Jedward
Jedward – good lads, actually (Picture: Backgrid/ITV)

Cast your minds back to 2009.

Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States. Avatar became the highest grossing film in history, despite nobody quite knowing what it’s about. Nobody knew the word Brexit yet. And the entire nation was united in their hatred of two teenagers with gravity-defying quiffs. 

Yep, 11 years ago, John and Edward Grimes became public enemy number one as they competed on The X Factor as the duo, Jedward.

It wasn’t hard to see why they made it to the live finals – they were TV gold. Every time the Dubliners spoke in a faux American accent, Simon Cowell’s blood pressure visibly rose.

Their chaotic energy levels on stage were enough to make a primary school teacher collapse. They rarely sang in time or in harmony. It was an ultimate troll move to put them through judges houses. 

But they were also the best part of the sixth series of The X Factor (aside from it giving us Stacey Solomon, probably the nicest celebrity that we have, and Rachel Adedeji falling over while running towards Dannii Minogue). Before every TV show was pored over on Twitter, they managed to become the most talked about contestants despite having zero chance of winning.

Their performance of Oops! I Did It Again, complete with Titanic monologue, was one of the show’s most surreal moments. When a sneaky move to deadlock by Simon Cowell meant that Lucie Jones got eliminated rather than the twins, it was a national incident.

Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown got involved, saying they were ‘not very good’, while then Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen backed them. 

At the time, I felt the same about Jedward as everybody else – annoyed. Despite coming from Dublin as well, and knowing people who were taught by the twins’ late mother, I just could not get behind Jedward when more typically talented people were getting cut in their favour.

I didn’t get their accents (I know where they live, that ain’t it), and I could imagine spending an hour with them would irritate me to the point of a Frank Grimes in The Simpsons type meltdown.

When I first moved to the UK and discovered my new housemate was a Jedward groupie that followed them on tour, I was baffled. 

But a decade on, I have now realised that I was wrong about Jedward, and we owe them redemption.

The thing is, Jedward are actually geniuses. Out of a fairly successful X Factor year, they have managed to sustain a successful career and remain in the public consciousness.

They realised early on that they didn’t have powerhouses voices, but they had a shtick, and that shtick was perfect for 2009. Much like Chico before them and Wagner after them, the boys capitalised on their annoying qualities and turned it into a saleable image.

Their hairstyles were mocked? They just added more gel. They aren’t current enough for the charts? They released a mash-up of Under Pressure and Ice Ice Baby. 

Whether you like it or not, Jedward were actually huge. They have sold out tour dates across Europe and have a devoted fanbase that has landed them four number one albums in Ireland – an achievement that not many people can boast.

They have landed modelling gigs and ad campaigns, and even performed ahead of a speech from Barack Obama in Dublin. They are loved in Europe, to the point where they managed to break the top 10 at Eurovision in 2011, with their song Lipstick.

It was around Eurovision when my opinion of Jedward began to change. They were absolutely perfect for the competition – they were a bit surreal, they genuinely loved pop music, and they took the contest seriously and gave it all they got.

Lipstick was actually a brilliant entry, and their 2012 entry Waterline, while not as successful, was also a great effort. I started to realise that John and Edward were just doing what they loved, and whether that’s your bag or not, fair play to them. 

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Sari Gustafsson/REX/Shutterstock (1315456f) Jedward of Ireland - John Grimes and Edward Grimes 2011 Grand Opening of the Eurovision Song Contest, Duesseldorf, Germany - 07 May 2011
The pair were just living out their dream (Picture: Sari Gustafsson/REX/Shutterstock)

But in 2020, I’ve gone past just the ‘let them live’ stage, and I am pretty much a fully paid up Jedward stan.

While many musicians who paint themselves as woke and politically active stayed fairly silent amongst the Black Lives Matter protests aside from a few token tweets, and rockers like Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and John Dolmayan of System of a Down defended Donald Trump, Jedward were literally out surfing on car bonnets at a BLM protest in Los Angeles, screaming ‘No justice, no peace’.

One video from the protest showed John holding hands with other protesters to separate the crowd from the police. 

The boys then lightened the mood at a time where we all need our spirits lifted by randomly deciding to DM anybody who mentioned them on Twitter, telling them to have a nice day or complimenting their hair.

After I tweeted how pure and wholesome this was, I received a DM from Jedward reading: ‘Hello Emma you are the Queen!! Sending Love to all your friends and family and you! have a chill evening keep those spirits high. Thank you for being a great person.’

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It seems to me like these two lads that were turned into TV villains for being a bit over-enthusiastic and off key at times are just genuinely nice people. With over 10 years in the business, they haven’t had any scandals, or found themselves being cancelled for outing their own questionable views, or gone off the rails – even after two stints in Celebrity Big Brother, which is basically a set-up to cancel celebs (they managed to come third in 2011 and second in 2017).

They’ve just been delighting their own fans, working on music, representing their country at Eurovision and sliding into people’s DMs.

And being showbiz legends, of course. The twins spent lockdown with American Pie star Tara Reid, who they inexplicably became best friends with after CBB.

As somebody who loves nothing more than unlikely celebrity pairings – Martine McCutcheon being Liza Minelli’s bridesmaid at her wedding to David Gest is one of my favourite pieces of history – this is god tier.

All I want is a reality TV show that follows Jedward and Tara’s day-to-day antics, with a 24 hour feed. There is no way that wouldn’t be iconic.

I’m not saying that Jedward are incredible musicians, or that I’ll be buying their back catalogue. But they didn’t deserve the vitriol they received on The X Factor and beyond.

They were just two boys living out their dream and taking the opportunities they got, and if you’re angry about them making it that far, blame Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh and reality competitions, not them.

It’s actually a miracle that were on the show pre-live tweets, and that they came out fairly unscathed.

I’m a firm believer that if you don’t like an artist or a genre, you don’t have to listen to them, but that doesn’t make them or their fans crap or worthy of abuse. Let people enjoy and enrich their lives with K-pop, or Love Island, or live laugh love decor, and you go off and enjoy your metal, or The Sopranos, or UFC.

Jedward played the cards they were dealt and turned them into a great life. And if recent events have shown us anything, it’s that if there were more people like Jedward around, the world might just be a nicer place. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk

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