Centre County residents, Penn State grads to appear on ‘Ellen’ after song goes viral

Two Penn State graduates with Centre County roots will appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Tuesday after becoming a viral sensation.

Bellefonte Area High School graduate Joey Bertolino, 22, who goes by stage name Joey Valence, and State College Area High School graduate Braedan Lugue, 22, released their newest song “Double Jump” in December, gaining millions of views overnight. The TikTok video Valence posted teasing the song has surpassed 16.8 million views and Valence has over 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Valence and Lugue will be guests on Tuesday’s episode of the Ellen show, which airs locally at 11 a.m. Not only was it the duo’s first time on national TV, but the recording of the show was also their first time performing live, ever.

Valence and Lugue, who both live in Centre County, were surprised at how fast the one-minute video of the song became popular, reaching millions of views on TikTok in only a few hours.

“We do it from such a genuine place,” Valence said. “It’s not like we’re doing it to blow up. It just happened. It’s just very overwhelming, but in a really good way.”

Dani Lugue, Braedan’s mother, emailed the Ellen show in early January to see if they would be interested in featuring the duo. The two flew out to Los Angeles on Jan. 25 with their mothers and manager Lucas Banker. They recorded their performance on the Ellen show in one take, a rare feat one, of the producers told Lisa Bertolino, Valence’s mother.

“(Ellen) said, ‘Portia and I are going to watch them until the day we die.’ She said, ‘I hope you’re ready for this Mom, they’re gonna take off, I know it,’” Bertolino said.

The duo wrote “Double Jump” in just 18 hours inside Valence’s bedroom, in a makeshift pillow fort for sound abatement. All their music has been written, recorded and produced by Valence and Lugue on Valence’s Mac, with the microphone bought by his parents and the FL music software program he taught himself as a child.

The original TikTok was posted Dec. 11 and the song was finalized and out on streaming services Dec. 25.

Valence met Lugue during their first year at Penn State. Valence graduated Penn State with a degree in telecommunications and Lugue graduated with a degree in health policy administration in 2021.

The duo draws much of their inspiration and sound from early ‘80s and ‘90s hip-hop and R&B.

“It’s just the raw essence of that old school sound that we’re kind of repackaging in this fresh new tone,” Lugue said. “It just brings like such an energy. ... I feel like current music today is very mature and the art of just having fun and dancing, like hip-hop, I feel like has really been lost. In general, rap has become super mature and a little bit too serious.”

Valence and Lugue also draw inspiration from several popular artists from the ‘80s and ‘90s — Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Heavy D, Biggie Smalls, Wu-Tang Clan, Will Smith and others. They’re also hoping to collaborate with different artists and producers in the future.

“In terms of a modern producer, I think it would be literally amazing to work with Tyler the Creator,” Valence said.

Music has always been a big part of the Bertolino household, with Valence’s father being a big fan of early hip-hop music. The navy blue and red sweatshirt that in many of Valence’s TikTok videos is a hand-me-down from his father, bought for a 1983 Run DMC concert.

“Since the day he was born, honest to God, he’s been pounding out even eight counts on his highchair,” Bertolino said.

The duo does not yet have a record deal but are hoping to put out an EP in the future. While still in LA after filming the Ellen show, they will be recording with Jason Evigan. Evigan has worked with many famous artists like Maroon 5, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato and more.

“We still feel like literally we’re in a bedroom making music, we just feel like two kids,” Valence said. “I feel like we’re always gonna feel that as long as that essence stays the same.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 5:16 PM.