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Irish Independent
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Jedward tease Eurovision return representing a different country
Twins John and Edward Grimes, 33, represented Ireland twice in the competition back in 2010 and 2011, but with Norwegian singer EMMY, 24, flying the flag this year, they say they could be tempted to try their luck elsewhere in the continent. Speaking to The Standard, they explained: 'We know we represented Ireland, but now that we've got someone from Norway [representing Ireland] I feel like we could end up representing Norway or Sweden or one of those countries. 'We have two guys from Iceland who everyone is calling the Icelandic Jedward,' they add pointedly, referring to Iceland's entry VÆB. 'If we did Eurovision again we would have to have fibreoptics or be covered in crystals, our whole body, just running around,' they continued. 'When we did it you had to sing 100pc live but now they let you use background vocals. Like proper, you can put effects in so now it's a different climate, so people up there sing like Whitney Houston. 'We have some full on intense songs, sometimes I feel like we could do it again with a big massive spectacle. Or maybe we should be like the Spice Girls, 'oh we'll never do it again' and then it's like next week we're doing it, we're back.' Jedward originally shot to fame as finalists on ITV's The X Factor in 2009 where they were labelled a so-called 'joke act'. They got the last laugh however releasing four albums, touring the UK and fronting their own TV shows. Doing Eurovision brought them to the attention of a whole new international audience and led to opportunities they never even dreamed of. While they say they are forever grateful to Eurovision, they acknowledge that isn't everyone's experience. 'We're happy it was a positive for us and it got us out to different places that we thought we'd never be able to travel to and tour, so it's great that every time it comes around and we get to be a part of the celebration,' they reflected. 'Olly Alexander [who represented the UK last year] obviously didn't perform as well as everyone wanted to.' The Years & Years singer finished in 18th place with 46 points. 'But we met him recently in Manchester and reassured him that he is amazing, that it's politics and sometimes it doesn't work out how it's meant to plan. 'It is a crazy time because sometimes you can be an established artist and go on to Eurovision and not do as good and it could potentially damage your career sometimes, so I feel like sometimes you have to take it on the chin.'
The Guardian
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Olly Alexander review – part night creature, part light entertainer
'I'm all about playful subversion,' declares Olly Alexander with a grin on the final night of his UK tour. Clad in a series of outfits whose shiny buttons nod towards London's pearly kings and queens and the dressing-up box – there's one handily located on the left side of the stage – he is outlining the essence of Polari, the slang once used by the LGBTQ+ community, showfolk and the denizens of London's Soho, as was. Evolving out of the vocabularies of Italian immigrants and Travellers to evade the understanding of law enforcement and mainstream society in the 19th and early-mid 20th centuries, Polari also doubles as the title of Alexander's latest, queer-club pop-themed album. Released two months ago, it was the first under his own name; previously, he had traded as Years & Years, first as a band, then as a solo project. The gravelly tones of Ian McKellen provide a few booming Polari phrases during the show's opening sequence; the great man himself occupies a box up to the right. Aptly, we're in a plush, famous theatre on the fringes of Soho where the khazis may be bijou but in no way manky. Aptly as well: throughout Alexander's set, it sometimes feels a bit like watching a West End theatre show about a national treasure gamely regrouping after some career contretemps, returning to musical theatre as his first love. There really should be a glossy souvenir programme to parse on the tube home. Chart-wise, Polari didn't match Alexander's previous outings, two of which went to No 1 (most recently with 2022's Night Call album). Then there was his rout at last year's Eurovision, his performance garnering the dreaded nul points in the public vote. Postmortems abounded online; many wondered whether the UK should have taken part at all, given the participation of Israel. Gamely, Alexander keeps Dizzy, his Eurovision song, in the set, but performs it at the piano, accompanied by two backing vocalists whose dulcet tones and dance moves flesh out the night's bare bones set-up (a drummer and a multi-instrumentalist are housed behind a strip of feathery pampas grass). The red tights and codpiece from the singer's Eurovision outfit are paraded around with a kind of wistful fondness – 'I wouldn't change a thing,' he says – before he returns them to the dressing-up box, where they stick out 'like the legs of the Wicked Witch of the West'. It's all a far cry from what a Polari tour could have been. On paper, the choice of producer Danny L Harle (also in the house tonight) seemed inspired. An alumnus of the hyperpop incubator PC Music, he has had a hand in critical and commercial successes for artists such as Caroline Polachek and Dua Lipa, as well as his own ear-ringing Harlecore LP of 2021. Harle's fondness for hi-NRG and Eurodance tropes were a good match for Alexander and his desire to pay tribute to the gay club sounds of the past (and fully author his own work – no band members, no external writers, just two people in a room). Had they maxed out these convictions, Alexander the light entertainer might have been reborn as an outre night creature, feted as an auteur alongside Charli xcx. There's a tantalising hint of that alternative outcome in the title track itself, a festival of whacking great Jam and Lewis synth beats last heard on Janet Jackson's 1980s albums, lit by harsh strobes and full of attitude at people who are 'saying nothing'. A song called I Know turns the phrase 'I know what you are' from accusation to come hither on another promising Jackson-meets-2020s cut. The more fluorescent sounds of the Polari album rightly belong in a nightclub, with its livelier production choices turned up to 11, rather than a velvet-seated institution. As it is, this tour seems to be designed not to scare the Lorraine and Michael McIntyre audiences any further, one that merely adds the Polari songs to Alexander's Years & Years back catalogue – King, Desire and Shine, three foundational 2014-15 hits are here, alongside If You're Over Me from 2018's Palo Santo. It's a Sin, the Pet Shop Boys track that lent its title to the Channel 4 drama set amid the 80s Aids crisis, which established Alexander as beloved multi-hyphenate, is also in the mix. It's hard to imagine synth master Chris Lowe voluntarily signing off on the track's electric guitar solo, however, or Harle being OK with the unnecessary axe work on the song Polari. The tour of an album dedicated to the pleasures of the synthetic might be better served as a guitar-free zone. Alexander himself is never less than good company, warm in presence and professionally loose-limbed, but there is something a little self-limiting about even this new batch of songs, tracks that were intended as a candid, authentic reset. Changing into a different capella (hat), he launches into Make Me a Man, a bouncy synth-pop number replete with double entendres. 'When I wake in the morning will you have something for me?' sings Alexander. 'Won't you fill this hole' – he pauses – 'in my heart?' What's Polari for 'missed opportunity'?
The Guardian
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Olly Alexander: ‘The worst thing anyone's said to me? You have a face like a crumpled napkin'
Born in North Yorkshire, Olly Alexander, 34, joined Years & Years as lead vocalist in 2010. Their hit singles included King and Shine, and in 2023 Alexander won the Brit Billion award for 6.5bn streams. He was Bafta-nominated for his role in the TV miniseries It's a Sin, and recently appeared on stage in White Rabbit Red Rabbit. His new album is Polari and he heads out on a European tour later this month. He lives in London. Which living person do you most admire, and why? Jill Nalder. Lydia West played her character in It's a Sin. She was on the wards with nurses caring for patients who were dying [of Aids] when lots of people wouldn't go near them. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I can be an overthinker and a vicious self-critic. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Cruelty. What was your most embarrassing moment? At the Mighty Hoopla festival, Kimberley and Nicola from Girls Aloud joined me on stage for a Girls Aloud song. I completely forgot the words. What is your most treasured possession? My diaries. Describe yourself in three words Kate Bush fan. What would your superpower be? Talking to animals. Who would play you in the film of your life? A CGI cat. What do you most dislike about your appearance?I have a habit of talking out of one side of my mouth, and when I see myself do it I want to is your most unappealing habit? I'm very noisy. I am constantly talking out loud, singing, making random noises. I feel sorry for my neighbours. Who is your celebrity crush? Ian McKellen. Which book are you ashamed not to have read? The Odyssey, just because I keep referencing it. What is the worst thing anyone's said to you? It's the stuff about my appearance that sticks. I read I had a face like a crumpled napkin and teeth that could till a field. Would you choose fame or anonymity? When I was anonymous, I very much wanted to be famous. Now I have fame, I fantasise about slipping into a new, anonymous identity. But for the most part, I'm happy with my choice. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion What is your guiltiest pleasure? Reruns of Four in a Bed or A Place in the Sun. What does love feel like? Like something or someone is part of your DNA, the fabric of who you are. What was the best kiss of your life? The first time I kissed my partner at Metropolis in Hackney. It was love at first kiss. That was almost 10 years ago. What has been your biggest disappointment? Early in my career I got really close to being one of the kids in the Narnia movie. I remember being crushed. How often do you have sex? As often as possible. What single thing would improve the quality of your life? Sunshine. Would you rather have more sex, money or fame?Money. Tell us a joke People are always asking me what it's like being a gay artist, and I can never give them a straight answer.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Olly Alexander says expressing his sexuality was met with ‘extreme resistance' and ‘hostility' from record label
has spoken about the pushback he's received over the course of his career when it's come to expressing his sexuality in his music and visuals. Alexander, speaking in an exclusive interview , was asked about whether he had noticed that despite led by acts like , and , the same interest does not appear to exist for explicitly queer music from men. 'Well,' Alexander says, 'it's not gone unnoticed that I was much more popular when I was in a band with two straight people.' The former Years & Years frontman was then asked if he'd had to fight to express his sexuality how he wanted over the years, to which he responded: 'Yes! When the label saw [the visuals for] Palo Santo, which was Years & Years' second album, they were like, 'What the fuck is this?'' 'They didn't get it,' Alexander continued. 'And I don't need them to get it. But this is the music industry. It's a fucked up game.' He went on to explain that he felt he had earned his label's trust after the huge success of Years & Years's debut album Communion. 'Our debut album had sold millions. I'd recouped for my record label. But I felt like the choices and creative decisions I was making were being met with extreme resistance and, sometimes, some hostility. I suppose, they were thinking that I was about to take a machete to my marketability. But fuck it.' Elsewhere in the interview, the singer had commented on the criticism his performance at last year's Eurovision had received from some who felt it was too sexualised. '[People] were so outraged. I expected some pearl-clutching, but I was a bit taken aback by how many pearls were clutched.' To read Olly's cover interview in full, check out issue 363 of Attitude magazine, , and alongside 15 years of back issues on the free . The post Olly Alexander says expressing his sexuality was met with 'extreme resistance' and 'hostility' from record label appeared first on Attitude.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Olly Alexander's Attitude cover, in 7 stylish shots – as star talks ‘maximalist approach' to new LP
Olly Alexander has been unveiled as Attitude's new cover boy – his first appearance on our front page since 2016 – complete with fashion-forward photoshoot. In the accompanying interview, the former Years & Years singer – who also leads the TV, Music and Film Category in Attitude 101, empowered by – revealed all about his new album, Polari. 'The sounds are too loud and a bit janky,' explained. 'It's an approach that is the antithesis to how you make music today, where things tend to be slicker and about creating sound beds. 'With this record, we were trying to go for a much more maximalist approach.' Elsewhere in the interview, Alexander told Attitude: 'I never thought I'd do an 'Olly Alexander album', to be honest. 'But the way that I perceive my sexuality and identity has really changed and developed since I began releasing music a decade ago. 'I'm always trying to get at what it means to be gay and be an artist.' Opening up about life in the public eye in 2025, Olly said: 'Anything I do is met with this instant negative reaction because someone is seeing a gay person and they feel threatened and offended. 'That didn't exist in the same way five years ago. Maybe it is a pendulum swing, and we have to just endure this backlash. It's odd because I'm doing the same thing I've always done.' Issue 363 of Attitude magazine is , and alongside 15 years of back issues on the free . The post Olly Alexander's Attitude cover, in 7 stylish shots – as star talks 'maximalist approach' to new LP appeared first on Attitude.
