Sophia Grace Brownlee and her cousin Rosie McClelland, both from Essex, England, make up the duo They quickly gained popularity, by making regular appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, after posting a cover version of the Nicki Minaj song "Super Bass" that became popular on YouTube. The video was originally posted on YouTube on 19 September 2011 and has gained more than 54 million views as of June 2020. Sophia Grace debuted with her solo single "Girls Just Gotta Have Fun" in 2013, followed by the single "Best Friends" in 2015, which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The music videos for each single appear on her official YouTube channel. As of May 2018, "Girls Just Gotta Have Fun" has more than 200 million views. After signing a recording deal with Capitol Records France, she released her third single "Girl in the Mirror" on iTunes on 9 June 2016 featuring rapper Silentó, along with its accompanying music video. Rosie started a YouTube channel featuring her life and sang a cover of Little Mix's "Touch". On 25 May 2018, Rosie released her first solo single "Handstand".
They were first invited onto The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2011, after DeGeneres saw their cover of the Nicki Minaj song "Super Bass", on YouTube. The eight and five-year-old girls became recurring cast members on the show. The girls eventually hosted their own segment, called "Tea Time with Sophia Grace & Rosie". In the segment, the duo invites and interviews guests over tea, such as Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Hugh Grant, Julie Bowen, Harry Connick Jr., LL Cool J, Justin Bieber, and Reese Witherspoon. The segment won Sophia Grace and Rosie the "Choice Webstar" at the 2012 Teen Choice Awards. They have also been correspondents during red carpet events, such as the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards.
Other TV and film appearances
They both appeared in two episodes of Sam & Cat, the third episode and the eleventh episode. In early August 2013, Sophia Grace's representatives announced that she had been cast as Little Red Riding Hood in the Disney movie adaption of Into the Woods. The announcement of her casting, which was never confirmed by Disney, was criticised as "a stunt" and was met with concern due to her age and the sexual undertones present between Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. On 16 September 2013, the Broadwayworld.com website announced that the film had "kicked off production last week" with Broadway star Lilla Crawford playing Little Red. After the film's cast list was announced, Dominic Brownlee explained that his daughter had withdrawn from the movie, saying, "After careful consideration, we as parents felt, as rehearsals progressed, that she was too young for this part. It was a joint decision between us and the director and producer of Into the Woods, to withdraw Sophia Grace from the film". Sophia Grace went on to star in her own movie alongside Rosie, Sophia Grace & Rosie's Royal Adventure. The film was a straight to DVD release, produced by Nickelodeon. It was released in May 2014. The film currently has no critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, It currently holds a 4.2/10 rating on IMDb, and a number of sequels are reportedly in the pipeline. According to TMZ, Sophia Grace was paid around $50,000 for the film; a five-picture deal signed by the cousins states that the older will earn $75,000 if a second and third installment are released, and $100,000 each for a possible fourth and fifth installment. In 2017, Sophia Grace began starring as a judge on the ABC reality series The Toy Box. However, she did not return for the second season.
Books
The duo have published two illustrated story books. The first book, entitled Tea Time with Sophia Grace & Rosie, was published 1 February 2013. It debuted at No. 2 on The New York TimesBest Sellerlist of "Children's Picture Books", only outsold by Victoria Kann's Emeraldalicious . The second book, Showtime with Sophia Grace & Rosie, was published on 25 March 2014, and also received commercial and critical success, like its predecessor. Both books were written by the girls and illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas. They were published by Orchard Books.
Singing dolls
In April 2014, Just Play launched a two-doll pack containing two dolls of both Sophia Grace and Rosie. They were sold exclusively at Walmart stores for the first month, until made available at Claire's in May. Just Play teamed up with the girls to produce their own toy inspired by their love of dress-up, music, dolls and more. The dolls feature the two girls dressed in their trademark hot pink tutus and tiaras. Each doll is fully posable and comes with a matching microphone, ruffled socks, and shoes. The doll plays the real Sophia Grace singing Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass", when you press the doll's belly.
