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The
team behind the Beautiful Nights Facebook group, a page dedicated to
Prince and associated artists, have tapped
Singers/Dancers/Choreographers Maya and Nandy
McClean, better known as The Twinz, to be special guests at the group's kick-off Prince party, “A
Beautiful Night,” at 10 p.m. Nov. 24 at the Harold Washington
Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr., in Chicago. The two will host,
meet and greet with the fans and sign autographs. The party is being
thrown by Marcus Scott, Bemaji Tillman, Alexis Wofford and L'Quita
Sanders, all of Chicago. The event will also feature DJ Maurice Ice Culpepper.
“We
got connected (with Beautiful Nights) and we thought it would be a cool, fun event,” Maya
said. “We're definitely looking forward to mingling with the fans.”
“It
was a big chain of events,” Nandy said. “It just started working
one right after the other.”
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| Maya McClean, courtesy of Coastal Connection Group |
Before
The Twinz hit U.S. soil they were well known in their native
Australia. They both auditioned for Season 2 of Austrailan Idol, in
2004: Maya made the Top 30; Nandy did not. They created a sensation
when Maya withdrew from the show to continue pursuing a career as a
duo with her sister. They continued to work in Australia doing
commercials, theater, fashion shows and movies, appearing in Moulin
Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan MacGregor, according to the
Prince Vault Web site.
The next year, they relocated to Los Angeles to further their careers
and quickly found the break they were looking for. Their third
audition was for backup dancers in a music video in a revue reminiscent of Ike and Tina Turner, featuring Tamar, an artist Prince was working with at
the time.
Nandy
said they later heard that when Prince saw the audition tape, he saw
one of The Twinz dancing and said “she moves in an interesting
way.” Then the camera panned out and he saw that the dancer had an identical twin who moved the same way and that's when he made his
decision.
The
music video eventually fell through, but, Prince tapped Maya and
Nandy to back up Tamar on her tour, which he eventually ended up
joining himself after Tamar's original guitar player dropped out.
This was after being in America for a little more than six weeks and
they said things took off from there.
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| Nandy McClean, courtesy of Coastal Connection Group |
“The
Super Bowl, that was amazing,” she said. “Especially when it
started raining. That was a whole different ball game – literally.”
On the night Jackson attended one of the 3121 shows at the Rio Hotel, they
said their hairdresser did not tell them that Michael was there until
after she finished their hair, because she did not want them to “bolt
from their chairs” before she was done.
The
first chance they got, Maya said, the two checked the set list and saw
that they did not have to go on stage until the third song, which
gave them nine minutes to talk to their idol. The girls found him
backstage and talked with him for as long as they could before they
had to go to their places.
However, this was not the first time they met Jackson: He came to Sydney with the HIStory Tour when The Twinz were 16 years old. They ended up visiting his hotel room for three hours and were able to speak with the artist and a chorus of children who accompanied him when he sang “Heal the World” onstage. They later auditioned as backup dancers on the ill-fated “This is It” tour in 2009, but were not chosen. She said they were both very emotional when they heard he passed away later that year.
However, this was not the first time they met Jackson: He came to Sydney with the HIStory Tour when The Twinz were 16 years old. They ended up visiting his hotel room for three hours and were able to speak with the artist and a chorus of children who accompanied him when he sang “Heal the World” onstage. They later auditioned as backup dancers on the ill-fated “This is It” tour in 2009, but were not chosen. She said they were both very emotional when they heard he passed away later that year.
“He
was beautiful, really generous,” she said.
They cited Mariah Carey as a another professional influence
and said their favorite associated Prince acts are Sheila E. and Andy
Allo, respectively. But, there is only person who they said inspired
them from the very beginning, their mother Maureen Gwendolyn Moseley,
who passed away in early 2012.
“She had a huge heart,” Nandy said. She was a
symbol of unconditional love. Just her energy... she was always
happy.”
The Twinz were born in a remote area of Northern
Australia to Hughes, who did charity work with underprivileged
children, and Bruce McClean, a musician from Trinidad. They had an
interest in the arts from an early age. They would learn the
choreography from music videos and perform the routines in their
bedrooms. They later moved to Sydney and studied singing, acting and
dancing at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium of Arts and Brent
Street, a performing arts school, according to a press release.
Nandy said that in their private lives they are both
pretty outspoken and really honest. The two declined to give their
ages and said jokingly that they were “as old as they looked”.
They added that they do not drink or smoke and they are committed to
being healthy. They are at a point in their lives where they are more
self aware and conscious and try to encourage others to feel the same.
“You're as old as you feel,” Nandy said.
In
the next year The Twinz want to release an album, books shows--
especially one at the world famous Roxy nightclub in Los Angeles--,
start their own entertainment company and work on getting a record
deal. They are also very interested in using their talents for
humanitarian efforts and donating to charity. Some artists they said
they would like to work with include India.Arie, Bruno Mars, Rihanna
and, of course, Prince.
They said they are really looking forward to seeing one thing in
particular Saturday: impersonators. They said they have heard about a "Prince
impersonator" (Scott, who will be performing that night) and are
particularly looking forward to seeing their own “impersonators,”
another pair of twins who they discovered while looking through the
Beautiful Nights Facebook page in a picture with Scott, where the
three re-created a famous shot of the The Twinz and Prince looking at
their reflections in the mirror.
“I
definitely want to connect with them,” Maya said.
She
also had a personal message for all the fans of the Beautiful Nights
page:
“We'd
love to give them a shout out, give our love to them, tell them to
get dressed up and look fly. We look forward to meeting as many people
(as possible).”
For
more information about The Twinz and Heroine December visit
facebook.com/heroinedecember, heroinedecember.com and
twitter.com/thetwinz.
Stay beautiful, Kristi
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Lead photo courtesy of Coastal Connection Group.
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