Millionaires (group)

• 1. Introduction

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  Millionaires, the American electronic music group, started not in a studio with a label deal, but in a bedroom on the 14th of August 2007, when sisters Melissa and Allison Green loaded GarageBand and recorded a song they called "I Like Money." They were teenagers. There was no plan. As the group themselves later put it, it all began "as an accident." Then they made a MySpace profile and named it Millionaires. Within a year, they would be performing on MTV's TRL. Within two years, their Just Got Paid, Let's Get Laid tour would sell out every stop. How does a pair of sisters with a laptop and a free recording app end up co-headlining tours, soundtracking MTV reality shows, and getting submitted to the BBC for Eurovision consideration? And what happens when the machinery that lifts you up just as quickly drops you back down?

• 2. The MySpace Machine

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  "I Like Money" went online, and a few friends later so did Dani Artaud, who joined after Melissa Marie asked her directly. The third member arrived the same way the band had: casually, without ceremony. Their second song was called "Hoe Down." Their first EP went through several potential titles before landing on Bling Bling Bling!, released on the 2nd of July 2008. The five songs were edited by Mark Maxwell; many of the tracks that had grown their MySpace following did not survive the cut. Kerrang! later summed up that period by calling them a "Myspace band." Alternative Press went further, describing them as "the epitome of Myspace in its prime." That digital platform was the entire engine of their early career. No label, no publicist; just songs posted directly to fans who passed them around. The group is associated with the scene subculture by some publications, though during those early years they were often mislabeled as crunkcore. They are, at their core, an electropop group.

• 3. MTV, Festivals, and First Tours

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  In July 2008, Millionaires co-headlined their first tour alongside Breathe Carolina across California and other Western states. Later that same month, they headlined the Get F$cked Up tour. They performed their MySpace song "I Move It" on MTV's TRL as part of a segment called On the Radar, reserved for popular "hipster" bands. That TV moment opened more doors at the network. Their short track "Ooh Uh Huh" became the theme song for MTV's reality show A Double Shot at Love with the Ikki Twins. Their song "Hey Rich Boy" was used for MTV's Teen Cribs. "I Like Money" and "I Move It" both appeared on My Life as Liz. Their cover of Chic's "Le Freak" was placed on the MTV film Turn the Beat Around. The group also secured festival spots at Rockin' Roots, Bamboozle Left 2008, and Audio Overload 2008 during that same period. At the 2009 Vans Warped Tour, they performed on both the Skullcandy stage and the Hurley.com stage. Their song "Alcohol" appeared on the soundtrack for the third series of the UK drama Skins, extending their reach beyond an American audience.

• 4. UK Ambitions and the Label Drop

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  By late 2009, Millionaires had been signed to B-Unique, an English record label, with a debut album set for 2010. The single "Stay the Night" came out in early 2010, and the trio made two UK tours to promote it. The BBC team received the track as a submission to represent the UK at Eurovision 2010, a prospect that would have put them in front of a continental audience. It was eliminated by Pete Waterman before reaching the live decisions. In December 2009, Millionaires played five shows across the United Kingdom. A second London show scheduled for December 9 was canceled after a cyst was found inside Allison's lower abdomen, requiring emergency surgery. They returned to the UK in May 2010 for a mini tour, performing at Slam Dunk festivals in both Hatfield and Leeds, and at Middlesbrough Music Live on the 6th of June 2010. Then the momentum collapsed. Dani Artaud left the group. B-Unique dropped them. The planned album was scrapped. Five songs originally earmarked for that album, plus "Stay the Night," were gathered onto an EP called Cash Only, released in September 2010.

• 5. Tonight and the Road

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  the 31st of January 2012 brought their first album single, "Drinks on Me", onto iTunes, with a music video featuring Ricky Hoover, former lead vocalist of the deathcore band Suffokate and at the time current lead vocalist for Ov Sulfur, appearing as Melissa's boyfriend. On the 15th of May 2012, they released the mixtape Your Girl Does Party, which featured collaborations with Kreayshawn, Trina, Diamond, Shanell Woodgett, Nightclub Fight Club, and Riff Raff. It was produced by Khris Lorenz. Their debut album, Tonight, followed on the 13th of March 2013. It contained 11 songs, including "Drinks on Me." Tonight sold 697 copies in its first week and received negative reviews from music critics. The promotional tour ran from April through June 2013. During those shows the group debuted EDM remixes of "Drinks on Me" and "Put It in the Air," both produced by The Knuckledusters, alongside a remix of "Dat Boi" featuring Trace Cyrus of Metro Station. From May 20 to the 2nd of June 2013, they toured with Brokencyde through the United Kingdom, Scotland, France, and Germany.

• 6. Lineup Shifts and Later Years

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  On the 28th of March 2014, the group put out a free track called "Myspace Pic" on SoundCloud. It was produced by DJ Foreign Warren of The Knuckledusters and was written as a parody of "Selfie" by The Chainsmokers. Early October 2015 brought an unexpected turn: Melissa and Allison were cast on the Twisted Sisters season of Bad Girls Club as replacement castmates. They entered in the fourth episode, "No Room for T.H.O.T.S.," which aired on the 6th of April 2016, joining another pair of sisters, Jaimee and Jazmyn Wallace. The Millionaires left during episode 8, "OG Overthrow," following multiple confrontations with the Wallace sisters. On the 18th of December 2015, the duo released "When I'm Single" with a music video directed by Wade Martin Handley. On the 14th of February 2017, they released "Rich Girls" in collaboration with Caked Up. the 14th of August 2022, the exact anniversary of the group's founding date, was the day Melissa announced she would continue Millionaires as a solo act, with Allison stepping away to focus on her career as a photographer. By June 2023, Meredith Hurley and Anissa Zermeno had joined. The new lineup debuted at the So What?! Musical Festival in Dallas, Texas, on the 24th of June 2023, with the group's name carrying on nearly sixteen years after that first GarageBand session.