The Electric Barbarellas were an American all-female

electropop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...

group whose career with producer

Midi Mafia The MIDI Mafia is a music production duo consisting of American Bruce Waynne (born Waynne Nugent) from Brooklyn, New York and Canadian Dirty Swift (born Kevin Risto) from Ottawa, Ontario. Together as Midi Mafia since 2003, they are most notable ...

was depicted in a short-lived, critically panned, eponymous

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

that ran for one season on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

Background

In 2010, Viacom CEO

Sumner Redstone Sumner Murray Redstone ( Rothstein; May 27, 1923 – August 11, 2020) was an American billionaire businessman and media magnate. He was the founder and chairman of the second incarnation of Viacom, chairman of CBS Corporation (both companies m ...

personally paid over $500,000 to fly the group to New York to meet with record labels while filming a reality-TV series based on the trip, after asking then-Viacom CEO

Philippe Dauman Philippe Pierre Dauman (born March 1, 1954) is an American businessman who was president, CEO and chairman of Viacom from September 2006 until May 20, 2016. Dauman was a longtime associate of the company's chairman Sumner Redstone. From 1994 t ...

to give one of his romantic pursuits an MTV series. Redstone then forced Viacom-owned

to air the series. MTV executives originally balked at airing it because it was "so bad" but their resistance almost cost MTV's then-CEO Judy McGrath her job. Les Moonves also arranged for the series to be promoted on CBS, as a favor to Redstone. The series ended with a phone call from a record executive provoking much shrieking, but the group quickly faded into obscurity once the show ended. The group performed the song "Without You" on ''

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the The Late Late Show (American talk show), ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airi ...

'' on May 27, 2011. In their 2023 book ''Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy'', James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams said that the Barbarellas were "singing wildly off pitch" in that ''Late Late Show'' appearance and that Moonves "dreaded" the requests by Redstone to promote the group on CBS.

Members

* Heather Naylor, Chelsea Costa, Gynger Fluellen, Missy, and Raven

Discography

* ''Strange World'' (2011)

The Alectrix

Two years later, Naylor hired Joe Simpson (father of Ashlee and

Jessica Simpson Jessica Ann Johnson (née Simpson; born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress, and fashion designer. After performing in church choirs as a child, Simpson signed with Columbia Records in 1997, aged seventeen. Her debut studio album, '' ...

) to audition new members for the group, under the new name The Alectrix. Again, the ordeal was filmed as a reality-TV series and aired on MTV. And again, soon after the series ended, the group faded quickly into obscurity. Later, Naylor was sued by Sumner Redstone's girlfriend Sydney Holland for allegedly stealing her laptop. Naylor counter-sued, claiming Holland negatively influenced Redstone to intentionally interfere with the success of The Alectrix, however Naylor eventually dropped the lawsuit.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Electric Barbarellas, The American pop girl groups 21st-century American women singers MTV reality television series