\n\tDon\u2019t be tardy for the (anniversary) party!<\/p>\n
\n\tFor the past 20 years, the Real Housewives<\/a> franchise has dominated pop culture as the go-to reality TV<\/a> institution for catty drama, aspirational wealth and navigating the ever-complicated social politics of female friendship.<\/p>\n \n\tNow, more than two decades after a little experiment called The Real Housewives of Orange County first premiered, Bravo<\/a> is commemorating the landmark milestone with The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th, a nine-episode anniversary series celebrating all the iconic women who\u2019ve graced our screens from New York City and Atlanta to Beverly Hills, Miami and beyond. (New episodes premiere Sunday nights on Bravo at 9 p.m. ET\/PT and start streaming the next day on Peacock.)<\/p>\n \n\tMany of the women who\u2019ve redefined what it means to be a \u201cHousewife\u201d in front of Bravo\u2019s cameras have also turned their exploits into a catalog of quotable, clubby musical earworms. As Porsha Williams, the Real Housewives of Atlanta mainstay representing Georgia\u2019s peaches on the new season of RHUGT, quipped during the third episode of the anniversary special, \u201cIf a Housewife gon\u2019 do anything, they\u2019re gonna be confident as a singer, honey.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut before Bravoholics were singing along to \u201cTardy for the Party\u201d or \u201cChic C\u2019est La Vie,\u201d a girl from Southern California was the original Real Housewife to turn her reality TV ambitions into dreams of pop stardom.<\/p>\n \t\tU Can\u2019t Control Jo\t<\/p>\n \n\tBack in 2007, Jo De La Rosa was an original cast member of The Real Housewives of Orange County. At just 26 years old, she was filming her second season of the show that would soon launch franchises across the country and start a pop culture phenomenon that would define the 21st century.<\/p>\n \n\tFrom the start, De La Rosa stood out from her fellow First Ladies of Bravo. Younger than her castmates by nearly two decades, the then-engaged daughter of musician Juan Carlos Contreras already had her sights set far beyond the cloistered gates of Coto De Caza \u2014 the exclusive gated community in sunny southern California where Bravo had inadvertently struck gold.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was going to L.A. a lot with my girlfriends on the weekends, meeting a lot of people, and producers happened to know that I was trying to get into the world of [music],\u201d she tells Billboard \u2014 adding that, in actuality, her goal was not to become the next Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, but to write for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cReally, my dream in my entire 20s was to move to L.A. and get a publishing deal. I wanted to be a songwriter,\u201d she confesses \u2014 citing Kara DioGuardi, who spent much of the 2000s penning hit after hit for the aforementioned pop princesses, as well as Kelly Clarkson, Hilary Duff, P!nk and more, as a major inspiration. \u201cThat was my dream. I wanted to get signed to a music publishing house and be background writing for really big pop artists.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, after a chance meeting with rapper Won-G at a Los Angeles eatery on one of those girls\u2019 weekends, De La Rosa found herself rather unexpectedly in front of the microphone rather than in the liner notes. Over the course of RHOC\u2019s second season, the aspiring songwriter found herself in meetings with Grammy-winning producer Bob Cutarella and recording a demo in the famed studios of Capitol Records \u2014 all as cameras followed her every move.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo intimidating,\u201d De La Rosa says of the experience with a self-conscious laugh. \u201cI felt like such an impostor! Because it\u2019s like, who am I, first of all? Some girl from O.C. on some show where cameras follow them around. Like, \u2018How dare I step into these studios to record!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter just two seasons, De La Rosa left RHOC with demo in hand to pursue her music career in L.A., eventually signing a record deal and releasing her debut album, Unscripted, in 2008. (She also achieved what she calls the \u201cbiggest accomplishment\u201d of her music career when one of her self-penned album cuts, \u201cRumors,\u201d was featured in a 2008 episode of another Y2K-era reality juggernaut, MTV\u2019s The Hills.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe fan-favorite Housewife continued to make cameos on the show over the next couple of seasons \u2014 including filming the music video for her single \u201cU Can\u2019t Control Me\u201d in Season 4\u2019s history-making \u201cBass Lake\u201d episode<\/a> \u2014 but she admits in hindsight that her attempt at a music career was more happenstance than planned out step by strategic step.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t really have an example of what \u2018reality\u2019 was [at the time],\u201d she says. \u201cI know times have changed, but there was no forethought, there was no planning, there was no thinking ahead in terms of, like, chatter at the network. I was so naive, because it was so early on. I was kind of just showing up and shooting, and whatever producers caught, they caught.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tMaking a Kandi Koated Classic\t<\/p>\n \n\tFor his part, Bravo\u2019s Andy Cohen<\/a> also views De La Rosa\u2019s foray making music as more of a precursor to the trend on Housewives rather than its official start.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt seemed at the time like she was doing it for fun,\u201d the longtime executive producer, perennial reunion host and face of the network tells Billboard from his office at Bravo\u2019s headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. \u201cI forgot that Jo was actually our first \u2018recording artist!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhile the RHOC OG was certainly a Housewives trailblazer, it\u2019s safe to say Bravo went multi-platinum when Kandi Burruss, a member of the \u201890s girl group Xscape, joined The Real Housewives of Atlanta in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn her first season as a Housewife, the R&B powerhouse \u2014 who also later became the the Grammy-winning songwriter behind turn-of-the-millennium hits like TLC\u2019s \u201cNo Scrubs\u201d and Destiny\u2019s Child\u2019s \u201cBills, Bills, Bills\u201d \u2014\u00a0brought a serious dose of industry credibility (and a world of new musical possibilities) to RHOA\u2019s juiciest peaches.<\/p>\n \n\tRecruited by cast mate Kim Zolciak, Burruss helped write and produce her new pal\u2019s debut single, \u201cTardy for the Party,\u201d and the dance-pop bop quickly became the first truly inescapable novelty hit within the Bravoverse. With its sing-song hook, club-ready production and heavy use of AutoTune to make up for the wig-loving Zolciak\u2019s lack of formal training, the catchy track was never likely to dominate top 40 radio, but it created a template that many a Housewife would follow in the future.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think after Kim recorded \u2018Tardy for the Party,\u2019 it opened the floodgates,\u201d Cohen says, readily citing the song as his pick for the most iconic musical moment in Housewives history. \u201cIt started everything, and it was the beginning of seeing a Housewife who wasn\u2019t an actual singer try to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTardy\u201d also provided seasons\u2019 worth of fodder for The Real Housewives of Atlanta\u2019s central storyline. At the Season 2 reunion, Zolciak and Burruss debuted the song live for the first time as their fellow \u2018Wives looked on; the following season, they jetted off to the West Coast to perform at the Palm Springs White Party in front of a crowd of 10,000 gay fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSoon enough, though, drama surrounding the song took a turn for the worse, with the pair falling out over financial compensation and royalties from the song \u2014 a central conflict that extended across multiple seasons, before Zolciak abruptly quit the series just a few weeks into filming Season 5 in 2012. (Burruss, meanwhile, would remain a staple on the show for nearly 15 years, becoming the longest-running Atlanta Housewife, before exiting in 2023.)<\/p>\n \t\tElegance Is Learned, My Friends\t<\/p>\n \n\tAt the same time, Housewives in other cities were helping turn the pursuit of pop stardom into a defining trope of the franchise. Viewers met Countess Luann de Lesseps in 2008 as a rare breed of American aristocracy on The Real Housewives of New York City \u2014 married to then-husband Count Alexandre de Lesseps, whose ancestor Ferdinand built the Suez Canal and is credited with starting the Panama Canal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe Countess quickly made decorum and etiquette central to her personal brand on the NYC-based series, often schooling fellow OG Housewives like Bethenny Frankel and Ramona Singer on the importance of good manners and proper breeding. She even parlayed her onscreen persona into an early book deal, writing a how-to guide titled Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAfter the book on manners hit shelves, de Lesseps decided to try her hand in the recording studio \u2014\u00a0and used her own advice from Class with the Countess as inspiration for her debut single, 2010\u2019s \u201cMoney Can\u2019t Buy You Class.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMoney can\u2019t buy you class\/ Money can\u2019t buy you class, elegance is learned, my friend\/ Elegance is learned, oh yeah,\u201d she intoned on the chorus over a Eurodance-inspired beat, delivering lyrical gems like \u201cThe lesson all should learn\/ Even if there\u2019s cash to burn\/ Respect yourself\/ \u2018Cause no one else can change your path\u201d and \u201cNow ladies, don\u2019t forget to allow the men you\u2019ve met\/\u2019 To exemplify their very best behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOne season later, she followed \u201cMoney\u201d up with the even more addictive \u201cChic C\u2019est La Vie,\u201d which caused a stir when several of the RHONY \u2018Wives hilariously refused to appear<\/a> in the song\u2019s music video \u2014 despite the Countess name-dropping each of her cast mates in the bridge. (\u201cAttention!\/ Jill, bring your jewelry\/ Cindy, bring those crystals\/ Ramona, bring that pinot\/ Sonja, her man!\/ Kelly, the jelly beans\/ Alex and Simon\/ And I\u2019ll bring the diamonds!\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe whole trope became really fun to watch when Kim Zolciak and Luann entered the fray,\u201d Cohen recalls of the time. \u201cIt was just nuts and so entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tStepping Into the Spotlight, Jersey-Style\t<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, perhaps no song from the early Housewives era perfectly captures the ethos of being a Real Housewife better than Melissa Gorga\u2019s \u201cOn Display.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJoining The Real Housewives of New Jersey as the sister-in-law of table-flipping OG Teresa Giudice, Gorga introduced herself to viewers at the start of 2011\u2019s Season 3 by proudly declaring, \u201cI live a life that most girls only dream of\u201d in her very first tagline in the show\u2019s opening credits.<\/p>\n \n\tBut rather than wait a season or two to reveal her musical aspirations, the then-31-year-old stay-at-home mom of three decided to come out of the gate swinging \u2014 with cameras catching her singing an a cappella rendition of \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d around the house in just her fifth episode on the series.<\/p>\n \n\tBy the early 2010s, however, the reality TV machine had evolved far beyond the early \u201cshow up and shoot\u201d days of De La Rosa\u2019s experience on RHOC \u2014 and even that seemingly off-the-cuff moment required more behind-the-scenes planning than met the eye.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[Production] had told me a week or two earlier that that\u2019s really the only song that was cleared for the show,\u201d Gorga tells Billboard. \u201cSo I remember learning how to sing it, and they really just caught me in the closet singing. But that\u2019s why I was singing it, because they told me it was the only song that was cleared. At the time, you couldn\u2019t even sing \u2018Happy Birthday.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWithin just a few episodes\u2019 time, Gorga\u2019s husband, Joe, had built a complete state-of-the-art recording studio in the basement of the couple\u2019s New Jersey mansion, and Melissa was recording her debut single. And despite the fact that she\u2019d only just barely gotten a taste of filming, the newest Jersey Housewife was practically manifesting her future as she sang, \u201cPaparrazi watchin\u2019 me do my thing\/ \u2018Cause I\u2019m on display, on display, on display\/ Each and every day, every day, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat was really me with all of those words,\u201d she says, reflecting on the track more than 15 years later. \u201cJust anticipating what life was gonna be like when I was on a hit reality show. Because, you know, The Real Housewives of New Jersey was already a very known reality show. And at the time, all the New Jersey reality shows were huge: Jersey Shore, The Cake Boss, there was Jerseylicious. I just knew I was entering something and it was gonna be big.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGorga\u2019s intuition turned out to be spot-on. Almost immediately after her first season premiered, she was making<\/a> headlines<\/a> for the explosive relationship with her equally famous sister-in-law, as years of pent-up hostility and bad blood between families spilled onto the show. (The christening! Cheating accusations! Strippergate<\/a>, anyone?)<\/p>\n \n\tAt the same time, she leaned into her music career in full force, releasing a string of dance-pop singles across her second season \u2014\u00a0including \u201cHow Many Times,\u201d \u201cRockstar\u201d and \u201cI Just Wanna\u201d featuring Santino Noir (the latter of which Cohen still calls one of his \u201cfavorite \u2018sleeper\u2019 Housewives songs\u201d). Gorga\u2019s budding music career was even overseen for multiple years by Johnny Wright, the music manager who famously worked with the likes of *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears in the late \u201890s and early 2000s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhile the perpetual family feud helped cement Gorga\u2019s status as a pillar on RHONJ, she eventually decided the constant grind of club appearances, live performances and trying to get radio play as an independent artist was simply too much on top of filming a hit reality show. And yet, to this day, she\u2019s associated with \u201cOn Display\u201d everywhere she goes, even performing the song at major network events like BravoCon and the Watch What Happens Live Holiday Spectacular as recently as last December.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI like that it kinda had a little impact on the Housewives world, and that people know it,\u201d Gorga says. \u201cEverywhere I go \u2014 I just went to Fire Island \u2014 they were singing \u2018On Display\u2019 to me the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\u201cDrive\u201d-ing Up the Billboard Charts\t<\/p>\n \n\tIn the years that followed, nearly every city on the Housewives map added an aspiring singer or established artist to its cast: Erika Jayne joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2015 as a certified dance floor diva, with eight No. 1 hits on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart under her belt. The following season, she earned a ninth with the delightfully bratty 2016 banger \u201cHow Many F\u2014ks,\u201d the creation of which she documented as part of her personal storyline for Season 7 \u2014 complete with inviting cameras onto the set of the song\u2019s sexy and scandalous music video.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn her 10 years and counting as a diamond-holder, Jayne has continued to showcase her music career on RHOBH, dropping songs like \u201cXxpensive,\u201d \u201cCars\u201d and \u201cDominos,\u201d launching a tour with her Pretty Mess Krewe and even earning a spinoff special in 2024 to document her Las Vegas residency, Bet It All on Blonde<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tOn the opposite end of the country, Candiace Dillard Bassett proved her R&B bonafides on The Real Housewives of Potomac with her 2021 debut single \u201cDrive Back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe song \u2014 another noted favorite of Cohen\u2019s \u2014 gave Bassett the opportunity to keep with established Housewives tradition by inviting all of her cast mates to appear in its accompanying music video in a memorable Season 6 episode. (Naturally, a feud ensued after another \u2018Wife calling the self-funded visual \u201clow budget,\u201d leading to the newly minted R&B star and her co-star engaging in a volatile salad-tossing showdown a few episodes later during a cast trip to Maryland\u2019s Chesapeake Bay.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAt the Season 6 reunion, Dillard Bassett\u2019s claim that her debut album, 2021\u2019s Deep Space, reached No. 24 on Billboard\u2019s \u201cR&B charts\u201d was also called into question by guest host Nicki Minaj. The ambiguity surrounding the album\u2019s chart performance was never officially settled on the reunion couches \u2014 but indeed, according to Billboard\u2019s chart department, Deep Space never appeared on any official tally.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tDillard Bassett may have gotten the last laugh, however: The following season, she enlisted Trina to collaborate on follow-up \u201cInsecure\u201d and the re-release party for Deep Space served as the setting for a contentious Season 7 finale between Potomac\u2019s pot-stirring cherry blossoms. She\u2019s also the only Housewife thus far to become a member of The Recording Academy \u2014 having been inducted<\/a> into the new member class of 2022 and even hosting<\/a> the 2024 GRAMMYs on the Hill Awards a few weeks after confirming her exit from RHOP.<\/p>\n \t\tFeeling the \u201cRush\u201d & Fueling the \u201cFyah\u201d\t<\/p>\n \n\tOther Housewives took a far more unconventional route to the recording studio. Adriana de Moura, an original cast member on The Real Housewives of Miami, holds the distinction of being the one and only Housewife to ever record her franchise\u2019s theme song.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe spicy track, \u201cFeel the Rush,\u201d was first unveiled as part of the Miami edition\u2019s revamped second season in 2012. When the Florida-based show had premiered the year prior, de Moura introduced herself as a multi-lingual art dealer with a gallery in Coral Gables. So fans were shocked to learn at the start of the Season 2 reunion that it was actually her voice singing, \u201cCome feel the rush\/ I\u2019ll make you blush\/ Try me and get a taste\/ A bit of Miami\u201d underneath her cast mates\u2019 provocative taglines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat most viewers didn\u2019t know, though, was that the Brazilian beauty spent her childhood studying classical piano in a conservatory, where she would teach herself to play Madonna songs and other pop hits by ear. \u201cMy classical conservatory teacher would kill me if I was spending time doing pop instead of working on a classical piece,\u201d she jokes to Billboard from her home in Miami. \u201cEven though I didn\u2019t become a concert pianist, my ultimate dream would be to be like Lang Lang. The Brazilian Lang Lang!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter just three seasons, RHOM was put unceremoniously on pause, keeping fans in limbo for seven years before the show was rebooted for Season 4 in 2020. At the time, de Moura returned to the show in a recurring capacity as a Friend, but even without a mimosa in hand, her music continued to take center stage thanks to the drama and hijinks surrounding her next single, \u201cFyah.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou want the real story?\u201d the recent Harvard graduate asks with a Cheshire grin before going on to reveal, \u201cThe producers told me that on the reboot, they were looking for a new [theme] song. So they gave me all the references on how they wanted it \u2014 actually, they gave me a Camila Cabello reference, they wanted that Latin pop \u2014 and then I went back into the studio and wrote \u2018Fyah\u2019! So I was competing with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tUltimately, production opted to continue using \u201cFeel the Rush\u201d as the show\u2019s theme song, with some minor tweaking from de Moura. But never one to let a good song go to waste, the RHOM OG saw an opportunity to put \u201cFyah\u201d in front of the cameras and make the song a central part of her storyline for Season 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing process with storylines,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut the producers and I had decided we were going to talk about it and do something fun with the song. So that\u2019s when I decided, \u2018OK, let\u2019s do a video.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs part of the process, de Moura enlisted her cast mates to feature alongside her in the video, which was set on a glamorous yacht overlooking the red-hot Miami skyline. However, much like what happened with past music videos by Housewives like \u201cChic C\u2019est La Vie\u201d and \u201cDrive Back,\u201d involving the rest of the Miami \u2018Wives proved to be nothing short of chaotic\u00a0\u2014 and a screaming match quickly ensued on set as filming commenced.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile she was furious and upset in the moment, de Moura concedes, \u201cI think that\u2019s part of what makes Housewives, Housewives. There\u2019s always this intrinsic competition and a little bit of envy every time somebody\u2019s doing something that\u2019s relevant and is picking up steam. So there\u2019s always the underlying sabotage mentality, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFrom a production and network standpoint, Cohen agrees that music can often fuel conflict and storyline no matter the city. \u201cI love it,\u201d the exec says of the franchise\u2019s many music-related clashes. \u201cIt\u2019s fun and lighthearted, and the drama is about petty jealousy and critiquing people who (often) aren\u2019t the most musically gifted to the naked ear.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tLife Is Not a Cabaret\u2026Or Is It?\t<\/p>\n \n\tNo Housewife across the Bravoverse understands that sentiment better than de Lesseps. Over her 13 seasons on RHONY, the Countess\u2019 efforts to kickstart music career evolved from the kitschy club fare of \u201cMoney\u201d and \u201cChic\u201d to a surprising second act as an international cabaret star.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s not an exaggeration to say that the reality star\u2019s cabaret dreams dominated the final few seasons of RHONY\u2019s original run \u2014 much to her fellow Housewives\u2019 aggravation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tEven casual fans can visualize Bethenny Frankel seething, \u201cLife is not a cabaret!\u201d in de Lesseps\u2019 face with manic, unmitigated rage on a Season 11 cast trip to Miami or Dorinda Medley heckling the singer with taunts of \u201cJovani! Jovani\u201d during her first-ever cabaret show at New York City\u2019s iconic 54 Below in the season finale a few weeks later.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBethenny in my face,\u201d the Countess recalls. \u201cAnd it took all of my might not to say anything. Because for me, life is a cabaret, every day\u2019s a cabaret.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd while another former friend once fired off, \u201cYou\u2019re not Adele, Luann\u201d from the reunion couches that year, de Lesseps hasn\u2019t let any criticism or backlash keep her away from the spotlight. Instead, she used Medley\u2019s dig to inspire her next single, \u201cFeelin\u2019 Jovani,\u201d and has since mounted multiple cabaret tours all over the world and played festivals from Australia to the U.K. Her next live outing, The Love Tour, kicks off Oct. 18 at the House of Blues in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLiterally, cabaret saved my life in so many ways,\u201d de Lesseps continues, referencing the way her act helped her bounce back from her 2017 divorce to short-lived husband Tom D\u2019Agostino, which was followed by her headline-making arrest<\/a> that Christmas Eve in Palm Beach, Fla. All of that personal drama, as well as her subsequent stints in an alcohol treatment program\u201a was documented across RHONY\u2019s legendary ninth and tenth seasons from 2017 to 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI have no classical training whatsoever, but I just know how to carry a tune and I know rhythm, and I know how to tell a story,\u201d she continues. \u201cAnd really, that\u2019s what my career in cabaret is all about\u2026 and it is true. My music is really inspired a lot by the Housewives.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSomewhat surprisingly, music has also given the reality icon a second career of sorts, as she\u2019s navigated life in the wake of Bravo\u2019s controversial decision to reboot RHONY with a completely new cast back in 2022.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wanted something that I was in control of and that Bravo was not in control of, necessarily,\u201d she says. \u201cI did it because I wanted to do my own thing\u2026And I had no idea how it was gonna go, don\u2019t forget. It was like, \u2018Oh my god, is this gonna work?\u2019 It was do or die. And it all kind of fell into place.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tGems, Jets, Silhouettes, Champagne in the Sky\t<\/p>\n \n\tWith The Real Housewives marking its 20th anniversary through the rest of 2026, music will only continue to be part of its legacy \u2014 particularly as newcomers like K. Michelle, Shamea Morton and Drew Sidora continue to be welcomed into the Bravo fold and Housewives like Lisa Barlow surprise fans with pop confections like \u201cBaby Gorgeous,\u201d the feel-good single she\u2019ll feature on the upcoming seventh season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.\u00a0<\/p>\n