Jedheads to welcome heroes home but no official airport event planned
A war of words has been taking place all week between the Eurovision Song Contest duo and the Dublin Airport Authority, who were demanding a low-key arrival.
The Waterline singers wanted a big welcome home party — and said they were going to tell all of their 600,000 followers on Twitter about it.
But members of the DAA did not want any sort of reception because of “safety reasons,” fearing thousands of fans will turn up.
Now it has emerged RTÉ will host a press conference for the twins in the VIP area in Terminal One.
However, only official media — reporters and photographers — will be allowed in, and persons under 18 will not be admitted.
Both the DAA and RTÉ have advised fans there is no special event planned for the dynamic duo at the airport.
Nonetheless, many ‘Jedheads’ are certain to turn up to catch a glimpse of their high-haired heroes, whether they win or lose tonight.
Meanwhile, bookmakers Paddy Power have made Jedward joint fourth favourites to win tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest.
The outrageous Grimes twins are priced at 10/1 along with Serbia.
Sweden’s Loreen remains the favourite at 6/5, followed by the dancing Russian grannies at 9/2 and soul singer Nina Zilli, who is representing Italy, at 8/1.
The UK entrant Engelbert Humperdinck, who has already bonded with Jedward, is at 16/1, just behind Romania’s Maninga, who are at 14/1.
The current holders Azerbaijan are at 50/1 to hold on to their title, while Macedonia and Hungary are the complete outsiders at 150/1 each.
Paddy Power said: “We give Jedward a great chance in the final. Their energy and enthusiasm is transferable across any language and should win them votes on the night.”
In between dress rehearsals yesterday, Jedward took time to do a quick interview with RTÉ.
The excited pair claimed they are getting huge support from home — and from all their fans across Europe. They claim to have 600,000 Twitter followers on ‘Planet Jedward.’
John said: “Eurovision has now become a massive family event. We hear people are organising Eurovision parties everywhere, and back home they’re busy getting the Irish flags out. We’re doing Ireland proud. The Eurovision is all about bringing cultures together. Look at the Russian grannies who are baking bread onstage. It’s incredible.
“We’ve brought attention to Ireland. Azerbaijan is now totally Jedwardised! We’ve received letters from mayors and emails from politicians all over Europe wishing us well.”
Edward added: “The local kids are going crazy for us. They’re still camping outside our hotel waiting for us to come out.
“They follow us everywhere. We now have a 20-strong security team who have to accompany us everywhere we go. They’re not taking any chances at all of anything happening to us.”
And while they won’t be making any drastic changes to their stage show tonight, the twins won’t be performing exactly the same way as they did in Tuesday’s semi-final.
John revealed: “Each performance we do is always different. We usually throw in some extra or some different moves.
“But you can bet it will be exciting. We just hope the water in the fountain has been changed as we’ve been afraid to swallow any up to now as it’s been the same water in it for nearly three weeks.”
