While navigating their thirties, Aly and AJ Michalka are getting back into the groove of things, but it hasn’t been an easy journey for the former Disney Channel stars. With their 2021 hit single “Slow Dancing” and most recently with the release of their most recent album With Love From, which they define as a love letter to their fans, the pop duo have been enjoying great success exploring their newfound sound. The girls are definitely back in action now. So much so that you would forget there was a period when their careers didn’t seem as bright.
The sisters have been in the profession since they were teenagers and they have the experience to demonstrate it. Not only has their music career slipped into a lull, but they have also encountered difficulties in their other creative outlet: acting. There was a time when Aly and AJ didn’t get the roles they auditioned for and it wasn’t because they weren’t skilled enough, but for a reason that may surprise you.
Aly & AJ struggled to get acting roles in the past
During a visit to Zach Sang’s show, the sister pop-duo said that they “totally” agree they’ve had difficulty being hired for acting gigs because they are Aly & AJ. “I think especially when we were younger, it did not help us.” Aly Michalka stated.
She added, “Now, I like to think that being successful again in music would only be positive because it’s more eyeballs, more fans, more people in seats or watching a show.”
Aly also added that in the past, people would confuse her and AJ since they were both blonde. Despite their chart-topping success, she stated that being a sister duo was “not a positive” for them back in the day.
How TikTok helped Aly And AJ’s music career
Following the unsuccessful album turnout, the sisters took some time away to pursue their own careers. They didn’t find a way back into the music industry until their song “Potential Breakup Song” garnered success on the social media platform TikTok. Videos of individuals lip-syncing the hit track about boyfriend-bashing began to go viral on the app. The pop-duo’s song received a “bizarre second life,” from students with their pals to Gordon Ramsay and Baltimore Orioles players, motivating sisters Aly and AJ Michalka to make their TikTok debut, teasing their first album in almost 13 years.
In an interaction with EW, Aly said, “It’s funny, even hearing ‘TikTok fame’ is hilarious, because the song is quite old, and it had its day in the sun. And it’s just funny that now this younger generation has no idea what the song is and who the artist is necessarily. We always wanted to join TikTok and really never knew how, so this is a perfect excuse to finally start our own page on the platform. So hopefully if we keep up with good ideas, we’ll try to post a TikTok once every week or two.”
Aly said that the “Mom’s” version of the “Potential Breakup Song” videos on TikTok were the first to catch her attention out of all the videos that circulated the platform.