Star Sparkle Blog

Sorry the 2nd post is later again this week. I normally post on Fridays or Saturdays (most often Saturdays) but sometimes I don't manage to get a post finished in time. I had a busy day yesterday, so didn't get this finished. :) Korean group KARD have just released their 1st album Where To Now? (Part.2): NOWHERE. Sadly it will also be their last album (or at least there are no current plans for more) since they are disbanding after over 9 years together. However, as fans have pointed out, the group may not be permanently disbanding. The contract with their agency has expired and they aren't renewing it. The members have said that they plan to concentrate on solo careers but haven't ruled out reuniting as a group in the future. KARD is made up of 4 members- SOMIN, BM, JIWOO and J.seph. As one of the few co-ed/mixed gender groups in K-pop (an industry dominated by girl groups and boy bands  when it comes to group music) they stand out. I've followed them since thei...

Today's video if You're Mine by Japanese boy band  PSYCHIC FEVER from EXILE TRIBE . It's their latest single and from their 2nd album DIFFERENT, which was released on 8th July. If You're Mine is the lead single from the album (although I Got Ways was a pre-release single in May) and came out on 10th July. It's in the style of the group’s signature song  Just Like Dat  and  What's Happenin' and is described as a "modern take on the Miami bass / 2-step sound inspired by early 2000s R'n'B".  The song follows on from Just Like Dat and is about what happens after two people become interested in each other. It's a mixture of Japanese and English lyrics. Click "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles! :)    There's also a dance practice video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MO-Duwxg3s   Plus, check out the music video for I Got Ways:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHy5EvDsz50   And stream/buy DIFFEREN...

Today's video is MURAL by American singers Swae Lee and  Jhené Aiko . Swae (one half of hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd , along with his brother Slim Jxmmi) and Jhené previously teamed up a couple of times before- first for the single/song Sativa in 2018 (from Jhené's album Trip; the single version features both Swae and Slim Jxmmi as Rae Sremmurd) and again for In The Dark back in 2021. In The Dark was from the soundtrack for the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings .  MURAL is from Swae's debut studio album SAME DIFFERENCE, which was released on 3rd April. It's his  first official solo album (although he previously released one as part of Rae Sremmurd's triple album SR3MM in 2018). MURAL is the third single from the album, following FLAMMABLE and DON'T EVEN CALL featuring rapper  Rich The Kid (released in February and March respectively). It came out on 6th April and is a chilled hip hop song. The music video is somewhat "trippy" with Swa...

Sorry the 2nd post is later again this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) Last month I started a mini series called K-pop Comebacks, featuring the comebacks of K-pop groups during 2026. The first one was about BLACKPINK and you can see it here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/03/k-pop-comebacks-blackpink.html Today I'm focusing on BTS (one of the most popular Korean boybands ). They debuted in 2013 and are a 7-member group, made up of leader RM, formerly known as Rap Monster (real name Kim Nam Joon), SUGA (Min Yoon Gi), Jin (full name Kim Seok Jin), j-hope (Jung Ho-seok), Jimin (Park Ji Min), V (Kim Tae Hyung) and Jungkook (Jeon Jung Kook). * Since then, the boys have been very successful, not only in South Korea but internationally. They are probably one of the most well-known K-pop bands worldwide.  In June 2022, the group took a break while the members served their  mandatory military service in Korea and have also been concentrat...

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 Playdoh, the new single by British rapper and singer B Young . It's been a while since I've heard music from him. His most recent album was ESC which came out in November 2024 and he released several singles that year. However, I recently discovered that he did bring out a few singles last year- Only U in July (plus an acoustic version), Foreign in September and In My Bag in October. Playdoh was released on 30th January. It's an R'n'B/hip hop song with a good beat and sexy lyrics!     Want more B Young? Check out these links:  Live Performances 2023-2025 (features a live performance of his 2024 song ATTENTION from ESC, plus links to more music):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/02/live-performances-2023-2025.html Official audio for Foreign:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EPMXWyQz7c Official audio for In My Bag; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co8hZYIVGlc

It's a new year and so time for my annual post featuring new music! I started this back in 2017 (writing posts sharing new music at the beginning of the year). You can see 2025's at the links below: New Music for 2025:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/01/new-music-for-2025.html   More New Music for 2025: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/02/more-new-music-for-2025.html   And now here's some new music for 2026! It's mostly Asian artists but a variety of genres. :)   The Kid LAROI- BACK WHEN YOU WERE MINE First up, some new music from Australian singer and rapper  The Kid LAROI . He released his 2nd studio album BEFORE I FORGET on 9th January. It's the follow-up to his 2023 debut THE FIRST TIME, which originally came out in November 2023 and was also released as a deluxe edition in August 2024. LAROI initially planned for his 2nd album to be called WATCH THIS! and released several singles intended to be on it- APEROL SPRITZ , ALL I WANT IS YOU , HOT GI...

Today's video is Ooh by Korean American rapper BM (who is a member of mixed gender/co-ed K-pop group KARD ). It's his latest single and is from his 2nd EP PO:INT, which came out on 20th October. The EP is the follow-up to BM's debut EP Element , which was released in May 2024. Ooh is the 2nd single from PO:INT, coming after Freak featuring Korean rapper B.I , (released on the same day as the EP). It's an English language R'n'B/hip hop song with Latin influences. Ooh was released on 4th December.   Also watch the music video for Freak here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq92CQE9X9g   And visit this link to stream/listen to PO:INT:  https://lnk.to/KARDBM_POINT     BM and/or KARD fan? Check out these posts:   Music video for BM's Nectar feat. Jay Park from Element (2024):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/05/new-music-releases.html   New Music Releases (features KARD's most recent single Touch, released in July): https://starspar...

Sorry there was no 2nd post last week; I didn't manage to get it finished in time. :) A couple of months ago I wrote a post about the solo careers of the members of Korean girl group BLACKPINK . It ended up being quite a long post, so as with similar posts, I split it up into two parts. Part 1 covered JENNIE and   ROSÉ,  and you can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/07/blackpink-girls-solo-careers-part-1.html Now here is Part 2 featuring LISA and JISOO. :)   LISA 6 months after  ROSÉ,  the group's main rapper LISA (real name Lalisa Manobal, formerly Pranpiya Manobal) made her own solo debut (the 3rd member to do so). She released her debut single album LALISA in September 2021 .  The single album  became the best selling album by a female soloist at the time and broke the record for the  highest first-week sales for a female K-pop soloist, which was previously set by  ROSÉ (see Part 1). In turn,  LISA's reco...

Canadian singer Justin Bieber released a surprise new album last month. It's called SWAG and is his 7th studio album. News of SWAG  only emerged just before its release on 11th July. I think I came across songs from it on YouTube and realised they were from a new album. It had been quite a while since Justin had brought out new music, so I was pleased to find out about it! :) SWAG follows Justin's 6th album Justice and 2nd EP Freedom (both released in 2021). To date it has reached No. 1 in several countries , including Canada, Australia, Norway and Portugal and charted within the Top 10 in more, including the UK, US, Australia, Spain and Japan. The release of SWAG comes after Justin has been through a difficult time in his personal life. There have been rumours of problems in his marriage with wife American model and businesswoman  Hailey Bieber (daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, one of the Baldwin brothers ) and worries over Justin behaving erratically as well as...

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...