The Veronicas are an electropop pop/rock band from Australia. The band was formed in Brisbane in 2005 by twin sisters Jessica "Jess" and Lisa Origliasso and have since then become a musical sensation in Australia and have just recently began to gain fame and success overseas in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe.
Band Name[]
The girls stated that they wanted the band name to be a girl's name, but didn't want anything such as 'The Jesses' or 'The Lisas'. One day while watching the film, Heathers, they heard the line "Are you a Heather?" followed by the response "No, I'm a Veronica." and the girls loved it, stating that it "was this kind of cool, unique chick name with an attitude."[1]
Some people, however, believe the band name was influenced by the Archie Comics hit, Veronica. Some of these people being Archie Comics workers, who sued the band from copyright infringement on the name. A settlement was reached that included a cross-promotion deal which included The Veronicas being featured in editions of the Archie Comics.
Philanthropy[]
The band has been featured in many charity works including a campaign against music piracy, Wildlife Warriors, a texting competition to reach 2,000 text messages in hopes to raise $2,000, and Jess announced that she would pose nude for PETA after getting attention from a member of the organization.
Music Career[]
The Secret Life Of...[]
The Veronicas' debut album, The Secret Life Of..., was released in Australia on October 17, 2005. Since then, the album has peaked at number two on Australia's album chart, and has been certified 4x Platinum after reaching sales of 280,000. The album spawned five singles in Australia and New Zealand. They were "4ever", "Everything I'm Not", "When It All Falls Apart", "Revolution", and "Leave Me Alone". "4ever" was the only international single and "When It All Falls Apart" was also released in the US. "4ever" became the band's first top two hit in Australia.
The album spent over a year in the Australian Top 40 albums chart and 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 nominations.
The album also had success in other countries as well. In New Zealand, the album peaked at number five and number 11 in Belgium. Due to the album's popularity 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 number, 17 weeks on MTV Asia's Pop 10 Chart, in which seven were spent at the number one spot.
The album was released on February 14, 2006 in the United States. Unfortunately, the girls weren't able to gain much US success. The album only peaked at number 133 on the Billboard Top 200. The singles weren't very success either. "4ever" managed to make its way on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, but failed to reach the actual Hot 100. The single also managed to peak at number 45 on the Mediabase Pop 100 Airplay chart. The single was even featured in the film, She's the Man, starring Amanda Bynes. "When It All Falls Apart" failed to chart anywhere in the states and had no promotion to help back it up. "Everything I'm Not" was never released to the US, but it was featured in promo commercials in 2008 for the ABC Family film, Picture This.
Hook Me Up[]
The Veronicas released their sophomore album, Hook Me Up, on November 3, 2007 to Australia. The album, like The Secret Life Of..., peaked at number two on the Australian album chart. Hook Me Up has also been certified 2x Platinum in Australia for sales over 140,000. With only a few weeks left in 2007, the album still managed to be the 28th highest selling album in Australia in 2007. The album spawned five Australian and New Zealand singles. They were "Hook Me Up", "Untouched", "This Love", "Take Me on the Floor", and "Popular", which was released as a digital singles only. "Untouched" has been the only international single, and "Take Me on the Floor" has also been released in the US. "Hook Me Up" became the band's first ever number one hit in Australia. "Untouched" became their third top two hit.
The album was digitally released to US iTunes on May 12, 2008, and "Untouched" was released to US radio in April 2008 and again re-released in May 2008. However, the song failed to go anywhere on pop radio. The album was released physically on August 26, 2008. "Untouched" slowly began to pick up on pop radio. However, it started to downfall. Fans of the band who were members of the official forum were tired of The Veronicas' unsuccessful US attempts and decided to take matters into their own hands. Their strategy has never been attempted, but it proved to be extremely effective. They swarmed the stations that were playing the song with requests until it got big enough to catch another station's attention. Eventually the long process began to work. The song found its way climbing up and being added to many stations week by week. Eventually in late December, Z100, the biggest station in the states, caught attention of the song and the song zoomed up the charts. It peaked at number 12 on the Mediabase Pop 100 Airplay chart, number 17 on the Hot 100-making it the band's first ever Hot 100 charting song, number 17 on Billboard's Pop 100, and the song was even able to sell over 1,000,000 copies in the states, certifying in Platinum. The band was the first Australian act to reach the top 20 on the Hot 100 since 2002 with Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Outta My Head". They were also the first ever Australian act to sell over 1,000,000 copies in the US. This lead to the band letting the fans text into them picking what the second US single should be. "Take Me on the Floor" won and the song has already started making its way onto many charts.
"Untouched" is also scheduled to be released in Europe, and the single has already found it way onto European airwaves. Once released, it is almost certain the song will peak in the top 20 of many European charts.
Discography[]
Albums[]
- 2005: The Secret Life Of...
- 2007: Hook Me Up
Singles[]
- 2005: "4ever"
- 2005: "Everything I'm Not" (Oceania only)
- 2005: "When It All Falls Apart"
- 2006: "Revolution" (Oceania only)
- 2006: "Leave Me Alone" (Australia only)
- 2007: "Hook Me Up" (Oceania only)
- 2007: "Untouched"
- 2008: "This Love" (Oceania only)
- 2008: "Take Me on the Floor" (Not in Europe)
- 2008: "Popular" (Australia digital only)