After six years apart, the former Disney stars Jonas Brothers are back together and allowing their old fans to relive their prime phase.
During the last week of February, rumours spread over the internet that the Jonas Brothers would start making music together again and, finally, on Feb. 28, the band announced that they would release their first comeback single and music video on March 1, titled Sucker.
The next day, the song was already No. 1 on Apple Music’s Top 100, Global and Spotify’s Canada Top 50 and the hashtag #jonasbrothers was trending on Twitter the entire day.
The single also scored them their first-ever No. 1 song on the Billboard charts.
According to Billboard, “Sucker is just the 34th song in the chart’s history to debut at the top spot.”
Within days, the music video for Sucker had almost 70 million views on YouTube. It also features the Brothers’ significant others: Sophie Turner, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Danielle Jonas.
The band broke up in 2013 and, during an interview on the Elvis Duran Show, they explained that their relationship as brothers was affected by their professional lives.
“When it ended, it was not good,” said Nick Jonas. “It was a challenging couple of years, rebuilding as a family, and I think in our minds it seemed like it would be impossible to do this ever again.”
Longtime fan Ana Gabriela Vieira said she was really surprised when the brothers announced their comeback.
“I was so happy! When the band broke up, I was really upset about it,” said Vieira. “Knowing that I might be able to go to another one of their concerts makes me extremely excited. Sucker exceeded my expectations by a lot. I knew it was going to be a different style from what they used to do before but I still loved it anyways.”
The Jonas Brothers were at The Late Late Show with James Corden every day in the first week of March and were able to show how much they’d grown up since the pinnacle of their fame around 2009.
“With any artist, you have to grow,” said Sarah Christie, music director and on air personality at Virgin Radio Kitchener. “Look at Miley Cyrus and how she evolved . . . .People change, the artists change and it’s good that they do.”
During their time apart, Joe Jonas was working with his band DNCE, Nick Jonas had his solo project and Kevin Jonas was dedicating himself to his wife and daughters.
“They kind of experimented with their own sounds and that song represents all of it,” said Christie. “You get a little bit of DNCE vibes in there and Nick has such a prominent sound in the vocals on the song. It’s cool that they were able to separate for a bit, do their own thing and are still able to come back and be on the same page. And I watched an interview when they were saying that maybe Kevin hasn’t been so prominent in music but has been living life and, because of it, he’s able to take a lot of that to the song writing process.”
The biggest worry about the Jonas Brothers comeback is the fear that they won’t be as successful as their career was before their breakup. While Vieira doesn’t think the euphoria is going to last a long time, Christie thinks it depends on what they have to offer as artists.
“We all hold a lot of nostalgia in our hearts, so if we see something we loved when we were younger, we immediately get excited,” explained the music director. “I think the band definitely has that going for them, but at the end of the day it’s all about what they bring to the table.”
Whether they continue on being on the top of the charts or not, Christie is excited for what they are working at and expects good things from this comeback.
“If Sucker is just a little glimpse of what they are going to release, I think we’re gonna have some good songs coming our way.”
