Jamie Archer thinks that Jedward are “really lovely boys” who have helped make The X Factor as successful as it is this year.
The afro-haired rocker, who left the contest a week ago on Sunday after going head-to-head with Lloyd Daniels in the sing-off, said that the Irish twins are very strong for putting up with all the hassle they’ve had to deal with – and that he’s a fan of theirs.
Speaking exclusively to stv.tv, Archer said that he was pleased that the nation seems to have finally come round to the boys.
“I love the fact that the country got to know Jedward, and they learned to love them, because when we first moved into the house with them we didn’t know them either and I remember very vividly being in a taxi with Olly, myself and the twins, and we just started to talk about their lives and everything. And I was like ‘my god you are really lovely boys aren’t you’ and they were very funny, and they were great.
“And I was like ‘you know what I really like you guys’. And I think the whole country ended up falling in the same way for them as we did.
“People have all got an opinion, everyone’s having a go at them, everyone’s ‘get the twins out’, but when you strip away all this stuff that’s going on around them, they are just two lovely boys trying to get as far as they can in a contest, and I’m really proud of them.”
He added: “I think for two guys as young as they are it is remarkable how resilient they were to all things good and bad.”
Critics of the show this year – which have included Sting, who called it “televised karaoke” – have said that X Factor is now less about singing talent and more about the gltiz and glamour of the performance.
But Jamie slammed this notion. He told us: “I think people need to focus on what the show is called, it’s called The X factor, it’s not called the Singing Factor and I believe this is the year of the entertainer.
“People want to be entertained, what’s wrong with that? We’ve seen great singers come out of X Factor, as an audience member you’ve seen it, you’ve got Leona (Lewis) and everything. This year people are like ‘well I want to be excited, I want a bit of fun’, and you bring in Jedward, you bring in Olly Murs and it’s entertainment, it’s interesting, and I think this year is an entertainers’ year. But who knows what next year will be about.”
