THE VERONICAS

The Veronicas are a pop duo composed of identical twin sisters Lisa Marie and Jessica Louise Origliasso born December 25, 1984 in Brisbane of Italian ethnic background.

The sisters' 2006 debut album as the Veronicas 'The Secret Life Of Us .." did in fact try to make a secret of the twenty years Lisa and Jess has already spent in show business since the age of five. First known simply as the Origliasso Twins, singing at events and award shows made the young twins comfortable in front of an audience and drew the attention of agents and talent agencies. In their teens, they released three teen pop albums as Lisa & Jessica. In 2001 they landed recurring roles in the Australian children's television series 'Cybergirl'. Lisa played Sapphire, Jess played Emerald. By that stage they were already concentrating on their songwriting and came to the attention of Hayden Bell, songwriter and publisher.

Bell produced the sisters' original demos and helped cultivate their progression from acoustic pop to a more rhythmic rock pop approach under the name 'The Teal'. On the strength of these demos Bell then took them to meet the executives at Engine Room a subsidiary of PBL (Packer) Group and they were immediately signed to a production deal.

One of their songs, 'All About You', was a big hit in Europe for Russian duo T.a.T.u. they also wrote 2005 Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan's single 'What's Going On'.

To further develop the Origliassos' songwriting skills, Bell had connected them with internationally acclaimed songwriters and producers including Cliff Magness (Avril Lavigne), Billy Steinberg (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper), 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, who signed the sisters for a rumoured 2 million dollars. The Veronicas relocated from Brisbane to Los Angeles to be in the same continent as their record label and their management.

Their name came from Archie Comics character Veronica Lodge; when Archie Comics found out they sued the duo for trademark infringement over their band name, but the parties settled agreed on a cross-promotion deal. Issue #167 of the comic book featured a card with a code allowing a free download of the Veronicas' debut single in MP3 form.

Their debut album, 'The Secret Life Of...,' was released in Australia in October 17, achieving double platinum sales and generated five hit singles. The follow-up album, released in November 2007 again saw the girls collaborating with a variety of writers, but they revealed that some of the inspiration for the new songs came from their own lives. Both girls had been romantically linked with celebrity stars. The title song of the second album, 'Hook Me Up' became their first Australian No.1.