Star Sparkle Blog

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...

This week's video is Blush by Filipina girl group BINI . It's their latest single and is from their new EP Signals, both on which were released on 9th April. It's been an eventful year for the group so far, after they became the  first Filipino act to perform at the 2026 Coachella festival in California, US, last month. It was also a milestone for  P-pop (Pinoy/Filipino pop ), which showed how the genre is becoming more popular internationally. The track is described as "an anthem for a summer crush" that "blends breezy pop energy with feel-good rhythm". It's about the feeling of excitement experienced when the person you like walks into a room, leading you to blush when they look at you!  BINI have become known as the "Summer Queens" of P-pop, due to releasing summer themed music and Blush follows in this tradition. It's also a good fit because of the early/pre-summer heatwave we're currently having in the UK! This is the official...

The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest is tonight, so it's time for my second Eurovision post of the year! You can see the first one here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2026.html Similarly to last year , I saw the second semi-final (the one the UK could vote in) and some of the first one. I don't always watch them both because then I've heard all the songs beforehand (I listen to the ones that didn't get through later). Here are my favourites from this year's contest. :)    Sarah Engels- Fire (Germany) Sarah Engels is representing Germany with the song Fire. As part of the "Big 5" (the countries which contribute the most financially to Eurovision), Germany automatically qualify for the final, along with us (the UK), France, Spain and Italy. However, it's the Big 4 in 2026, since Spain is  one of 5 countries not competing due to objections over Israel's participation in the contest.  Sarah first became ...

Eurovision season is here once again! The 2026 Grand Final will be on Saturday 16th May. In 2026 it is the 70th Eurovision Song Contest , so a landmark year! It will be held in Vienna, Austria, after the 2025 contest was won by JJ with his song Wasted Love . The UK's entry is  LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER with Eins, Zwei, Drei .  I normally write two posts in the lead-up to Eurovision (occasionally a couple of "mini countdown" posts too). Here are my posts from last year:  Countdown to Eurovision 2025!: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2025.html   Eurovision Favourites 2025: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/05/eurovision-2025-favourites.html   And here is the first one of 2026! Today I'm taking a look at Eurovision spin-off contests. :)  Update 10/5/26: I've updated this post to include the Junior version of ESC! :)     American Song Contest  An American spin-off of ESC called the  American Song Con...

This week's video is Bite The Bullet by Sissy Ford . She is a British singer who was born in Cambridge and then moved to London aged 17, to study music at  East London Arts and Music (ELAM) . Sissy released her first single Louder independently in May 2024. She went on to bring out her debut EP FROM HOME: THE BEDROOM EP in March 2025. Her other singles include Fake It, Streets, Bite The Bullet and her latest, Sit Right. Sissy is inspired by a variety of artists, such as SZA , Don Toliver , Arctic Monkeys , Michael Jackson , Kehlani and kwn (who is also Kehlani's girlfriend!). She makes her own beats and has a large following on social media platforms, where she has created music with her fanbase. Bite The Bullet was released in November last year. It's a R'n'B song with a good beat and confident lyrics about being a better choice for a girl than her boyfriend.   There's also a live version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBJUpS8qqcc Plus, here is the music vi...

I've often featured Asian girl groups on the blog (such as in my Asian Groups series ). Today I thought I'd do something a little different and share some live performances from a few Asian girl groups! :)    no na- shoot In October I included a performance from Indonesian girl group  no na in my Live Performances 2025 post. They performed their single shoot at the Head in the Clouds NYC event in New York City, in September 2025.  You can see the post here (scroll down):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/10/live-performances-2025.html   no na- the one (Acoustic Version) And here is another performance by no na, this time of their latest single the one (written in lower case, like their group name and other song titles). It's a upbeat pop/dance song with 80s vibes and was released in November. For the acoustic version, no na are accompanied by a musician playing traditional Indonesian instruments. The video was uploaded on 11th December.  ...

Today is New Year's Eve, so this week's video is New Year themed! It's What Are You Doing New Year's Eve by Christina Aguilera . It's a live performance of the song (recorded at the Eiffel Tower in Paris), which is part of Christina's new Christmas special Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris. It marks the 25th anniversary of her first holiday album My Kind of Christmas and consists of a concert film and a live album. The film was shown in American cinemas earlier in December (and was also shown in the UK) and the album was released on 14th December. Two singles have been released so far- a cover of My Favorite Things from the classic musical The Sound of Music on 26th November and Someday at Christmas on 12th December. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? is a classic song that was written by American songwriter  Frank Loesser  (also known for writing for Broadway musicals and composing the winter themed song Baby, It's Cold Outside, which is often ...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. I do aim to post on Fridays or Saturdays, but some weeks it's later and that's ok. :) It's nearly the end of 2025, so here is my round-up of the best posts from the year! :) You can see my previous Best Of posts (dating back to 2016) at the links below:  2016's Best Of:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/best-of-2016.html   2017's:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/best-of-2017.html 2018's: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/best-of-2018.html 2019's:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/12/best-of-2019.html 2020's: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/12/best-of-2020.html 2021's: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/01/best-of-2021.html 2022's: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/01/best-of-2022.html 2023's:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2023/12/best-of-2023.html 2024's: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/1...

It's only 5 days till Christmas (seems to have come round quickly again!), so it's time for another festive themed post! Last year I wrote a post called Christmas Entertainment! You can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/12/christmas-entertainment.html For 2025, I'm sharing more Christmas entertainment. It's a mixture of music and dance. :)   Music Tobii- X Mas Love Thai/Swiss rapper and R'n'B singer  Tobii's  X Mas Love was this week's Weekly Music Video. Originally released in December 2024, he brought out a new visualiser for the song last month. Watch it here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/12/weekly-music-video_17.html     Christina Aguilera- Someday at Christmas Christina Aguilera (one of my favourite singers) has just released a new Christmas special, to mark the 25th anniversary of her holiday album My Kind of Christmas (which came out in October 2000). It's called Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris and was reco...

Christina Aguilera (one of my favourite singers) recently did a live performance. She performed My Favorite Things from the classic musical The Sound of Music  (originally released in 1959) and the 1965 film , live from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.  The song is the first single from Christina's  upcoming Christmas special , which will be in American theatres on 14th and 21st December. The film is called Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris and is being released to mark the 25th anniversary of her holiday album My Kind of Christmas (released in October 2000). There is also a live album. My Favorite Things was released on 26th November.     Watch the trailer for Christmas in Paris here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFVLmS71l2E&t=1s   Listen to the original version of My Favorite Things in a scene from The Sound of Music here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IagRZBvLtw   Plus, here are a couple more songs which sampled My Fa...

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...