Down The Dumper – The 2000s Part 3.

You should know by now that I am interested in the history of female duos in pop music, and here’s an example of one that had some success right at the end of the 2000s decade. Mini Viva were a duo who consisted of Frankee Connolly and Britt Love. In September 2009 their debut single “Left My Heart In Toyko” was released, and this reached no. 7, becoming their first (and only) Top Ten hit.

Part of its success was because it was described as one of the catchiest pop songs of the year, and I do remember enjoying it myself. I was rather confused though by the lyric “down by the river don’t you know“. Where in Tokyo is the river Don’tyouknow exactly? I’m only joking, probably. Of course, this song was released post-Top Of The Pops, but they still made a few TV appearances on the places where pop fans took notice, including T4, and this song was often on BBC Radio 1.

Also interesting about this one is that the production team were Xenomania, who definitely knew a thing or two around this time about how to put a great pop song together, having already done it many times for other groups. And one of the writers was Annie, a Norwegian singer who only had one hit in this country in 2005, but it was very enjoyable.

Following this, it looked there could be plenty of interest in their next single, but somehow, there wasn’t. In December 2009 “I Wish” was released, and this reached only no. 73, which was a surprise. Their third and final single “One Touch” was released in May 2010, and didn’t make the Top 100 at all. This led to their planned album never being released, and Mini Viva split not long afterwards. I must admit I don’t know if they’re still in touch with each other.

This was a shame as their songs were all rather good, but for whatever reason people didn’t take much notice. They were also one of the very last pop acts I took some interest in. All their videos are still on their YouTube channel, which hasn’t been updated for about a decade, and has become a time capsule of their brief time together and how they promoted their songs. The story doesn’t end there though. In 2016, Frankee joined another group called M.O who briefly had some chart success, with one of their singles making the Top 20.