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...

In the past few years, I've written occasional posts about my current favourite songs. More recently, I've also done posts featuring my fave songs from the year as a whole (like my Favourite Songs of 2025 post ). So here they are for the first half of 2026! You can see my previous posts at the links below: June 2019: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/06/current-favourite-songs.html May 2020: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/05/current-favourite-songs.html April 2021:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/current-favourite-songs.html Feb 2022: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/02/current-favourite-songs.html April 2024:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/04/current-favourite-songs.html   March 2025: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2025/03/current-favourite-songs.html   Here are the songs I like at the moment. :)     The Kid LAROI- COME DOWN Back in January, I featured some new music by Australian singer and rapper The Kid LA...

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...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yesterday. :) 2026 is shaping up to be the year of K-pop  comebacks, with several popular groups reuniting (including two of the biggest internationally known groups BLACKPINK and BTS , so I thought I'd feature them in a miniseries. :)   First up is girl group  BLACKPINK . Since debuting in 2016, the 4-member group (made up of JENNIE, LISA, JISOO and  ROSÉ) has been very successful, both in Korea and around the world. In recent years the girls have concentrated on their solo careers . Their individual contracts with YG Entertainment (one of the biggest South Korean entertainment companies/record labels) expired but they  continued to work with YG for group activities and embarked on the <DEADLINE> world tour last summer, which lasted until this January.  Now the members have reunited for their first release since 2022's BORN PINK (their second studio album), an EP also c...

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...

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...

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week, I haven't been well and didn't manage to finish it yesterday. :) Last year I started a new series on the blog called Random Albums, where I feature an album I own. The first one was Teedra Moses' debut album Complex Simplicity . You can see it here:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/09/random-albums-teedra-moses-complex.html Note: It was just over a year ago now and I haven't done another post in the series yet! I plan to get back to it in 2026. :) Complex Simplicity was originally released in August 2004 in the US (but not till June 2005 in the UK). Teedra released a 15th anniversary edition of the album in September 2009. Last year was the 20th anniversary. Now she has brought out a new version of the album called COMPLEX SIMPLICITY (REIMAGINED), in EP format. It was released on 12th November. Teedra says it features re-imaginings of songs she wrote at a much younger age  and is a thank you to fans.  She also says that wh...

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...