History
Mini Viva were formed by Xenomania in 2008, when Frankee Connolly and Britt Love attended an audition held by a label called Select Music UK. Xenomania took the duo to their headquarters in Kent, and they spent a year working with the production team before their launch. They were signed to Universal Music Group in May 2009, after performing "Left My Heart in Tokyo" in the office of Universal chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge.[1]
Mini Viva supported The Saturdays on their The Work Tour in 2009.[2] The Guardian featured the duo as the "New Band of the Day" on 17 July 2009.[3] They released their debut single, "Left My Heart in Tokyo", in September 2009. Produced by Xenomania, the song was named "the catchiest single of 2009" by NME magazine.[4] It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the highest-charting single of the duo's career.[5]
They have stated that they are inspired by Rihanna and Lady Gaga.[6] The duo's second single, "I Wish", was released in December 2009 and peaked at number seventy-three on the UK Singles Chart, spending one week on the chart.[5] In March 2010, Mini Viva debuted their interactive webcast reality show titled Viva Mini Viva. In one episode, they said that their debut album was to be released in late 2010 and confirmed the album was not titled Colloquial Obsession, as was rumoured at the time.[7] The third single "One Touch", released in May 2010, only managed to chart as high as number 124.[5] During this period, they supported dance troupe Diversity on their UK tour.
It was reported in July 2010 that although the duo's future was unclear, they were still signed to Geffen Records.[8] However, in November 2010, Mini Viva confirmed speculation that they were splitting up, explaining that "sometimes things just don't work out the way you would like them to".[9][10]
As of February 2012, Love and Connolly were both working on their own solo careers. Love was featured on "You Don't Want to Dance with Me" by English electronic duo Monarchy and auditioned for the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012 and was successful in getting to bootcamp, but failed to make it to judges' houses. Frankee later became a part of the all-female trio M.O, whose single "Who Do You Think Of?" reached number eighteen on the UK chart in August 2016. She left the group in June 2017, and was replaced by Chanal Benjilali.[11]
