They’re baaaack… the irrepressibly perky and sexually ambiguous Irish identical twin duo known as Jedward have been chosen for the second year in a row to represent their homeland in the Eurovision Song Contest, this time with the earsore song “Waterline”.
To call these lads fame whores would be putting it mildly. Born John and Edward Grimes in 1991, they shot to stardom on the UK’s X Factor in 2009 — and though they only came in 6th place, they were hard to forget with their half-foot high hair and schoolgirl-on-crack demeanors.
In early 2010, the twins released “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)“, one of their X Factor songs, a medley of Queen and David Bowie’s original 1981 hit with Vanilla Ice’s 1989 rap redux. Jedward’s version shot to the top of the Irish pop singles chart and nearly did the same in the UK, halting at #2.
Last year proved to be Jedward’s most stellar so far. In February, they were chosen to represent Ireland for the 2011 edition of Eurovision in Düsseldorf, Germany with their song “Lipstick“. Much as in X Factor, they didn’t win (placing only 8th), but their über-sprightly mirror-image existence was forever burned into the minds of an unsuspecting Europe.
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Back closer to home, the twins appeared (as one unit, natch) on last summer’s Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, where, after utterly shamelessly surviving a host of potentially pride-crushing tasks (e.g., getting “vajazzled,” and being creepily forced to dress up as babies in nothing but diapers and bonnets for a day), they gleefully came in third place.
As divisive as their popularity has been in Britain, Jedward enjoys fairly widespread support in their home country of Ireland, as was proven a few weeks ago when they and their spacesuits were chosen to represent it for the second year in a row at Eurovision, the first time this has ever happened. This year, at the first semi-final on May 22, they’ll sing “Waterline”, an unfortunate song that wreaks of desperation to be several ’80s pop hits at once (Madonna‘s “Borderline”, et al).
For the record, Jedward aren’t (isn’t?) gay, and for all their girly and vaguely twincest-ish antics, they ultimately come off as far more asexual than anything else. But someone really should tell them that as long as they cling to a name mashup a la Brangelina, people can but wonder.
Images via SPAR Great Ireland Run and YouTube
Ben
That was awkward….and painful to watch….
fagburn
The not-gay quote is from their tour manager in the Daily Star – not the most reliable of UK tabloids.
I’m not sure if they’ve ever denied it themselves.
And even if they have… *ZIPP*
JD
I love them! There music is so damn fun and catchy. It’s nice to see musical acts not take themselves too seriously and just enjoying pop music.
Red S.
Actually they’re not the first act to represent their country twice in a row: Lena Meyer-Landrut did that last year after having won in 2010. Though they are the first Irish act to do so (which may have been what the article mean, but I can’t help being pedantic :P).
CHIP1218
Wow, so horrible, I think they need to stick to autotuning.
Navi
At least they are cute
Professor Locs
Two guys having fun and enjoying life is okay. I guess it was their charisma and creativity, and not their singing that put them in 6th place.