video, because it's been ages since she's released anything! I believe her last album was Honey back in 2016. It's actually 10 years now since she released her debut album! The single is called Under My Skin and the video premiered on 12th August.  BANKS- Skinnydipped This is the latest single from American singer BANKS . It's called Skinydipped and is about finally letting go of something that you kept going back to in the past.  Knowing your worth and shedding your skin. It follows the release of The Devil in June, so hopefully we can expect a new album soon! Skinnydipped came out on 25th August. Update 15/9/21: A lyric video has now been posted. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trT_v1-5sKU   Justin Bieber, Skrillex and Don To...

British duo AlunaGeorge have a new album out today called I Remember. I just listened to it earlier on  Spotify .  I have their first album Body Music which came out 3 years ago and it's good, so I was looking forward to the new release. I like I Remember although not as much as Body Music. But I've only listened to it once so far and sometimes it can take a few listens for songs to grow on you. I haven't decided yet if I'll buy the whole album or buy individual songs.  Here are my fave songs on it. :) Meditator This is my favourite song of all. I've been listening to it a lot since I first heard it at the beginning of the month. I included it in my most recent music update . It's not a single (maybe in the future though?) so there's no video. Meditator has a nice, relaxed vibe.   

A couple of weeks ago I did a round of up world music posts on the blog from Africa and Asia. It was originally going to include more countries but it was turning into a really long post, so I split it up. Now here is the second half. :) This post is about music from America, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. I'm not going to include most of the American and British music because I consider world music to be music from countries around the world other than Western ones and music that's not necessarily "mainstream" in the UK. Also I couldn't really link to every single post I've ever done because that would turn this into a massive post! lol. But I'm going to list a few artists from the UK and US, just so they're represented. :) You can read the Africa and Asia post here: http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/world-music-round-up-africa-and-asia.html America Guam Pia Mia http://starsparklex.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/wee...

In January I posted about British singer Katy B's   single Calm Down which was the first to be released from her new album Honey. Over the past few months she's released more songs and now the album has come out and is available to listen to Spotify and to buy on iTunes . As well as Calm Down, I'd previously heard Honey, I Wanna Be  and Who Am I. My favourite songs are I Wanna Be and Chase Me. (I couldn't listen to the new version of Turn The Music Louder because it wasn't available on Spotify but I'll try iTunes instead. Here's the video for I Wanna Be with producer Chris Lorenzo : And here's Katy's Spotify link: Katy B- Spotify What are your favourite songs on the album?

Time for another update on the new music I've been listening to and the new videos I've been watching lately. :) Foxes- Body Talk J Soul Brothers from EXILE TRIBE- J.S.B. DREAM (J-pop) Tine Tempah feat. Jess Glynne- No Letting Go  Pitbull feat. Chris Brown- Fun The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face Nick Brewer feat. Bibi Bourelly- Talk To Me * Natalie La Rose feat. Fetty Wap- Around The World Disclosure feat. Sam Smith- Omen Nick Brewer- Last Man Standing That's all for now! Will update again soon. :) *This reminds of T.I.'s Why You Wanna . According to comments on YouTube it samples a song by Crystal Waters, so T.I. probably sampled it as well.

While I like a lot of different types of music and artists, I like female solo singers most of all. I'm not sure why, maybe I just prefer female voices. Also it could be that I feel I can relate to their music more. Anyway I thought I'd post about my Top 10 singers. :) 1. Mariah Carey As I've mentioned before, Mariah is my favourite singer. She's had a long career (coming up 25 years) which started in 1990 with the release of her debut single Vision Of Love and debut album Mariah Carey.  To date she has released 62 singles including Vision Of Love, Honey, Heartbreaker, My All and We Belong Together, and 14 studio albums (as well as additional remix and greatest hits albums) including Mariah Carey, Music Box (1993), Butterfly (1997), The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009) and her latest Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse, released in 2014. Here is Obsessed, which is from Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel and came out in June 2009....

Sugababes were a British girl group who were active from about 1998 to 2013. They changed their line-up 4 times due to problems within the band. There have been 6 members altogether but only ever 3 at a time. I liked their music from the beginning but my favourite line-up was Keisha, Mutya and Heidi because I thought that their voices blended together well and I liked the music they released during that era, especially when it was more garage/R'n'B sounding.  As of 2013 the group have been on hiatus with no plans for future music. Here are my fave songs from each incarnation. :) 1998-2001 Sugababes started out with Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy in 1998. Mutya and Keisha had been friends since school but Siobhan reportedly didn't get on so well with them. She left in 2001 and later said that she was bullied by Keisha during her time in the group. This is New Year which was the second single from Sugababes' debut album One Touch (2000). It was re...

Today's video is for You & Me, the latest single by Disclosure . It's one of my current favourite songs and it features Eliza Doolittle . Disclosure's debut album Settle is out now. For more on Eliza and a video of the Piano version of You & Me, visit her site: www.elizadoolittle.com

This is Latch by Disclosure , featuring Sam Smith. Disclosure are a British electronic duo, made up of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. They debuted in 2010 with their first single Offline Dexterity and have released 5 singles so far, the latest being White Noise feat. AlunaGeorge . Another song called You & Me which features Eliza Doolittle is due out at the end of the month. Disclosure have also released 6 EPs and their debut album Settle will be out on 3rd June. Latch is their 4th single and was released last October.                                 For more on Disclosure visit these links: www.officialdisclosure.com Official YouTube And for Sam Smith go here:  www.samsmithworld.com

This week it's a video by Sugababes . They're a British girl group who have had several line-up changes due to problems within the band. Sugababes started out with Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy in 1998. Mutya and Keisha were friends already. They released their first album One Touch in 2000 but Siobhan left in 2001 and later said that she was bullied by Keisha during her time in the group. She was replaced by Heidi Range, a former member of Atomic Kitten (another group that has changed its members a lot!). Sugababes then released their second album Angels With Dirty Faces, which is their most successful album so far. In 2005, Mutya left the group, due to personal reasons after having a baby. Her replacement was Amelle Berrabah and the girls re-recorded their fourth album Taller In More Ways. The line-up changes weren't over yet though and in 2009 Keisha left, saying that she was basically kicked out, since it wasn't her choice to leave. She was repla...