Rising music stars talk bullying and mental health in Banburyshire school visits

Juna N Joey are a brother and sister act who are just 17 and 19 respectively but have built up a following on social media that has seen them attract wide-ranging attention for their songwriting and musical abilities.

They will be visiting some 75 schools across the country as part of this tour and will be at Bloxham and then at nearby Warriner next Monday, June 27.

Their interest in addressing important issues can be traced back to one of their earliest songs.

Juna said: “I wrote a song called Anchor about a girl at my school who was hurting herself because she was being bullied.

"We recorded it and then made a video about it. It caught the attention of other artists and we went on tour with one of them.

"I wrote the song when I was very young, 12-13, so I did not think much of it at the time - I was just up in my room thinking how hard school is normally and to see kids do that to one another is disturbing and no one seems to do anything about it or even know about it. That is how it came about.

"It was one of the first songs we did. Because our manager could see what we couldn't - the impact of the lyrics and the meaning behind it, she literally cried. Then she was always pointing out how many kids in our country – and now I can see around the world – were secretly being bullied. Sometimes their best friends and even their parents were unaware of the suffering some kids go through.”

In terms of the impact they are having, Joey added: "The amount of kids reaching out to us letting us know how much they appreciate our talk was a bit surprising and it makes us feel we are contributing to the solution. We are grateful to be here and doing this.”

Their songs cover a range of topics and their new single out last week – More than a Maybe – builds on their country music background with more of a rock edge.