MKTO

2010–2012: Formation

Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller met in 2010 while filming the Nickelodeon television series Gigantic, in which their characters played best friends. They later formed as a duo and came up with the name MKTO, which represents the combined initials of their names and surnames, MK for Malcolm Kelley and TO for Tony Oller. They elaborated upon the inspiration for their name, saying: "It also stands for what our album kind of is: Misfit Kids and Total Outcasts – just like the kids we were in high school".

2013–present: MKTO

The duo signed to Columbia Records and released their debut single "Thank You" on January 15, 2013. "Thank You" is a crossover between pop and hip hop. The song's music video was released on YouTube via VEVO on January 4, 2013, and garnered over 500,000 views within two days of being released. The song has attained commercial success, reaching the top ten on both the Australian and New Zealand singles charts. In the music video, Harold Perrineau, who played the father of Malcolm Kelley's character on Lost, appeared as a reference to the show. MKTO released their second single, "Classic" along with the music video on June 20, 2013. Classic peaked at number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and the music video has since compiled over 50 million views on YouTube. In 2013, they served as the opening for Emblem3 on their summer tour across the United States. Their self-titled debut album was released on April 1, 2014. The music video for their third single, "God Only Knows", was released on November 29, 2013 on YouTube and Vevo. They also served as the opening for Emblem3's #bandlife Tour and Demi Lovato's "Demi: World Tour" in 2014. In February 2014, their debut album went to #1 in Australia and #6 in New Zealand. During the summer of 2014, MKTO went on their first headlining tour, the American Dream Tour. This featured opening acts Tiffany Houghton and Action Item. The third single from their debut album in the United States is "American Dream". On July 22, 2015 MKTO released their first extended play Bad Girls EP, which was preceded by the June 2015 release of its lead single "Bad Girls". A double A-side single including two brand new tracks "Hands Off My Heart/Places You Go" was premiered exclusively on Billboard on March 9, 2016. On March 10, 2017, Tony Oller announced on Twitter that the band has broken up.