Atomic Kitten was formed in 1997 in London, United Kingdom by Andy McCluskey of '80s band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and included Heidi Range in the original line-up, along with Liz McClarnon, Natasha Hamilton and Kerry Katona. Heidi left the group and was only featured on the demo recordings. In 2001 Heidi joined the Sugababes.

The group was first called "Honeyhead" but later renamed itself to "Automatic Kittens", the name of the label of its designer, and abbreviated to "Atomic Kitten."

The group's first single "Right Now" debuted in December of 1999 and ended up reaching the British top 10. After the initial success Atomic Kitten embarked upon an Asian tour during which they scored their first hit with "Cradle". The album, also titled Right Now, was first released in Japan on March 16, 2000 and subsequently released in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2000 with a slightly modified track list.

Right Now was a modest success upon first release. Initially there were no plans to focus on the global market. The record label was even considering dropping them because of limited success, however they persuaded Innocent Records to record one more single. This one single changed the career of Atomic Kitten because they scored their first number-one hit in the UK in 2001 with "Whole Again". The song and video for "Whole Again" originally featured Kerry Katona however she left the group several days prior to the number-one position because of her pregnancy. The single was remade when Jenny Frost (formerly of UK girl group Precious) was added to the line-up as Kerry's replacement. The success was such that it was decided to re-master and re-release the album, which then went to number one on it's second appearance on the chart.

The next single "Eternal Flame", a cover version of the 1989 hit by The Bangles, also became a number-one hit.

Their career was going well, however on January 23, 2004 Natasha decided that she wanted to spend time out of the group and spend more time with her son Josh. The group released a single "Someone Like Me / Right Now 2004" as a goodbye, but was reunited on Valentine's Day to release the charity single "Cradle 2005", a new version of the original on their album Right Now, which charted at No. 10. The proceeds of the single went to World Vision.

Atomic Kitten was featured on the soundtrack of Disney's Mulan II in 2005 which was their third time as a featured artist.

Atomic Kitten recorded a one-off single, "All Together Now (Strong Together)", in association with Goleo VI, the official mascot of the FIFA World Cup 2006. The track is taken from the official Goleo VI World Cup 2006 album and was released on CD and digitally in Germany, where the World Cup was held, on 16 June 2006. However even though the single was listed by the HMV website for release in the UK many weeks prior to the competition, the single was taken off from schedule and deleted from the catalogue, due to the amount of competing football records that were being released at that time. The proceeds of the single went to SOS Children's Villages.

Both Jenny Frost and Liz McClarnon have embarked on solo careers however the girls reunited for a one-off performance of "Whole Again" at a benefit concert for the Michael Shields appeal which was held at the Liverpool Empire Theatre on December 4, 2006. They last performed as a group in Hong Kong on December, 31st, 2006 for Nokia New Year's Eve.

In January 2008, Atomic Kitten returned to the music industry after almost four years since performing in the UK as a band.