Will The Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up: Jedward Shave Their Heads To Raise Money For Irish Cancer Society

Yes! You read it right! Jedward – the Irish twin superstars whose pompadour hairstyles have been a part of their image for as long as there’s been Jedward – just shy of 12 years – now more closely resemble Eminem or Justin Timberlake.

Appearing on Ireland’s Late Late Show, on national broadcaster RTE One, they were part of a charity evening to raise much needed funds for the Irish Cancer Society. Traditionally today, Daffodil Day, has been the main fundraising day for the ICS, but they’ve had to cancel it two years running, because of Covid-19. The Late Late Show decided to step in and help out.

There wasn’t a dry eye anywhere among those who watched the show tonight, as special guests included Shane Filan, speaking of the cancer-related deaths of his parents; Cavan GAA footballer Oisin Kiernan, who spoke about his testicular cancer diagnosis and recovery; Irish Cancer Society CEO Averil Power, who shared her own personal experience with the night nursing service, and also, some of the many volunteers who swim, run, bucket-shake, drive and cycle each year all in aid of the Irish Cancer Society.

It wouldn’t be the Late Late Show if there wasn’t some music, and that was brought in abundance, including a ukulele performance from The Walkeleles. Dublin four piece Inhaler performed their new single, ‘Cheer Up Baby’, Shane Filan got us all crying with his rendition of ‘You Raise Me Up’, and Jedward kept us there with a gorgeous acoustic guitar rendition of the Cyndi Lauper classic, ‘True Colors’.

From time to time host Ryan Tubridy would announce how much money had been raised. They’d hoped for a conservative €200,000. He announced that amount very early on…and then it was €500,000…then €750,000…finally, it was time for Jedward to shave their hair, and that’s when the money rolled in! The twins gave a shout out to their mother Susanna, who died from leukaemia in 2019. They had spoken last year on the show about her death, and how much it still deeply affects them.

Watch the videos of their hair shaving below. First – John shaved Edward’s hair:

and then Edward shaved John’s hair:

The shave had the desired effect, and the final donations for the night reached a whopping €2.5 Million!

If you’d like to donate to the Irish Cancer Society, you can do so by calling (within Ireland) 1850 60 60 60, or donating online here.

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