[WATCH] Isle of MTV stars talk apps, girls and sibling rivalry

Ahead of this evening’s Isle of MTV event, the conveyor belt of pop stars including Jason Derulo, Tori Kelly, OMI, Martin Garrix and Echosmith meet the press… to talk about smartphone apps, mainly

Jason Derulo • Photo by Ray Attard
Jason Derulo • Photo by Ray Attard
Tori Kelly • Photo by Ray Attard
Tori Kelly • Photo by Ray Attard
Echosmith • Photo by Ray Attard
Echosmith • Photo by Ray Attard
OMI • Photo by Ray Attard
OMI • Photo by Ray Attard
Martin Garrix • Photo by Ray Attard
Martin Garrix • Photo by Ray Attard
Tori Kelly • Photo by Ray Attard
Tori Kelly • Photo by Ray Attard
MTV Presenter Laura Whitmore • Photo by Ray Attard
MTV Presenter Laura Whitmore • Photo by Ray Attard
sle of MTV • Omi gets ready for the Granaries

To paraphrase Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Apps. Why did it have to be apps?” Honestly, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this afternoon’s press conference launching tonight’s Isle of MTV press conference for a Global Smartphone App Conference.

As the conveyor belt of pop stars featured in this year’s edition of the free concert rolled along – including Martin Garrix, Echosmith, Tori Kelly, Jason Derulo and OMI – the elfin and always-plucky MTV presenter Laura Whitmore never failed to spare our ‘talent’ (that’s what they’re officially referred to, by the way) from that toughest journalistic question of all: “Which is your favourite app?”

And what did these distinguished artistes reply, you ask? Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to sheepishly confess my basic failure at meeting journalistic expectations. Given that we’re trained to parse through press events for the most relevant information, talk about apps didn’t strike me as particularly important. Until it popped again. And again. And again…

(Well, Echosmith’s female lead singer Sydney Sierota confessed to switching her allegiance from Twitter to Pinterest. So there’s that.)

Between American sibling quartet Echosmith – whose combined age is probably around 12 – and 19-year-old DJ Martin Garrix, this year’s edition may as well have been christened the Junior Isle of MTV, particularly given that we can boast of Gaia Cauchi in that department. Sadly, this time around the tykes are too old to be adorable, and both Garrix and Echosmith came across as awkward and shrill in equal measure.

Garrix, who has, impressively enough, collaborated with the likes of Usher and Aviici despite his young age, confessed to being “very excited” ahead of this evening’s performance.

“It’s only when you’re on the stage that you realise how big it is,” Garrix said in reference to the Granaries in Floriana, where the show will kick off at around 18:30. Asked by Whitmore whether he gets nervous when performing, Garrix said that it’s only during his “intro” that he feels any real stage jitters, reiterating that it would be a “pleasure to perform” in Malta tonight.

The pale-and-petite sibling army Echosmith took to the panel next, also making sure to say they’re excited about performing tonight. Apart from the – apparently crucial – grilling about their favourite social media apps, the American band, known for their hit single ‘Cool Kids’, were also asked about how they keep sibling rivalry at bad. Spoiler alert: they don’t, but it’s no big deal. Coming across as an American family so cookie-cutter they could have been engineered by Martha Stewart, it’s hard not to believe them.

Oh, one of them loves touring, because he loves to eat all around the world, and he loved the Maltese squid he had the other day. So there’s that too. Also, note that any gaps in conversation were compenstated for familiar construction noises in the background. Well, familiar to us, maybe not so much to our foreign guests. So really, if these pop stars wanted an immersive experience of Malta, they got it.

Singer-songwriter Tori Kelly, famous for ‘Nobody Love’ spoke about using YouTube as a launching pad for her career.

“I feel really blessed to be at Isle of MTV, considering my background – since I started off playing covers of other people’s music and posting them on YouTube, as a way to help me segue into my own career as a singer-songwriter.”

Pectorally-gifted R&B singer Jason Derulo – the headlining act for tonight’s show – was nudged to speak about what he liked about the opposite sex, and revealed some pretty classic predilections.

Responding to an international journalist – the rift between the young and plucky foreign tabloid journalists and the morose Maltese bunch is hilariously evident at every Isle of MTV presser to date – Derulo said that his favourite outfit for a woman is the “little black dress”.

“There’s something really special about… it’s simple, I don’t know, it just does it for me. Damn, I got all deep there, I should write a song about it!” Granted, he also talked about his collaborations with the likes of Stevie Wonder, whom he met at the White House, and how his upcoming video would aim for a ‘cinematic flavour’.

He also promised to “make a splash at Isle of MTV this year,” especially given this is his first trip to Malta.

“I haven’t seen much of it apart from my hotel room. And the gym, the gym was fly,” he said, complaining that he didn’t have a sea view.

“I got a view of the Wal-Mart or something, I didn’t even know there was a Wal-Mart here!” In fact, there isn’t.

Jamaican-born singer OMI also promised to deliver “a lotta energy” for his show tonight… while teasing fans that his hit single Cheerleader will be last number on his set tonight. For more from OMI, check out our video above.

Video by Ray Attard