Star Sparkle Blog

In the past I've written a couple of posts about international girl groups. You can see them below: International Girl Groups:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/04/international-girl-groups.html More International Girl Groups:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/11/more-international-girl-groups.html   The first post featured Angolan group Afrikanas and Thai group G-TWENTY, and the second one featured South African group Girl Chat and Thai group Wizzle. I haven't come across many African girl groups in general, so I was excited to discover Nigerian girl group MYST recently! :)  Described as a Nigerian Afro-pop girl group, MYST is a trio made up of Mira,  Sucré and Trella. They come from different states/areas (Mira is from Lagos,  Sucré is from  Abuja and Trella is from Port Harcourt) and were originally solo artists before forming the group.  They  connected in interesting ways - Mira met  Sucré's  aunt in a BTS Army grou...

Today's video is Heaven Baby by Nigerian singer Ayra Starr and featuring British singer ZAYN  (Zayn Malik). It's her latest song and is from her 3rd studio album Starrgirl, which was released in August.  The first official single from Starrgirl was Tornado, which came out in June. However, the album also includes the previously released singles Gimme Dat featuring Wizkid , Hot Body, Who's Dat Girl featuring Nigerian singer and rapper  Rema and Where Do We Go. My favourite songs from it include Hot Body and Pressure featuring American singer Leon Thomas (not a single). ZAYN's latest album is KONNAKOL (his 5th) which  was released in April and his latest single is Sideways which came out in April. I'm not sure if Heaven Baby is an official single (it's listed as the 14th official track on Starrgirl ) but maybe it's more of a promotional single. It was released in August but there is now also a music video. The duet marks Ayra's first collaboration with ZA...

Back in May during the time of the Eurovision Song Contest , I heard that an Asian version was launching. I was excited because I'm a fan of both Eurovision and Asian music ! Now it's getting closer because the first edition of Eurovision Song Contest Asia  will take place next month.  Visit my Countdown to Eurovision 2026! post for more about the contest (scroll down): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2026/05/countdown-to-eurovision-2026.html There is now more information since I first wrote about it. The Grand Final will be held in Bangkok , Thailand on Saturday 14th November and 11 countries are competing. In addition to the TV broadcasts in the 11 countries, it will also be shown live on YouTube and there will be a Rest of the World vote (which was introduced to the main ESC in recent years). I hope to watch and vote but will have to check the time difference.  The contestants have been chosen through national selection shows. 8 countries have been confirmed so far-...

This week's video is Best Behavior by Canadian R'n'B duo Majid Jordan  (made up of Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman) and featuring British singer  Clementine Douglas . It's from Majid Jordan's 5th studio album Two Roads, which was released on 28th August. Two Roads follows their previous album Good People/Afterhours which came out in November 2023. It was preceded by the lead single Cold and 2nd single See You Again, (released in May and June respectively). Majid Jordan describe it as their "most immersive and fully realised work to date" .  To date, they have released two more singles- the title track on 21st August and Strangers on 28th August. Side note: It's now 10 years since I first featured Majid Jordan on the blog ! I didn't realise it had been so long, lol.  Best Behavior is one of my favourite songs from Two Roads (others include Have I Gone Too Far?, Rather Be With You and Dream). It's an R'n'B synth pop song and puts me ...

It's been a while since I've shared any Turkish music on the blog (I did a couple of posts last year ). So today I thought it would be cool to feature new Turkish boy band CRUSH ! :) In recent years, the rise of K-pop globally has inspired other countries to create more  next/new generation pop groups . In Turkey, girl group manifest made their debut last year. And now there is a male group counterpart! CRUSH were formed through the Idol House Türkiye  reality show competition, which was inspired by the South Korean idol training system . The contestants were virtually enrolled in a professional idol camp for training and then competed on the show, which was broadcast on YouTube. The winning members were chosen by a jury and public vote. The  group is signed to Istanbul and New York based record label  ETL Records and Turkey' largest record label  DMC Music Company  (aka Dogan Music Company). Their goal is to  "bring together the different stren...

This week’s video is GET EVEN by Australian singer and rapper The Kid LAROI , and featuring American singer-songwriter  GIVĒON . GET EVEN is LAROI's latest single and follows SLEEP, which came out in August. He released his 2nd studio album BEFORE I FORGET in January and a deluxe edition in April, as well as several singles from it. As with SLEEP, I think GET EVEN is a stand alone single. Both songs were recorded for  the original version of LAROI's 2nd album (then titled WATCH THIS!). As I mentioned in a previous post , he decided to scrap it and record a new one, which was largely inspired by his break-up with girlfriend Canadian singer  Tate McRae .  In turn, a couple of songs on the deluxe edition of Tate's 3rd album SO CLOSE TO WHAT??? (released last November, following the original’s February 2025 release) are thought to be about LAROI. GET EVEN was released on 18th September. Although the song  marks the first time that LAROI and GIVĒON have worked...

In March I started a mini series called New Generation Girl Groups, which features new girl groups. So far I've featured  GIRLSET and fiveALIVE .  Now here is the next post in the mini series! Today I'm featuring British girl group Say Now . :)  Say Now formed in 2022 and originally called themselves needanamebro  They debuted their current name in July 2023, explaining that Say Now is something they live by ("saying how you feel when you feel it"). The group consists of 3 members- Ysabelle (Yssy) Salvanera), Amelia Onurah and Madeline (Maddy) Haynes. They stared out as a duo (Amelia and Yssy) but  then Maddy joined, after meeting the other girls through social media. They are managed by Modest! Management and also signed to  Atlantic Records . Say Now started out posting covers on TikTok and released their debut single Better Love in April 2023 (under needanamebro). Other singles Not a Lot Left to Say and Netflix (Better Without You) followed later tha...