BarlowGirl was an American Christian rock and CCM all-female band from Elgin, Illinois. The band was composed of sisters Alyssa (lead vocals, bass guitar], keyboards), Lauren (co-lead vocals, drums) and Rebecca (guitar, backing vocals) Barlow. The band is best known for its radio singles “Never Alone” in 2004 and “I Need You to Love Me” in 2006, breaking records for the longest-charting No. 1 song on the Radio and Records Christian Hit Radio (CHR) chart and obtaining millions of views for their music videos on YouTube. The band also saw continued success with their Home for Christmas album. The band exceeded sales of one million compact disc sales.
In October 2012, BarlowGirl announced that they were “retiring the band”.
Early years
The Barlows’ father, Vince Barlow, created youth CDs at his church, Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. He was hired to perform at events all over the United States. He brought his daughters as his backup band in the late 1990s. BarlowGirl began writing songs and performing them at his performances. The trio stopped touring with their father when Rebecca and Alyssa began college, but they did perform at his nearby concerts. The trio had written around ten songs by 2002.
The Barlow sisters were given a paid trip to the Gospel Music Association’s Music in the Rockies seminar at Estes Park, Colorado, in mid-2002. The sisters were not informed that the seminar was a record industry event for unsigned artists, nor that it was a competition. They reached the finals of the event. Record companies became interested in the sisters after word of mouth spread about the seminar.
The group’s name became famous before the group released their first CD. The group Superchick included a song titled “Barlow Girls” on their initial release, Karaoke Superstars, as a tribute to the actual Barlow sisters and their stand for purity, and effectively introduced the sisters to the music world.
The sisters were signed to Fervent Records on October 14, 2003. The band’s name, BarlowGirl, is written and capitalized in camel case for branding.
BarlowGirl and “Never Alone” (2004)
BarlowGirl in concert
BarlowGirl released their first studio album BarlowGirl on February 24, 2004. The album included the longest-running No. 1 song in 2004 on R&R’s CHR and CRW’s Rock charts, “Never Alone” was named Song of the Year on each of these charts. The CD had sold over 250,000 units by April 2005, and featured the singles “Never Alone” and “Mirror”. These No. 1 songs earned the trio four 2005 Gospel Music Association (GMA) awards (formerly the Dove Award) nominations, including the Best New Artist award, Best Rock Song, and Rock Album. The trio was the bestselling new Christian artist of 2004. BarlowGirl received a 2006 GMA award nomination for Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year for “Mirror”. “Never Alone” was also featured on the WOW Hits 2005 CD.
The CD also featured a hidden track titled “Image”, which listeners could only obtain via digital download by loading the CD into their computers and accessing a hidden website. It is the first of two occurrences where oldest sister and guitarist Rebecca sings a solo. She sings the middle part of each verse.
There is also a Family Christian exclusive version which contains the bonus track, “We Pray”, which, among others, also features artists Mandisa, Jackson Waters, and Rebecca St. James.
Another Journal Entry and “I Need You to Love Me” (2005-2006)
Their second album, Another Journal Entry, was released on September 27, 2005. The album debuted at No. 3 on Soundscan’s Christian album chart, and had reached eighty-five on Billboard’s Top 200 Current Albums chart by October 10, 2005. The trio was nominated for three additional 2006 GMA awards – “Group of the Year”, “Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year”, and “Rock Recorded Song of the Year” for “Let Go”.
The trio are featured as guest vocalists on Big Daddy Weave’s No. 1 radio single, “You’re Worthy of My Praise”, from their 2005 album What I Was Made For.
The first single from the album, “Let Go”, exceeded 200,000 downloads as the iTunes Store free single of the week. Their next single from the album, “I Need You to Love Me”, quickly climbed to No. 1 on the Weekend 22 countdown in April 2006. The single held on to the No. 1 position on the R&R Christian Hit Radio chart for 9 weeks, and the CRW Christian Hit Radio chart for a record 13 weeks. The single was the most played song of 2006 on Christian Hit Radio as played on the Weekend 22. The band filmed a music video for their hit song “Never Alone” for release on mainstream radio and music video television channels, but it did not chart in the mainstream.
