The X Factor's John & Edward: They Will, They Will Shock You!
Remember Queen Night back in season 5 of American Idol, when Ace Young came up with the questionable idea to give "We Will Rock You" a modern-day R&B/hip-hop feel...and suffered the wrath of none-too-pleased Queen axeman Brian May as a result? Well, I can only imagine how Brian May must've felt about twin terrors John & Edward's rap remake of Queen's perennial sports-stadium anthem, on the truly scary Halloween night broadcast of Britain's The X Factor.
On the U.K. talent show this past Saturday (episode theme: Rock Night), Britain's double-trouble equivalent of Sanjaya-squared donned Jedward Scissorhands trenchcoats and Cruella DeVille hairdos, and then cruelly slashed their way through boy band 5ive's version of the classic tune, complete with their own awkwardly but enthusiastically rapped--and occasionally outright forgotten--lyrics.
Behold Jedward's latest opus of bad-singing-as-genius-performance-art, and try to discern their mangled lyrics and off-the-beat phrasing above the deafening din of the Halloween-haunting ghost of Freddie Mercury rustling in his grave:
Perhaps Freddie's ghost even cursed them, as the twins developed sore throats this week (rumors actually swirled that they'd been stricken with swine flu) and they almost didn't perform at all on Rock Night. But as the clip above attests, ability to sing doesn't really matter when it comes to a J&E performance.
So, did John & Edward they have mud on their face? Were they a big disgrace? Well, kind of...but they also had me waving my Jedward banner all over the place. Come on, how can anyone on either side of the pond not grudgingly love these crazy kids? And I hardly think they ruined Queen's career forever, as Simon Cowell claimed. At least they brought a certain Mercury-esque element of over-the-top showmanship to The X Factor, despite their utter inability to sing the Queen theme any more tunefully than William Hung's hall-of-shamer cover of "We Are The Champions."
Of course, ultimately I'd like to see Jamie Archer, aka Jamie Afro, take The X Factor championship this season--any bloke who chooses to sing Primal Scream's bloozy barnstormer "Rocks" on the show's Rock Night has my full support (watch his performance below). But John & Edward are so entertaining--and so unstoppably popular (they garnered the top vote last week, after wowing/shocking all of Britain with their Hung-like rendition of "She Bangs")--I have a feeling they might make it all the way to the finale. And then hopefully my dream will come true and Jamie will win, but Jedward's consolation prize will be they get to be Mr. Afro's PVC-jacketed backup dancers.
Now that would rock.
Jedward don't take themselves seriously and are entertaining. They're nice, funny guys on their own planet.
Stacey's voice is stunning. Joe is adorable and mature for his age. Olly's fun.
Oh, and none of the contestants choose their own songs, the mentors do it for them. So Jamie, as great as it was for him to do Primal Scream, it wasn't his choice....it was Simon's. That's the big problem with the X Factor, whereas on Idol you can say "Kris's choice to do Heartless was inspired", "Adam's Ring of Fire was a a FAR braver choice than if he'd simply gone for the obvious and done Dolly Parton or Patsy Cline" and even "what the hell was Gokey thinking trying to take on Aerosmith!!" on X Factor you can't. It's not the contestants choice, so we have no idea what they would choose to sing if they were given the choice. We have no idea of who they see themselves as, only as who their mentor sees them as.
But great article, as always :-)
they suck, are terrible, and oh so immature.
can't sing, and should not be hangin on so long torturing our ears. vote them off
should have been posted.Hate does not get anyone, anywhere!!!
There is way of saying things. A little understanding & compassion accomplishes miracles! All the best!