Mia & Maia

*Current in-game date: January 5, 2006*

The twins in 2003

### Genres

Pop, bubblegum pop, teen pop, grunge, R&B, synth pop, indie rock, indie pop, psychedelic pop

### Instruments

Vocals, guitar  (both)
 drums  (Maia)

### Labels

Republic Records

Mia & Maia is an American girl group duo consisting of twin sisters Mia & Maia Hall. They are credited for upgrading the 'Disney Popstar Factory' and reviving teen/tween pop in the mid 2000s after it seemingly phased out following big teen pop acts maturing their image or even disbanding, like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera & \*NSYNC. They are also known for their roles in Disney Channel sitcom So Little Time

The twins were born in San Fransisco, and by 2000 at the age of eleven, they landed roles in the hit ABC sitcom When The Sun Goes Down, shooting them to immediate stardom. The twins left the show in November of 2003 after receiving offers from Disney Channel to star in their own sitcom, and received a record deal from Republic Records to create soundtracks alongside the show. This was unusual for Disney Channel as their stars would release their soundtracks for shows under Disney's record label Hollywood Records, but Republic Records had already offered towards the twins and they were negotiating with the label before they were cast, so Disney and Republic came to an agreement to share 50 percent of soundtracks revenue. At 15, they released the soundtrack for their new sitcom with Disney Channel So Little Time, and the soundtrack sold 960,000+ copies worldwide in its first week.

## Joint Life and career

### 1989-2003: Early Life, When The Sun Goes Down

The twins grew fond of acting at just three, getting headshots and auditions around Los Angeles. They eventually landed minor roles in commercials and at age five, in 1994, they landed a guest role on *Fresh Prince Of Bel Air* as two twins who lived down the street. That same year their parents gave birth to a baby boy, Marcus, so they stopped acting for a while as their parents couldnt take them around the state anymore due to taking care of them.

In December 1996 at age seven, they were cast to play as one character in a *Grease* broadway tour where they showcased stunning vocals at such a young age and got recognized by an agency, and then 3 years later got cast in *ABC* sitcom *When The Sun Goes Down* and would begin filming of spring of 2000. The show was a ratings success and shot the twins to stardom at just eleven years old. The same year they received a record deal from Republic Records, but their parents weren't very big on the idea of having their eleven year olds be signed to both TV and record label contracts, and they would hold the contract for when the girls were older so they could decide themselves.

In May 2003, after *When The Sun Goes Down* aired its 3rd season, the twins announced their departure from the show to move onto other projects, projects being their own show with the Disney Channel and re-negotiating a deal with Republic.

### 2004-Present: *Republic Records*, *Soundtrack*, *Disney* and *more*

In January of 2004, the twins new Disney Channel show So Little Time was officially announced to be going into production alongside the twins new record deal with Republic Records to create soundtracks alongside the show. This was unusual for Disney Channel as their stars would release their soundtracks for shows under Disney's record label Hollywood Records, but Republic Records had already offered towards the twins and they were negotiating with the label before they were cast, so Disney and Republic came to an agreement to share 50 percent of soundtracks revenue.

The twins went on talk and news shows from January to April to help promote them as a musical duo, and eventually announced that the extended theme song to *So Little Time* would be released as a single to build hype for the show, the girls music career and soundtrack. The single would be released on August 23, 2004 and would sell around 300,000 copies first week, 120,000 sales being from the U.K and another 100,000 from the rest of Europe. In the U.S however, it would only sell a disappointing 11,000 copies. It debuted at number 19 on the Hot 100, and number 2 on the U.K top singles chart, a clear fanbase existing in the U.S despite the girls extreme success in America as actors. This same time the tracklist to the first So Little Time Soundtrack was announced as well as a promotional small venue tour in January of 2005 to promote the show and soundtrack.

*So Little Time* continued to rise on the Hot 100 and charted number one for 3 weeks total.

The song is still charting as of writing (6 months later). By September 2004, the show had premiered and was already the most watched Disney Channel show of 2004, meanwhile the single would go on to chart number 1 and 2 on the hot 100 for a good amount of time.

On November 1, 2004, the soundtrack to the So Little Time's first season would be released and would garner 960,000 copies sold worldwide in its first week. It also debuted at number one on the Hot 200, the U.K Albums Chart and the World Albums Chart, and received two grammy nominations: Best Pop Vocal Album & Best Engineered Album. The album was a commercial success and did numbers worldwide whilst not being released in any other regions other than the U.S and the U.K. The same week the soundtrack debuted number 1, the tour dates for the promotional small venue tour would be released, the tour starting on January 6th and ending February 12. The 8th of January show would be cancelled due to the 2004 grammys that the twins would be attending after receiving two nominations.

In December of 2004, Mia & Maia would debut on the *List Of Richest Musicians (USA)* being the youngest to do so at just 15. They eventually climbed all the way to the 5th & 6th spot, making them the youngest on the list and the youngest in the top 10. They also became multi milionares at just 15.

Whilst on tour, the twins announced their debut lead single Puppy. This timing was not only great because they were becoming stars, but because they had hype because of their tour, and because they were on TV weekly with their TV show.

On February 7, 2005, Puppy was released without a music video and debuted with 1,100,000 copies, their highest first week sales yet despite the music video being delayed for an entire month. The following week their promotional tour had ended, but had only grossed $2.05m, however it promoted everything M&M and really was free money to promote.

## Discography

### Soundtracks

* *So Little Time Soundtrack Vol.1 (2004)*

## Filmography

Films
 2000
 2001