Jude Harrison
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| Jude Harrison | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First appearance | Even Better Than The Real Thing |
| Portrayed by | Alexz Johnson |
| In-universe information | |
| Title | Instant Star |
| Occupation | Singer/Songwriter/Producer |
| Family | Stuart Harrison (father) Victoria Harrison (mother) Sadie Harrison (sister) |
| Spouse | Shay Mills (ex-boyfriend) Jamie Andrews (ex-boyfriend) Tommy Quincy (ex fiance) Vincent Spiederman (ex-boyfriend) |
Jude Harrison is a fictional character from the hit teen drama series Instant Star, she is portrayed by Alexz Johnson. Her name inspired the name of the famous song by The Beatles, "Hey Jude".
Background/Personality
Jude first found fame by winning the Instant Star competition. Her overwhelming desire to help others seem to hold her back. The character's love for her family, her friends, and even for others like Tommy has blinded her throughout the series, and her fear of losing them has led her to the brink at various times of the show.
Season One
At the series start, Jude beats Eden Taylor in the very first Instant Star contest. She then meets her producer Tom "Tommy Q" Quincy who was a part of a 90's boy band group called "Boyz Attack". Their first meeting was note worthy to say the least. Tommy Q chastised Jude for calling him "little Tommy Q" which was his stage name when he was part of Boyz Attack. From that instant, you could always feel a connection between both characters. He also tells her to change her song because it was boring and she had to make it about her. Before going on stage to sing her single 24 Hours (song), she kisses him and becomes embarrassed about it. After performing her song, she gives Tommy her guitar and quits. Later that night Tommy convinces her to not to quit by telling her she is 'the real thing, even better'.
Jude then meets rap artist Shay, Darius' nephew and made a song with him called 'Waste My Time'. While shooting the music video Jude tells Shay he is her first real kiss. They go out until her sixteenth birthday when it is revealed that he was cheating on her with Eden Taylor, the runner up of the Instant Star contest. Earlier in the day she heard Tommy tell Kwest that he hates that the girl that "gets him the most" is 16. Kwest asks "But if she was 21?" Tommy says "In a split second." Heartbroken after the Shay incident, she asks Tommy what is wrong with her. He tells her she is asking the wrong guy and kisses her. Tommy breaks her heart by telling her that either he had to stop being her producer, or he could stay but they would have to agree that the kiss never happened. But it is obvious many times that he does feel that way for her.
Jude makes a deal with Darius and he becomes her manager if he gives her Tommy's old single Frozen. She later discovers that Tommy is dating her sister Sadie, so she then falls back on her best friend Jamie who she begins to date while still yearning for Tommy.
Season Two
After returning from tour with her band, Jude finds out that Darius now owns G-major and that he is holding a next Instant Star contest. Jude was supposed to sing a cover of "Stupid Girl" but when she choses to sing her own song (My Sweet Time) Darius fires her. Jude tells Darius she will follow his terms which causes her to break up with Jamie. Jude dyes her hair blonde and a radio shock jock tells her she's a Barbie. Kat comes back into town and gives Jude a fake ID which she uses to get into a bar where she meets Patsy Sewer and gets drunk. Kat ends her friendship with Jude because Jude is too busy to hang with her. Jude later dates her lead guitarist Vincent Spiederman also known as "Speed" or "Spiederman". They are together for a while but break up. Before this incident Jude kisses Mason (the second Instant Star) and finds out he is gay. While working on her second album with Tommy Quincy, Jude records "White Lines" which is about Tommy Quincy. The two kiss and walk off. In the season finale, Tommy Quincy asks Jude out on a date which she accepts. But Tommy Quincy breaks her heart when he tells her he may not be coming back. Jude runs off to meet Mason, who is on tour. She gets drunk and goes to Mason's room and a guy she was having drinks with followed her and took pictures of her intoxicated.
Season Three
Season 3 deals with Jude growing up, not only as an artist but as an individual as well. It becomes quite difficult for her to do that with the arrival of the new Instant Star, Karma. Karma comes in and stirs a whirlwind of trouble up for Jude. But Karma is not Jude's only problem. She also has to deal with her growing relationship with Tommy (who in the season 2 finale had been sent to retrieve Darius's daughter, whose mother was back on drugs), including her love for him. She also has to deal with Jamie, who keeps popping up in her life to prove to her that he might be her future. She meets Hunter, a man with a troubled past who wants to destroy everything Tommy loves. Jude must also deal with her relationship with Tommy, but it does not last that long, when she finds Tommy kissing Sadie, in the hotel room. Next Jude realizes of Tommy's mistake and decides to fire him as her producer. Later, Jude wears fur to a fashion show which brings up problems-- red paint thrown on her, a riot outside her home, and a threat against her. Later, after a performance, she gets a note with Tommy's name signed on it telling her to meet him in the rehearsal warehouse. She gets there and finds Hunter, who attacks her in order to lure in Tommy, despite their deal. During their confrontation, it is revealed Tommy's former girlfriend, Angie, was Hunter's sister, who committed suicide when they found they could not be together. Later it is found out that she was killed by Tommy's former wife Portia Mills, who cut the brakes in Tommy's car when she learns that Tommy planned on leaving her for Angie. Tommy lied to Angie, and said he did not love her so that he could stay for the fame and money, and Angie took off with his car and wrapped it around a tree. Hunter attempts to kill Tommy and Jude, but is arrested. Then, in the season finale, G-Major is shutdown. Jamie and Paegan are starting their own record company, and Jamie wants Jude to be their first producer. Tommy buys Jude a plane ticket for her to go backpacking in Asia with him, and he tells her "I love you". But Tommy is not the only one. Jamie also loves her. Jude has to make a choice and follow her heart.
Season Four
Jude struggles to pick who she loves. You see in the first episode that she picked Tommy and left Jamie heartbroken. She struggles to stay friends with Jamie and ends up losing him, but not for long. Spiederman marries Karma and are now on a new reality show. Jamie and Paegan hit ground with their new record company. While working, Paegan's daughter shows up and are reunited. At a pajama party that Jude throws, Jamie comes to find Jude and Tommy all over each other, and says he can't believe he thought he could do this. He walks outside in hurt and anger, followed by Jude. She then says that they can fix it over and over, and he asks, "Why does it matter? You've got him!" They argue for a bit, and Jamie kisses her. Jude then proceeds to slap Jamie. He then yells, "Don't you get it, Jude? We can't be friends. Ever again!" Jude's third album bombs, forcing Darius to cancel her tour and fire her. Many people make the remark that it's "over produced." Jude tells Sadie after collapsing into Jamie's arms in his basement, that her music is "all she has left," and begins to cry because Tommy broke up with her. Darius also finds out that Jamie took Blu from G-Major and sends Paegan on tour, with intentions of paying Jamie back by making Paegan and all of his money pull out of NBR (Nana's Basement Records). With no funds, Jamie's record label looks doomed even if Zeppelin stayed (which she does after seeing Jamie, sad, from the car window). Milo wins the Instant Star competition, while Jude realizes that she did go way over board on the album and does a commercial for a Japanese shampoo with Tommy to raise money to remix it. She is accused of selling out by her new-found friend, Megan. In the episode "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" Megan holds Jude hostage in Jude's basement, threatening her that if she doesn't write a new song before Sadie gets back from a G-Major's spa day, she'll do something bad to her. She then agrees to write the song and they work together until it's finished. Jude proceeds to send Jamie a hidden message asking for "fretless base." However, Jamie did not notice until Zeppelin pointed it out. Megan then comes back with the base and tells Jude that that song didn't count. As Megan is talking, Jude starts to cry, but is interrupted by the front door slamming. It's Sadie. Jude screams and Megan covers her mouth, telling her to shut up. She goes downstairs, prepared to smother Sadie, but Jamie, Spiederman, and Zeppelin burst through the door a moment or so too soon. Jamie ran after and caught her and Megan was sent to jail. Jude destroyed the recording of the song, but still sang it. It then shows Jude singing and playing her guitar, when Tommy walks in with some news. He shows her the newspaper. She's on the front cover for being held hostage. They stare at each other for a second, and he crouches down in front of her. He is tempted to kiss her, but doesn't. Then she kisses him. Then, in the series finale, Jude is offered a recording contract with a label in London. Tommy simultaneously proposes to her and she accepts, but she soon starts thinking whether she should go to London with Tommy or move on without him. At her concert, she decides not to sing 2 AM and announces that she is going to London without Tommy, tearfully. She sings "The Music" instead. She has a last good-bye before leaving for London without her friends, family, fans, and with Tommy. The series ends with her riding in a limousine surrounded by her fans, and Jude quoting "If I had to chose, there's no contest. I'm a rockstar".
Relationships
Tommy Quincy
The relationship between Tommy and Jude is an ongoing rollercoaster ride that never seems to have a definite end, even despite the drastic highs and lows. There was obvious chemistry in the first episode, "Even Better Than The Real Thing", proven as Jude kisses him before going on to sing her first song since the Instant Star competition. When Jude began dating her first boyfriend, Shay, there were numerous disagreements, most likely brought on by jealousy on Tommy's part. The events of her disastrous sixteenth birthday party led to a kiss between the two, this time initiated by Tommy.
Fights included, there is clearly a lot of passion between the two, and even through the familiar rhythmic ups and downs of their relationship, it's obvious that, through thick and thin,Tommy and Jude are solid candidates for a relationship, because at the end of all their others, they always come back to each other. In the last episode of the series, Jude has to choose between going off to London after she is offered a record deal, or staying with Tommy after he asks her to marry him. She agrees to marry him, and he agrees to come to London with her. After Jude has the chance to think about it further, she decides it's best that she goes it alone and reveals it at a show during her encore, where she was originally supposed to play her basement track with Tommy and reveal their plans. The show ends on a bittersweet note.
Jamie Andrews
Jamie is Jude's longtime best friend, and the most likely of all the male characters on the show to provide competition for Tommy. Whereas her other best friend, Kat, walked out on Jude's life, Jamie has stuck by her side through it all; they've had their fights, all of which were rectified, regardless of the duration or circumstances. Her feelings for Jamie can never be defined at a constant, though it would seem they are very on-again, off-again, and are dependent on the happenings of Jude's stability and security with Tommy, who she has more persistent feelings for.
Vincent Spiederman
Spiederman, often referred to simply as "Speed", is the lead guitarist of Jude's band, the Spiederman Mind Explosion. There were obvious feelings between the two, which were addressed in the episode "The Jean Genie", in which Spiederman wants Jude to admit that what they share is more than just onstage chemistry. However, their romance didn't last past the end of the second season, after the two realized they "were never really Romeo and Juliet...more like Bart and Lisa Simpson." Speed and Jude are still good friends and bandmates. He marries Karma (the newest Instant Star) in what was supposed to be a PR stunt, but turned out real. Speed's parents had a bad marriage and he had promised himself that he would only get married once, so they decide to give it a try. Karma and Speed are approached with a newlywed reality show.
Shay Mills
Shay is Jude's first love and heartbreak. An international rap star, the two got off to a start after Jude was edged out of the studio while he was at G-Major, needing Tommy to produce his album. Shay was definitely interested in Jude, but his demanding uncle, Darius, tried to talk him out of starting a relationship with her. This issue was eventually worked out when Jude spoke out against this, and they began dating.
It was revealed that Shay was going on a world tour, which worried Jude as she discovered the "Number 1 Rule of the Road", that being to break up with your girlfriend before hitting the road. The couple tried to work around that, but Shay soon took up an interest in Eden Taylor, Jude's rival, and began dating her. He broke the news to Jude that it was over between them during her sixteenth birthday night, completely wrecking the night altogether.
The last that was heard from Shay was when he'd invited Jude to come with him on tour, which she declined, instead opting to embark on her own tour.
Milo
Short-lived romance, they've kissed when working together in music, after Jude's album was done. However, when she tries to contact him after her tour was cancelled, Milo snubs her.
Family
Stuart Harrison
Jude's dad. Stuart is very supportive of Jude's career since he himself is a big music fan (e.g. naming his daughters after Beatles songs). In the show it seemed like Jude and Stuart were closer than Jude and Victoria. Sadie was the first one to find out that Stuart was cheating on his wife with their travel agent. Sadie never told Jude because she knew Jude would be devastated. Jude eventually found out about this when she saw her dad and the travel agent making out on their couch. After this Stuart eventually moves out of the house leaving Jude and Sadie with their mom. Stuart eventually moves back in near somewhere in the middle of Season 2, when Victoria up and leaves the girls without telling them.
Victoria Harrison
Jude's mom. Victoria usually wants Jude to focus more on her studies. Victoria seems closer to Sadie than she is to Jude. In Season 2 Victoria is dating her divorce lawyer. She eventually marries him without telling the girls where she was going and when she will be back. Jude and Sadie are left alone and Stuart eventually moves back in the house with them. Since the character's departure in the second season, she has yet to return or to be mentioned. The series ends with no further appearances or mentioning of her, leaving her whereabouts forever in question.
Sadie Harrison
Jude's "perfect" sister. She excels in academics and athletics, gaining award after award. She and Jude don't always get along but there are times where they show that they do care about each other. When Sadie started dating Tommy, Jude was not happy but eventually got over it. Jude even tried to get the two back together again, knowing that her sister really cared for him. Sadie may be the perfect daughter but there were times where she felt jealous of Jude's musical ability. In the end, these two are sisters and will always stay that way. She now works for G-Major as a receptionist/Head of Press Relations. Her name is likely inspired by The Beatles song "Sexy Sadie".
Discography
- Jude Harrison (Season One) - see also Songs from Instant Star
- Learning Curve (Season Two) - Songs from Instant Star Two
- My Turn/My REturn - album remix (Season Four) - Songs from Instant Star Three & Four