Nervo (DJs)

The Nervo twins were born in Ivanhoe, Melbourne, on the night of 18 February 1982.^[4] In 2012, the twins told a reporter that they "almost have the same birthday",^[5] but in 2021 they said they share a birthday.^[6] Olivia was born first.^[5] Their parents were Flaviana Benedetti and Garry Nervo, who had established a dental practice together in 1975 in Whittlesea, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne.^[7] The Italian-heritage family included older sister Adele and younger brother Morris. Around 1992 the family moved to Ivanhoe, Victoria.^[8][9][10] The twins studied at Genazzano FCJ College, a girls school in Kew, where they participated in rowing and swimming, but were mainly involved in music. They completed Year 12 and graduated in 1999.^[11][12] The twins began their careers as models with the Australian Chadwick Models Agency.^[13]

When the sisters were sixteen, a modeling agency took an interest in the pair, but Liv Nervo stated in April 2012 that music "was always the focus" for them.^[14]

The sisters were accepted into the Opera Australia Academy, but decided to pursue a music career instead.^[15] A contract was then signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and the duo subsequently embarked on a songwriting career.^[16] Initial recognition for the pair occurred following the single "Negotiate with Love", written for British pop singer, Rachel Stevens, which reached tenth position in the United Kingdom (UK) music charts in 2005.^[17] Also in 2005, the duo released the single "Boobjob", which received substantial airplay in their native Australia.^[18][2] The duo went on to write for Kesha, Richard Grey, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Ashley Tisdale and the Pussycat Dolls.^[16]

When their publishing deal was set to expire they considered dropping their songwriting career due to a dissatisfaction with the modest level of success they had experienced while with the major publisher.^[19] Instead they were persuaded to give it another chance by signing with Fredrik Olsson (Music Executive) and his Swedish music publishing company Razor Boy Music Publishing in 2008.^[19] The move reaped quick rewards when the new publisher arranged a writing session with Kelly Rowland through Universal A&R Max Gousse.^[19] The group co-wrote Guetta and Rowland's number one dance hit, "When Love Takes Over" which went on to win a Grammy Award, in addition to reaching the top position on numerous charts around the world.^[20] The song was also ranked the No. 1 dance pop collaboration of all time by Billboard.^[21]

In March 2010, Nervo announced a worldwide recording deal with Virgin Records/EMI Music, which included a joint venture to release new artists that Nervo discover and produce.^[22] They also served as ambassadors at the L'Oreal Fashion Festival.^[23] A month later, Nervo released their club single "This Kind of Love" through their independent UK-based dance record label, Loaded Records. It went number one on the world club charts, number two on the Music Week club charts and number six on the Music Week pop charts.^[24] In June 2010, Allison Iraheta released the single "Don't Waste the Pretty", co-written by Nervo. The twins also worked on records for Kylie Minogue's eleventh Aphrodite,^[25] Britney Spears,^[26] Cheryl Cole, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Armin Van Buuren^[27] and for Kelly Rowland's self-titled, third studio album.^[28] They also released the single "Irresistible" on Positiva/Armada, which reached number one on the UK Club Chart.^[29]

In July, after DJing at Belgium's Tomorrowland, they wrote a track with Afrojack, "The Way We See The World (Tomorrowland Anthem)" and followed this with "We're All No One" featuring Afrojack and Steve Aoki which reached number 27 on the UK Dance charts.^[30] In August, Nervo signed with modeling agency, Wilhelmina Models.^[31] They were also featured in Pacha magazine.^[32] They wrote the track "Night of Your Life" performed by Jennifer Hudson on David Guetta's new album Nothing but the Beat. They wrote, vocally produced and arranged Agnes Carlsson's single "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". The group also wrote Nicole Scherzinger's single "Try With Me".

In 2011, the sisters began hosting a monthly show on Sirius Radio called "Nervonation".^[33]

The single "You're Gonna Love Again"^[34] was leaked in 2011 and reached the No. 1 position on the Hype Machine chart.^[35] It was officially released in 2012.

Nervo began their 2013 music production schedule with "Like Home", with Nicky Romero, followed by the Nervo single "Hold On", which was released to iTunes on 9 April. The music video for "Hold On" was released on 19 April and uploaded to their VEVO channel on YouTube. In June 2013, Nervo were featured on the cover of Spanish magazine S Moda and a feature article that included further posed photographs was published on the magazine's website in May.^[36] In July 2013 Nervo wrote Daichi Miura's single "GO FOR IT". In November they also worked on records for Daichi Miura's fourth "The Entertainer", which reached No. 5 on the Japan chart.

On 24 February 2015, the twins released a new single titled "It Feels."^[37] In March, they also collaborated with Kreayshawn, Dev and Alisa Ueno for "Hey Ricky". Both "Hey Ricky" and "It Feels" appear on their forthcoming debut artist album Collateral, set for release on 24 July 2015.

Also, from Collateral, was "The Other Boys" featuring Kylie Minogue, Jake Shears and Nile Rodgers, was a remix single that was released on 23 October 2015.^[38]

In 2016, the Nervo song "People Grinnin'" served as the foundation for a video produced by eight universities led by the University of South Wales. The video was part of an Australian campaign to attract more women to engineering programs. In the video, the Nervo twins are shown as futuristic androids designed by women engineers.^[39]

In 2017, A3 enlisted Nervo for his remix of Guns N' Roses' "November Rain".^[40]

In 2018, the duo's collaboration with Sofi Tukker, the Knocks and Alisa Ueno on the former's “Best Friend” (used in a 2017 television commercial for iPhone X) gave Nervo their first number one on Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay Chart in its January 20, 2018 issue.^[41][42] In June, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and Nervo teamed up to have their song "Worlds Collide" be the anthem for the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) for men and women.^[43] Nervo first performed "Worlds Collide" live in Ottawa, Canada for the Canada vs. USA men's match on June 10.^[44] Nervo also performed the song live at the Women's VNL Finals in Nanjing, China and the Men's VNL Finals in Lille, France.^[45]

In October 2021, Nervo's song "Horizon" was used in a mini art film created within the Las Vegas mega-club Omnia. This mini art film was the first installment of One. One is a project series with content focused on storytelling, music, dance, and exotic locations, all with a dance music sound and Cirque du Soleil flair.^[46]

On 31 December 2018, the twins announced via an Instagram post that they were both pregnant.^[51] In February 2019 Miriam gave birth to a daughter with her partner, radio and television announcer Oriol Sabat. In May 2019 Olivia Nervo gave birth to a daughter with businessman Matthew Pringle.^[52] Miriam and Oriol had another daughter in February 2022.^[53] In March 2021, the twins posted on Instagram about how Pringle deceived Liv, not telling her that he already had a wife and family, and how Liv's daughter had not even met Pringle, her biological father.^[52]

The Nervo twins collaborated with the child advocacy group Hopeland on a campaign to end the practice of children separated from their parents and moved to orphanages for profit. They wrote a song called "Is Someone Looking For Me" to help raise awareness of the issue.^[54]

• Collateral (2015)

• List of Billboard number-one dance club songs
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. dance airplay chart