BarlowGirl
- Joel Caballero
- Sep 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 15
BarlowGirl was an American Christian all-female rock 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 CHR radio 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 albums and finished their career with over one million digital downloads and 1.3 million albums in sales.
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 album. 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.
BarlowGirl released their self-titled debut album in February 2004. It featured their debut single "Never Alone" and it was a big hit on both the Christian CHR and Christian Rock radio charts. Their first music video for "Never Alone" was released in 2006. BarlowGirl sold 250,000 units by April 2005. That same year, they earned four Dove Award nominations including New Artist of the Year.
BarlowGirl released their second album Another Journal Entry in the fall of 2005. More hits continued including their second single and music video "I Need You to Love Me," which became an even bigger hit and was another number one song on the Christian CHR chart on Radio and Records (R&R) where it stayed for 9 weeks and became the number one song of 2006. BarlowGirl earned more Dove Award nominations including Group of the Year and Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year.
Their third album How Can We Be Silent was BarlowGirl's first and only number one album on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard 200 Albums in 2007. The radio singles performed poorly as compared to their past releases with the lead single "Here's My Life" only peaking as high as number 11 on R&R's Christian CHR and making the Top 30 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart. Their further singles "I Believe in Love" and "Million Voices" were released but never charted. In 2008, BarlowGirl released their Christmas album Home for Christmas. Their medley "Carol of the Bells/
Sing We Now of Christmas" became their most popular track on the album in both radio and digital download sales. It is also their most-streamed song during the holiday season.
Their fourth and final album Love & War was released in September 2009. Their lead single and music video for "Beautiful Ending" was another Top 30 hit on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart. Radio and Records had already folded by the time this album was released. Their second single "Stay With Me" was released in early 2010. Their only compilation album Our Journey...So Far was released in the fall of 2010, along with a limited edition photo book Our Journey...In Pictures.
After much thought and prayer, BarlowGirl had announced in social media that they were retiring as a band after more than a decade together and in late October of 2012, they released their final single "Hope Will Lead Us On" as a thank you to their fans. Their website was taken down a couple of years later.
In 2021, two of the Barlow sisters, Alyssa and Lauren, were guests on The Wally Show on YouTube in a Where Are They Now segment, asking about where they have been in the last decade since their final song was released. They did share that Rebecca has since been married and lives in California with her husband. Alyssa and Lauren are single but still maintain their stance in purity. They also have a podcast with their cousin Sarah Barlow. Alyssa and Lauren shared that they've also been writing some songs about some of the struggles and pain that they've been through these past few years. They said one day they'll share those stories but it's still fresh in their minds.
BarlowGirl were firm believers in purity, meaning no sex before marriage and they have been role models to young girls to help them to abstain from sex before getting married and in meeting the perfect man.
BarlowGirl's music is described as Christian rock mixed with power pop with a three-vocal harmony style. They were, in some ways, influenced by another all-female Christian rock band Rachel Rachel from the early 1990s.
More information on BarlowGirl at Wikipedia:
Discography