Aly & AJ facts for kids

Aly & AJ
Aly & AJ performing in April 2021
Background information
Also known as	78violet (2009–2015)
Origin	Torrance, California, U.S
Genres	Pop rock indie pop synth-pop
Years active	2004–present
Labels	AWAL Hollywood (2004-2010) 78violet Music LLC
Members	Aly Michalka AJ Michalka

Aly & AJ is an American pop rock duo consisting of sisters Aly Michalka (born 1989) and AJ Michalka (born 1991) from Torrance, California. They signed with Hollywood Records and in 2005, they released their debut album Into the Rush. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA and contained the singles "Rush" and "Chemicals React". They followed this release with the albums Acoustic Hearts of Winter (2006) and Insomniatic (2007). The latter contained the Platinum single "Potential Breakup Song", which was a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

They departed from their record label in 2010 and briefly changed their name to 78violet, releasing the single "Hothouse" in 2013. Following a period of inactivity, the duo reverted to their original name and released the extended plays Ten Years (2017) and Sanctuary (2019) and the studio albums A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun (2021), and With Love From (2023).

History

2004–2006: Into the Rush and Acoustic Hearts of Winter

In 2004, when Aly was 15 years old and AJ was 13 years old, the duo signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records after an audition in which they performed six original acoustic guitar songs they had written in their bedroom, sitting on the floor. Aly & AJ's debut studio album, Into the Rush, was released on August 16, 2005. It debuted at number 36 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in March 2006. The first single released from the album was the cover song "Do You Believe in Magic", originally recorded by The Lovin' Spoonful, which was used in the soundtrack of the made-for-TV Disney Channel original movie, Now You See It..., in which Aly had a starring role as Allyson Henlen. "Do You Believe in Magic" peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart. The album's second single, "No One", was featured in the Walt Disney Pictures feature film Ice Princess and its soundtrack. "Walking on Sunshine", a cover of the Katrina and the Waves song, and "Never Far Behind" were released as further singles. The latter appeared on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart, peaking at number 28. On February 28, 2006, the fifth single from the album, "Rush", written with Daniel James and Leah Haywood, was released. The song was their first to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 59. "On the Ride" was released as the album's sixth single on March 7, 2006. It was featured in the Disney Channel Original Movie Cow Belles which starred Aly & AJ.

The sisters were involved in various Walt Disney Records projects. The "Aly & AJ Concert" took place on July 24, 2005, at the Henry Fonda theater in Hollywood, California. The aired concert was cut to five songs. The sisters opened for the Cheetah Girls in December 2005 on the Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour. Into the Rush was re-released in August 2006 with three new songs, including the single "Chemicals React" and new versions of "Collapsed" and "Something More". This version served as their first album release in the United Kingdom. "Chemicals React" peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. On September 26, 2006, the sisters released their second studio album, Acoustic Hearts of Winter, which is composed of contemporary recordings of traditional Christmas music. The album debuted at No. 78 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over 19,000 copies in its first week. The album also charted the U.S. Billboard Top Holiday Albums, debuting at No. 14. In late 2007, the album was reissued with three more Christmas songs.

2007–2008: Insomniatic

The duo's third studio album, Insomniatic, was released on July 10, 2007. The album peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200, selling over 39,000 copies in its first week and becoming Aly & AJ's highest debut to date. The album features a more electropop, electronic rock and dance-pop influenced sound different from their debut, with the use of synthesizers, synth-rock guitars, vocoder and electronic instruments. The album was preceded by the lead single "Potential Breakup Song". "Potential Breakup Song" peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming their first top 20 single in the United States. The single was certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales surpassing 1 million copies.

In October 2007, both the single and the album were released in the United Kingdom; "Potential Breakup Song" reached a peak position of No. 22 in the United Kingdom and No. 16 in Ireland. Aly & AJ toured for a short while in the UK, opening for McFly twice and performing at several television shows and nightclubs. In the UK, "Potential Breakup Song" was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry. Time magazine named "Potential Breakup Song" one of the 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at No. 9. Writer Josh Tyrangiel praised the authenticity of its having been written by the teenage sisters who sing it. The single also charted in several other European countries, performing moderately in the Netherlands, Norway, and Scotland.

In December 2007, for two weeks, the band was the opening act for Miley Cyrus's Best of Both Worlds Tour. In early January 2008, Aly & AJ performed a cover of KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Yahoo's Pepsi Smash video site. The cover, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, was featured on the Japanese re-release of Insomniatic.

In March 2008, "Like Whoa" was released as the second single from Insomniatic and peaked at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was also used to promote the Disney Channel Original Movie Minutemen. That year, Aly & AJ covered the Grand Funk Railroad song "We're an American Band" for Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1.

2009–2014: Departure from Hollywood Records and 78violet

In early 2008, Aly & AJ were working on a fourth studio album under Hollywood Records which was due to be released in late 2009. They mentioned in an interview with Radio Disney on April 23, 2008, that they were going for a "rockier" sound, and that this time they wanted to sing separately, not harmonizing their voices as they had on their previous albums, to let fans identify which Michalka sister was singing. In December 2008, the duo wrote a song (later confirmed to be titled "The Next Worst Thing") with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo.

On July 8, 2009, the duo changed their name to 78violet. They continued to work on their fourth Hollywood Records album, which was later completed, but its release was delayed numerous times. In May 2010, the duo announced that they had departed from the label, and the album was shelved. On November 30, 2010, the first song under the 78violet name was released on the Hellcats soundtrack EP. 78violet recorded the theme song to Hellcats, titled "Belong Here". Some of the titles being considered for 78violet's fourth album were 8 Hours and 53rd floor. On May 2, 2013, Aly & AJ signed to Red Light Management. The single "Hothouse" was released on July 8, 2013. The duo performed live for the first time in five years with a concert at the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles on June 26. The group announced that they would be releasing an EP in early 2014, however, this never materialized. The full Hothouse EP was leaked in its entirety in 2014; the duo released it on vinyl as Sanctuary: Vol. 1 in 2020 for first-year subscribers of their Sanctuary fan-club.

2015–present: Ten Years, Sanctuary, A Touch of the Beat..., and With Love From

In December 2015, the sisters returned to music and changed their name back to Aly & AJ. "Take Me", a new single, served as the lead single from their EP Ten Years, and was released on August 17, 2017. The accompanying music video was released on September 14, 2017. The Ten Years EP was released on November 17, 2017. Two tracks from the EP, "I Know" and "The Distance", were featured in season 4 of Aly's TV series iZombie. On June 15, 2018, the duo released the single "Good Love". A deluxe version of Ten Years was released on November 30, 2018.

On March 29, 2019, the pair released the single "Church" as the lead single from their second EP Sanctuary, released on May 10. The EP was supported by a North American tour of the same name which began on May 1, 2019. The duo released the singles "Attack of Panic" in February 2020, and "Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor" in May. In December 2020, songs from both Ten Years and Sanctuary, as well as the non-album singles, were later released onto a compilation album titled We Don't Stop.

Their fourth studio album, A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun, was released on May 7, 2021. The album was preceded by the singles "Slow Dancing" on December 2, 2020, and "Listen!!!" in January 2021. Following the growing popularity of "Potential Breakup Song" on the social media app TikTok, Aly & AJ released two re-recorded versions of the song in December 2020: one with clean lyrics and an explicit version. In July 2021, the duo performed at Lollapalooza for the first time. Following the re-recording of "Potential Breakup Song", the duo released re-recordings of their songs "Like Whoa" and "Chemicals React" in 2022, subtitled "(A&A Version)". In October 2022, they performed at Austin City Limits.

The duo's fifth studio album, With Love From, was released on March 15, 2023. It was preceded by the title track as the lead single on November 2, 2022; the second single "Baby Lay Your Head Down" on January 25, 2023; and the third single "After Hours" on February 15.

Activism

The duo has used their platform for political advocacy, including support of LGBTQ+ rights and voter registration.

Also in May 2020, the duo expressed support for Black Lives Matter in a post on Twitter.

In June 2020, the duo hosted an all-night fundraising live stream, "Up All Night with Aly & AJ", which included a full live concert, acoustic performances, reactions to their earlier work and conversations with friends and collaborators, promoting donations to charities via Propeller.la. The stream raised US$30,000 for 13 charities, featuring one every hour: Color of Change, Frontline Foods, National Independent Venue Association's Save our Stages, Project HEAL, Women's History Museum, The Art of Elysium, The Trevor Project, Nalleli Cobo, GLAAD, Sierra Club, MusiCares, The Beauty Bus Foundation, and the Red Cross.

In October 2020, the pair participated in canvassing events for Senate candidate Amy McGrath and in January 2021, they supported Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia. They also supported Joe Biden in the general election of the 2020 United States presidential election.

In summer 2021, via Propeller.la, the duo offered a chance for a fan who supported their causes to meet them.

Other work

Acting

The duo have both pursued separate acting careers outside of their music, as well as having starred in some joint projects. Most notably, the pair starred as sisters in the 2006 Disney Channel Original movie Cow Belles, with "On the Ride" from their debut album Into The Rush serving as the movie's theme song. The sisters also starred in a Disney Channel television pilot Haversham Hall, although the show was not picked up for series. In 2015, the pair starred together in Weepah Way for Now, an independent comedy-drama film which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film was produced by the duo and written & directed by Aly's husband Stephen Ringer. The pair played sisters again in the movie, with the characters loosely based on their own personalities and relationship. They were featured in the March 7, 2022, episode "Yippee Ki-Yay" of The Good Doctor as a fractured sister act.

Branded merchandise

In 2007, Huckleberry Toys released Limited Edition Hello Kitty Aly & AJ dolls to selected Target and Toys "R" Us stores.

Also in 2007, Frame Studios released The Aly & AJ Adventure game for the Nintendo DS. In the game, the player plays as their assistant, who helps them record songs and direct a music video.

In June 2008, the duo released paperback adventure books called Aly & AJ's Rock 'n' Roll Mysteries, each part describing Aly & AJ on tour, every book describing a mystery in a different city. The drawings in the books were done by Aly. The first two, First Stop, New York and Mayhem in Miami, were released on June 12, the third, Singing in Seattle, was released on September 2, and the last, Nashville Nights, went to stores on October 4, 2008.

Performance Designed Products released Aly & AJ-designed guitars on November 10, 2008. Aly's guitar features a heart-and-crossbones print in pink (PlayStation 2) and AJ's guitar is in the shape of the Aly & AJ heart logo featuring bright pink and purple zebra print (Wii, PS2). The duo launched the guitars on October 11, 2008, during event at Universal Studios CityWalk in California. The duo also had clothing, accessories, jewelry, and cosmetics lines.

Discography

Studio albums

• Into the Rush (2005)
• Acoustic Hearts of Winter (2006)
• Insomniatic (2007)
• A Touch of the Beat... (2021)
• With Love From (2023)

Extended plays

• Ten Years (2017)
• Sanctuary (2019)

Tours

Main

• Mini Mall Tour (2005)
• Living Room Tour (2006)
• Holiday Season Tour (2006)
• Nextfest Summer Tour (2007) (Co-headlining with Corbin Bleu, Drake Bell and Bianca Ryan)
• Insomniatic Tour (2008)
• Mini Summer Tour (2008)
• Promises Tour (2018)
• Sanctuary Tour (2019)
• A Touch of the Beat Tour (2022)
• With Love From Tour (2023)

Supporting

• The Cheetah Girls Cheetah-licious Christmas Tour (2005)
• Best of Both Worlds Tour (2008)
• Reverie Tour (2022)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2005	Radio Disney Music Awards	Best Song You Can't Believe Your Parents Know the Words To	"Do You Believe in Magic"	Won
		Best TV Movie Song	"Rush"	Won
		Best Song to Listen to on the Way to School	"Walking on Sunshine"	Won
2006	American Music Awards	Contemporary Inspirational Artists of the Year	Into the Rush	Won
	Radio Disney Music Awards	Best Group Made of Brothers/Sisters	Aly & AJ	Won
		Best Group		Nominated
		Best Video That Rocks	"Chemicals React"	Nominated
		Best Song to Listen to While Getting Ready for School	"Rush"	Nominated
2008	Time magazine awards	10 Best Songs of 2007	"Potential Breakup Song"	9th place
2013	Popdust Awards	Best Siblings in Pop	78violet	Won
2015	Napa Film Festival	Special Jury Award (Acting in a Lounge Feature Film)	Aly & AJ in Weepah Way for Now	Won
2021	Trending: VMAs	Best Comeback Song	"Potential Breakup Song"	Won

See also

In Spanish: Aly & AJ para niños