The Veronicas

The Veronicas History:

**The Veronicas** are an Australian pop duo from Brisbane, Australia. They were formed in 2004 by identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso. In addition to singing they are respectively a pianist and a guitarist.

## Background

In 2001, the identical twins made their first recordings with Brisbane producer, Stuart Stuart at Analog Heart Records. Stuart produced an EP in a more electronic style, and a year later, a second batch of songs in the pop rock style that the group initially became known for. In 2004, Lisa Origliasso and Jessica Origliasso were introduced to the Music Director of the Bell Hughes Music Group (BHMG), Hayden Bell. Bell invited them to sign a publishing agreement with Excalibur Productions (a subsidiary of BHMG). Bell took them to meet the executives at Engine Room (a subsidiary of PBL (Packer) Group) and they were immediately signed to a production deal. To further develop their song writing skills, Bell connected them with several internationally acclaimed songwriters and producers including Clif Magness (who has written with Avril Lavigne), Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper), Max Martin (Britney Spears, Katy Perry, P!nk), Eric Nova, Dead Mono and Vince DeGiorgio, where they created a catalogue of over 50 songs.

Meetings were then arranged with Warner Bros. Records in the USA. Seymour Stein and senior executives recognised that Bell had indeed discovered and developed a musical talent, signing them quickly to a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records/Sire America, for a reported sum of 2 million dollars.

### Band Name

Regarding how they chose their name, Jess Origliasso stated: "The name is something we thought about for a short time and we wanted it to be a girl's name, but we didn't want it to be 'the Jesses.' We were very conscious of not wanting to make it a twin thing, because we don't think that's really cool." "We didn't want it to be called 'the Lisas,' either," singer Lisa Origliasso added. "So one day we saw the movie Heathers, and there's a line where Christian Slater asks, 'Are you a Heather?' and Winona Ryder's character [Veronica] answers, 'No, I'm a Veronica,' and so we went with that, because she was this kind of cool, unique chick with an attitude."

## Music career

### 2005–2006: The Secret Life of...

   The Veronicas performed at the 2005 NRL Grand Final days before their debut album, titled The Secret Life of..., was released in Australia on 17 October 2005, entering the ARIA Album charts at the position of No. 7. Since then, it has peaked at No. 2 and gone 4x Platinum. Due to the success of the album, five singles were released in Australia: "4ever", "Everything I'm Not", "When It All Falls Apart", "Revolution" and "Leave Me Alone". The Secret Life of The Veronicas spent a year in the ARIA album charts without leaving the Top 40. In September 2006, the album was nominated for three ARIA awards including; "Best Pop Release", "Highest Selling Album" and "Best Breakthrough Album". They won "Best Pop Release" but lost the other two to other nominees. The girls also performed their 2nd single "Everything I'm Not" on the night.

The album was released in the US on 14 February 2006; it debuted at No. 133 on Billboard 200 and No. 3 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. Only two singles were released in the United States off the album.

The album has also had success in other countries such as New Zealand where it debuted at No. 5, No. 75 on the Dutch Album Charts and No. 11 in Belgium. Due to their chart success in Belgium, they won the award for Best International New Artist at the TMF Awards of 2006. "When It All Falls Apart" spent a record of 17 weeks of MTV Asia's Pop 10 Chart, in which 7 of them were at the number 1 spot.

### 2007–2009: Hook Me Up and worldwide expansion

   In early 2007, The Veronicas began work on their second album. The album was written and recorded in Los Angeles, California, with Toby Gad, Billy Steinberg, Greg Wells, Shelly Peiken and John Feldmann.

Hook Me Up was released in Australia on 3 November 2007. The album debuted at number two on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart with sales of 9,531 copies in its first week, and was certified Gold. It has since gone 2x platinum. The album became the twenty-eighth-highest selling album in Australia for 2007. Hook Me Up was released in the UK on 12 October 2009 and has peaked at number thirty-five.

The lead single from the album, "Hook Me Up", was added to Australian radio on 27 August 2007, but was physically released on 22 September 2007. It debuted at number five, eventually reaching number one after seven weeks on the ARIA Singles Chart, making it their first number one hit in Australia.

"Untouched" was the first single to be released from their album in the United States, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. The song reached number 2 in Australia, eventually reaching platinum accreditation. The song became their first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 debuting at number sixty-two and eventually peaking at number seventeen making it their first top twenty hit in the United States. They became the first Australian artists to have a single certified Platinum in the U.S. with over 1,000,000 paid downloads. It was also their debut single in the UK, peaking at number eight and in Ireland peaking at number one, their first international number-one single.

Their third and fourth singles, "This Love" and "Take Me on the Floor", were both top ten hits in Australia and were both certified Gold. "Take Me on the Floor" was released as their second single in the U.S. but only peaked at number eighty-one. On 11 October, their fifth single, "Popular", was released digitally in Australia. It has only gained heavy airplay and peaked at No. 11 on the Australian Airplay Chart.

Their debut single "4ever" was re-released as their second single in the UK and Ireland on 21 September 2009 and has peaked at number 17 in the UK and twenty in Ireland.

### 2010–2013: Musical experimentation and split from Warner Music

Writing for their third studio album had begun in December 2009, and recording began in January 2010. The album, which cites influences by classical music, classical rock and pop genres, would have been their first release in over three years. During this period they sampled 10 different songs live and a few covers for the fans.

Lending their vocals elsewhere, Lisa and Jessica also collaborated with Michael Paynter to record a song called "Love the Fall" for his homonymous EP. The song peaked at number nineteen on the ARIA Charts. They also revealed in February 2011 that they had recorded backing vocals for Cherie Currie's new album. Additionally The Veronicas recorded a cover version of the song "Grown-Up Christmas List", by singer Amy Grant, for the Christmas compilation album The Spirit of Christmas 2010.

Lisa also started a group called the Dead Cool Dropouts with her friend Tyler Bryant, mostly done using GarageBand on Mac. They have released an EP of songs.

In February 2012, it was announced that a release date for the album was "coming soon". On 2 June 2012, The Veronicas revealed the name of the album to be Life On Mars (Working title was; 'The Awakening' and they played with various titles like Death On Mars and Skeleton), and that it was to be released in September or October 2012. Warner Music then delayed the release of the album until 2013, as stated by the Daily Telegraph on 2 September.

The first single off the then-promised album was titled "Lolita". The lyric video was released on 27 July 2012 and the official music video was released on 30 August.

The Veronicas co-wrote and recorded backing vocals for song called "Back to Life" which is included on EP 16 & Unstoppable by Christina Parie who finished 6th on third season The X Factor Australia.

Due to label conflicts, The Veronicas embarked on a process of making many changes to the album. The release date was postponed, and the content and theme of the album was changed. The girls also explained that "Lolita" was not an official single promoting the new album "It was just a single release for our Australian fans, as it's been such a long time since we have had anything new over there".

On 26 October 2013, The Veronicas announced via their official Facebook page that they had split from Warner Bros. Records.

### 2014–2015: The Veronicas, record deal with Sony Music Entertainment

    In March 2014, The Veronicas started an internet series documenting the last few years of their journey titled "Did You Miss Me?". It was later announced that a record deal had been struck with Sony Music Entertainment, and the long anticipated third album was to be released late in 2014.

The girls announced via Twitter on 5 September 2014 that their lead single for their third album was titled "You Ruin Me". The song premiered on Australian radio on 11 September 2014. On 27 September, the song debuted at number one the ARIA Single Charts, The Veronicas' second number one single after "Hook Me Up" in 2007.

Billboard announced that the third album was to be self-titled, The Veronicas, and it was later confirmed by the Daily Telegraph that the album would be released in November.

On 24 October, pre-order of the album was made available on iTunes, with the track "Line of Fire" available as an instant download with the preorder.

On 31 October, during a special album release secret show, song "If You Love Someone" was announced as a second single. The song was premiered on Australian radios on Wednesday 5 November, and was released alongside the launch of The Veronicas on 21 November. The song became a success in their native Australia, charting at number 5 and was certified gold with sales upwards of 35,00 0. "Cruel" was released as the third single from the album.

### 2016–2022: Blood is For Life, Human, Godzilla and The Solo Project

The Veronicas released various singles through 2016 to 2021, "In My Blood", "On Your Side", "The Only High", "Think Of Me", and "Biting My Tongue". During 2021 they released two albums; *Godzilla* and *Human*. In these albums they also featured unreleased songs from prior projects, such as 101 and Sugar Daddy. Additional singles included Godzilla (Song), Goodbye, Life Of the Party and Sugar Daddy

The duo was also featured on a reality TV show for MTV in November 2019 (Blood Is For Life), which also had a song called "Ugly".

They also toured locally in their home country of Australia for 2021 and 2022.

In September 2022 they released their first official solo projects at the same time called The Solo Project, Jessica's song called "Seein' Stars" and Lisa's project called "Cruisin' On My Own". They left Sony Music and signed with Big Noise in 2022 and promised a new album in 2023.

### 2023-: Gothic Summer

Announced a new album in October 2023 Gothic Summer. Announced October 20th the single first single "Perfect". "Detox" in December 2023.

References