In Profile: Eurosong: Jedward

Love them or hate them either way you cannot deny how successful the X-Factor Twins are. These two have made a carrer of being awful, in fact that was the reason they were formed. But they are so good at being bad they are good, if you get what I mean…

John Paul Henry Daniel Richard Grimes and Edward Peter Anthony Kevin Patrick Grimes (born 16 October 1991) formed for the 6th series of X-Factor in 2009, the judges found it very hard to get rid of them as the public kept voting them in every week. They became renowned for their bad performances and quickly developed a cult following. They quickly developed a signature look with their blond quaffs.

Jedward signed a £90,000 one-album contract with Sony Music in January 2010. It was also announced that they would have their own ITV2 documentary. On 20 January, they performed their debut single “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)” (a mashup of “Under Pressure” and “Ice Ice Baby”) at the 2010 National Television Awards with rapper Vanilla Ice, who performed with them in the second half of the song. “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)” was released on 31 January and the CD came out two weeks later. The song debuted at #1 on the Irish Singles Chart and #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Having actually only had a one-single deal, Jedward were dropped by Sony on 16 March after their debut single failed to top the UK charts, but Universal Music signed them up on a three-album contract the following day, which coincidentally was Saint Patrick’s Day. On 4 June, Jedward announced that their second single would be a cover of Blink-182′s 1999 hit “All the Small Things”. They then appeared at T4 on the Beach at Weston-super-Mare on 4 July and performed a medley of “Ghostbusters/Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)/All the Small Things”. Whilst performing a roundoff during “Ghostbusters”, Edward fell and severely injured his left leg. This was later worsened when he fell again whilst doing a hip gesture near the end of “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)”. He continued the performance of “All the Small Things” either limping or kneeling down. After the performance, Edward was taken to hospital and Jedward’s spokeswoman said at the time of the incident: “We think he’s broken his leg and at the very least has badly twisted the ligament in his knee.” It was later revealed that Edward had torn ligaments in his left knee and would require surgery on it, but he insisted that he would still be able to perform “even if I have to bring crutches on stage”.

On 16 July, Jedward’s single “All the Small Things” was released. Even though Blink-182 originally allowed Jedward to cover their song, they later ran a campaign to try and prevent the release of the twins’ version. This resulted in thousands of copies of Jedward’s version being recalled to their studio and destroyed. ”All the Small Things” peaked at #21 on the Irish Chart and #6 on the UK Indie Chart. On 26 July, Jedward released their debut album Planet Jedward, which went straight to #1 on the Irish Albums Chart and #17 on the UK Albums Chart. Blink-182 referenced Jedward at the Reading and Leeds Festival in August. Drummer Travis Barker announced “We would like very much to thank that band Jedward for allowing us to cover their song.” and frontman Tom DeLonge then said “Travis is super pissed about that shit and he wants to call them out to a fuckin duel.” These comments received both booing and cheering from the crowd. On 30 July, the twins appeared on the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother and performed “All the Small Things” in the garden as part the housemates’ task to “ignore the obvious”.

From 6 April to 1 May, Jedward completed their first solo tour, a sold-out 27-date tour of Ireland called the Planet Jedward Tour. Due to overwhelming demand, the Planet Jedward Tour was extended to 65 dates, with a second 38-date tour of concerts in both Ireland and the UK. The second tour began on 4 August and is scheduled to end in January 2011. The Irish Independent has rated the tour postively, saying that “Jedwardmania is right up there with Beatlemania”

Their manager is Louis Walsh whom many of ye know as the Judge on X-factor as well as manager to Boyzone and Westlife. He also managed Ronan Keatings solo career – this includes when he was submitting successful entries to Denmark – Brink 2009.

Their song for Eurosong is rumored to be called Lipstick, although if this picture that was circulated to the fan club yesterday is any indication then its true.

It is also said that Louie Sence will be doing their choreography for the night and lord forbid if they qualify. It’s more of a UK thing there – as he has become a recent z-list celebrity on the TV and papers over here, so don’t feel bad if you don’t know who that is

Also if it’s any indication for their favors in Eurosong then Brian Cowen even backed them at one point in their carrer. I do not doubt that they will win the public vote, but how will the Jury vote swing it on the night? Let’s face it Juries hate Jedward, but we have to wait and see on the night. Whatever happens we wish the boys well on the night.

Jedward will take part in the Irish Eurosong on RTE 1, Late Late Show at 9.30 GMT on Friday Feb 11th.