Jedward in the Mediterranean Conference Centre
— Photo: Stijn Smulders (EBU)
Victor M. Escudero
Meet the experts: Jedward
The popular Irish twin brothers John and Edward, better known as Jedward, are back in the Eurovision Song Contest although this time they are appearing in the Junior edition and as part of the Expert Panel. Alongside their voting duties, they'll also perform their new single Hologram in the live show.
Earlier this week JuniorEurovision.tv met Jedward at the venue of the 2016 JESC, an abbreviation which they joke about what it stands for: "We're really excited to be in Malta, people are very welcoming. We've been in the big Eurovision twice so we can't wait to be in the John & Edward Song Contest".
What did Jedward do since Baku? "We hung out with Barack Obama, we did TV shows, toured around the world, visited Australia, Japan, China. We did modellng and fashion magazines, produced our own songs and made their videos, we did Celebrity Big Brother. We did a lot of great things!"
John & Edward also restyled their famous hairdo: "We didn't have the quiff for a while but we decided to have a quiff here. Doing Eurovision brought loads of great fans for us, like Miley Cyrus: she watched Eurovision, cut her hair and totally did our hair!"
One of their tasks in Malta will be to judge the participants of Junior Eurovision. "We're going to be really really honest and vote for whom we think deserves it the most. All the kids are very talented and it's so cool that they have this experience ...they could potentially be the next Jedward".
Jedward also added: "When you're a kid you want to be a pop star, you want to perform and express yourself and there's no better stage to do this than the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Who knows, they could be the winners of the actual Eurovision Song Contest when they get older and this is like the training".
They shared some memories from their two Eurovision Song Contest experiences with us: "Our best memories are those of the launching worldwide, because before we were trapped in the UK and Ireland and after Eurovision it was like BOOM! Jedward everywhere!"
"It was amazing to open up to so many different cultures, languages and people. We actually got to Azerbaijan of all places! There was Jedmania in Sweden. Lipstick was the biggest selling song in Ireland that year and it charted in several different countries. We got Barack Obama in our Eurovision costumes!" Whilst there is no photograph to prove that Barack Obama wore their costumes, we take Jedward's word for it.
Are they thinking of a comeback to the competition? "Me and John are now 25, we did Eurovision when we were 20. Now we would love to do Melodifestivalen, to go back to Eurovision, even write our original song for Eurovision. In the Eurovision world we are... Jedward! And even in Ireland we got people feeling the passion for Eurovision again when we reached the final twice".
In the meantime they'll perform their new song in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Hologram. "It's like a slow song, kinda more serious from those we've written, it's about someone you want to be there for but they're a hologram and you want to touch them but they're not actually there... it's like being present but you're not. You can interpret this in several different ways".
Watch Jedward in the 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest live on the official Junior Eurovision YouTube channel.
tags 2016 news Jedward