THERE are just 24 hours to go before this year’s Love Island draws to an end.
But aside from discovering which couple will be crowned winner of the popular ITV dating show, viewers will be watching the business moves made by the stars.
Every year, some of the sexy singletons will go on to become huge stars – just like Molly-Mae Hague and Olivia Attwood – while others will fade back into the background.
But it’s not always easy to predict who will come out on top and land lucrative brand and sponsorship deals, TV shows and podcasts, and other life-changing opportunities.
Take Zara McDermott – she appeared on Love Island as a bombshell for just 10 days in 2018 before being booted off but became one of the show’s most successful stars.
Since then, she’s presented BBC documentaries about revenge porn and eating disorders, became the first Islander to appear on Strictly Come Dancing and has fronted large advertising campaigns for likes of L’Oreal Paris.
It proves winning the show isn’t always a guarantee of success – and brand and culture expert Nick Ede tells us this year will be no different.
Here he predicts which of the sexy stars from Love Island 2024 will make millions once the show ends – and two of them haven’t even made it to the final…
The stand-out star from this series, says Nick, is Uma Jammeh, who quit Love Island when her now-boyfriend Wil Anderson was dumped from the island without her.
Nick says: “I think she can make millions just because she has got such a big personality. She’s absolutely gorgeous.
“She is very articulate but she’s also great fun. Also, what she did, leaving the villa, was a really brave thing to do.
“I felt that was very authentic and people buy into that now, so she’s the kind of person I can see hosting events, being a face of a brand and becoming a bit of a star.”
Nick believes his stunning Grace Jackson – Joey Essex’s ex – is also going to do very well, despite the fact she and her love interest Reuben Collins were brutally dumped from the island just days before the final.
Nick says: “She’s absolutely gorgeous. Whether she’s doing yoga or she’s just posing around, she’s stunning.
“I think she could become a brilliant fitness influencer, working for people like Gymshark, doing various different deals and being a model for fashion brands as well. I think she’s got it.”
WITH Love Island wrapping up on Monday 29, these are the remaining contestants prior to the latest savage dumping...
Joey and Jessy
Josh and Mimii
Grace and Reuben
Sean and Matilda
Jess and Ayo
Ciaran and Nicole
Meanwhile, Mimii Ngulube showed off her stunning voice in the talent show earlier this week, singing Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles.
And Nick believes she could be as successful as series three winner Amber Davies, who has gone on to become a West End star.
“She’s got a voice,” says Nick. “She’s been singing for a very long time and actually, she’s a good singer, whether that’s musicals or pop music.
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“There’s also a Tiktok with her singing Let It Go from Frozen, and she’s absolutely brilliant. So she could be the next Amber Davis, who obviously has been in the West End and doing really, really well.
“I definitely think that she is a bit of a triple threat. She’s got the looks, the voice and the personality!”
And it seems Mimii might be one half of a power couple, as Nick says her love interest Josh Oyinsan is going to do the best of all the guys in this year’s Love Island.
“The two of them together are the perfect pair, and I think, of all the guys, he’ll do the best outside of this show, as well as Ciaran,” he explains.
“It may be more like Eyal Booker, those kinds of model brand deals. They’re both good-looking but I don’t think they’re going to get to the heady heights of Chris Hughes or Kem Cetinay.”
Nick also has high expectations for Ciaran Davies too – in part due to his likeable personality and appearance, which he suspects will massively appeal to brands.
He says: “Ciaran is handsome. He’s funny. He feels like the boy next door.
I definitely think that she is a bit of a triple threat. She’s got the looks, the voice and the personality!
Nick Ede
“He’s not arrogant, but he’s got a big personality. And I think people really buy into that now.
“He’s handsome, but he’s not drop-dead gorgeous. He’s fun. He’s got a big personality and I think he’ll do really well because he just ticks all of the boxes.”
This year is the first time someone who’s already a celeb has entered the villa, but Nick thinks the move has backfired.
“Joey Essex is the biggest loser from this year,” says Nick. “I think this is really interesting when a TV show thinks ‘let’s bring in a celebrity into a show with people who are unknown to the general public’, and it shows that this actually doesn’t work.
“It can create lots of issues in creating controversy.
“Joey has maybe an ego and a bit of arrogance and also has a narrative because he’d been on reality shows before.
“The other guys are pretty naive so they don’t really understand the ins and outs of the show.”
Joey shocked Love Island viewers when he entered the villa as a bombshell at the end of the first episode – with everyone very excited about seeing their favourite Essex boy.
But the tide quickly turned against him, and he’s been accused by viewers of bullying and gaslighting.
“Joey Essex is, in many ways, a national treasure,” Nick says. “We’ve known him, grown up with him for many, many years.
“Coming onto the show, surprising us with his appearance, I think everybody really wanted to see the sort of cheeky chappy, the reems and all of that kind of stuff coming out and it did at the beginning.
“But, very quickly, he became a bit of a toxic character and it’s felt that he was in the wrong show and he wasn’t really playing this properly.”
