The Essential Advent Calendar: December 11 – Jedward Release An Instant Classic In New Song ‘Golden Years’

Released at the end of November, Jedward’s latest song, ‘Golden Years’, is the song you need in your life. Positive and uplifting, it’s the perfect antidote for the dark times and years of turmoil we’ve been experiencing.

With an overall sound reminscent of Alphaville’s ‘Forever Young’, as well a lyrical vibe not too dissimilar in content to David Bowie’s song of the same name, ‘Golden Years’ has all the hallmarks of a classic. It’s a positive and upbeat track, and while not distinctly a Christmas song, nor intended to be as such, nonetheless provides a message of hope for all of us.



Jedward is the name on everyone’s lips this week with the restoration a few days ago of their verified twitter account, @planetjedward. The Dublin twins, who are set to release their fourth album in the coming year, seemingly took everyone by surprise, fans and casual observers alike, by announcing the return of their account. They’ve not been entirely absent from the micro-blogging site – thankfully for fans they had a side account already established, @jepichq, which served as a pseudo base – but the groundswell of tweets acknowledging and congratulating them on their return shows just how important, loved, and respected their verified account has been. And rightly so! @planetjedward was one of the first accounts to be verified; the process was only started in June 2009, and John and Edward received their blue tick in December that year: to be 14 months without it was certainly a blow…but thankfully all is now well.

‘Golden Years’ is, as we said, upbeat and positive: with the world political climate meaning we’re living in dark times and an overwhelming mood of uncertainty colouring every aspect of our lives, it’s nice to be encouraged by a song which tells us everything is going to be okay – there’s a brighter day coming soon, all of what we’re going through at the moment is just a phase, “there’s no point ever singing the blues”:

I’m sticking with you
through thick and thin
I’m sticking with you
I know we can win

and

The Golden Years
Are yet to come
One day I know
We’ll be hitting home runs

The lyrics are simple but effective, and sonically the song is multi-layered with keyboards, strings, percussive elements and a variety of drums, alongside the many vocal tracks. It’s gorgeous and catchy, and a guaranteed earworm.

‘Golden Years’ follows on from Jedward’s other new releases, ‘Perfect Wonderland’, and ‘Karma’. All three are songs written by John and Edward in approximately 2014-2015, and are a sign of what is yet to come with the new album. All of their self-penned tracks are packed with meaningful messages; some deal with how to respond to conflict (‘Karma’, ‘Ferocious’, ‘Oh Hell No’), others are about love and loss (‘Free Spirit’, ‘Oxygen’, ‘Hologram’, ‘Perfect Wonderland’), and all are eminently relatable.

Watch out for their rumoured next single, which John and Ed have teased will be released for Christmas, and of course, their fourth album, in 2019.

‘Golden Years’ is available to stream and download from Apple Music/iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Deezer, and Spotify.

Be sure to check out Jedward online on their official website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube.

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com