Words by Ruth Dacey, pictures by Ana Hine
A top five single, one million twitter followers, nine million views on Youtube, a book deal in the bag and a tour about to kick off in Oxford on Saturday… not bad for four young lads from down south.
Union J also added performing alongside Robbie Williams to their list of impressive achievments as the highly-anticipated Key103 Jinglebell live at the Manchester’s Phones4U Arena kicked off with a bang last night.
The four-piece boy band made up of Josh, Jaymi, JJ and George were X Factor finalists in 2012 and since their time on the show they have catapulted into stardom.
And MM were able to catch up with the boys about their love for performing in Manchester.
“Manchester is definitely the loudest city, we love coming to this city to and performing here- they are going crazy out there,” said JJ who has recently became a dad after the birth of his son Princeton J. Alexander with girlfriend Caterina.
“We have just been to do our Christmas shopping at the Trafford Centre, you always realise after you’ve done Christmas shopping that you’ve forgotten something.”
Union J admitted they were most looking forward to seeing Jason Derulo performing on the night who they had met for the first time that evening after he had written the new song off their album.
The boy bands UK tour kicks off on Saturday in Oxford and they revealed that fans will be blown away by the production.
“People will get a lot more than they expected as it’s a theatre and arena tour and I think it’s a really impressive show with everyone behind the scenes making it incredible and we’re really happy with it,” said Josh.
“It makes me chuckle because it’s like a party on stage and that’s what we want to do, have fun and make sure everyone’s enjoying it.
“We never imagined the tour would be so successful but we’ve had to add dates to it which is great the support we’ve got is just amazing,” JJ added.
The boys were relaxed ahead of performing in front of thousands of screaming fans and a hectic 2013 and whilst some band members wish Christmas wish list included spending time with their family one band member had fast cars on the brain.
“My dream Christmas present is spending it with our friends and family because I know it sounds cringe but doing what we do now because we are so busy now we don’t get to spend it with our family so just having good quality time is important,” said George.
“Yeah that’s important but a Porsche would be lovely because when I was 18 I asked for a mini for my birthday and my Dad got me a little wind up one,” laughed Jaymi.
This year’s X Factor final this weekend at Wembley features guest performances from One Direction, Katy Perry, The Killers, Tom Odell – as well as Elton John, who will perform his new duet with Gary Barlow, Face to Face.
The show brings back happy memories for the band and Jaymi revealed how he is backing Sam Bailey the 36-year-old mum from Leister to win.
“I love Sam to bits because she’s an ‘over’ and I think everyone’s going to give her a bit of a hard time and questioning whether she will make it after but if you see how much weight she’s lost since the beginning, she’s really taking it seriously,” he exclaimed.
“The songs she is singing are really current and I think she’s worked really hard to break away from the ‘over’ category negativity.”
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