In the early 90's João Vieira was involved in a few bands, namely Centerfold where he handled vocal duties. The genre could be loosely defined as Britpop but none of the bands ever got a record deal. In the mid 90's Vieira went to London to study graphic design. There he got involved with several bands and even formed another band under the name Centerfold. Unlike the original Centerfold, this band was mainly a 70's glam rock thing. As with the first incarnation of Centerfold, little success was achieved. Still while in London, together with a friend (Stuart), he founded what was known as the Club Kitten where he DJ'ed under the nickname DJ Kitten. The club soon got the attention of the British press.

In January 2001 Vieira returned to Portugal, and set up a new Club Kitten in the Triplex disco in the city of Porto where he continues to perform under the name DJ Kitten. As in London, Club Kitten was a great success and DJ Kitten now performs all around the country at clubs, festivals and events. Around the same time as he set up Club Kitten, and after many long conversations about music, Vieira and Fernando Sousa (at the time in a band called Stealing Orchestra), decided to start jamming together. After meeting Rui Maia in a bar, X-Wife was complete (the official date of birth of X-Wife is March 2002). Starting from a set of demos that Vieira recorded on a minidisc while in London, the band began their rehearsals. In one of those rehearsals a record label (Nortesul) manager showed up (on the recommendation of a mutual friend) and two months later a record deal was presented to the trio. In 2003 they released the Rockin' Rio EP, which includes the tracks "Rockin' Rio", “Eno” and “We Are” . The track "Rockin' Rio" received considerable radio airplay and "Action Plan" received massive radio airplay despite the fact it wasn't released as a single. The album got good reviews from the press, and a tour of clubs and summer festivals followed. On the 10th April 2006 they released Side Effects, with "Ping-Pong" selected as the first single. "Ping-Pong"'s excellent video clip was directed by Kalle Kotila & Malakias (las palmas films). "Realize" was the second single taken from Side Effects, with André Cepêda, directing the video clip. Side Effects was released in Spain by PuPilo Records in 2007. X-Wife's third album, Are you ready for the blackout? was released in late September 2008, and debuted in the top 25 in its domestic market.