The singer-songwriter duo Barlow & Bear snagged the biggest award in their category at this year’s Grammy Awards. Here is everything you need to know about the musicians.
This year’s Grammy Awards brought several firsts for so many of our favorite artists, like Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat and SZA — they also brought firsts for one of the lesser-known categories.
The Best Musical Theatre Album award recognizes the featured vocalists, composers and writers of the best work in musical theatre that year. This year’s winners, Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow (who make up the duo Barlow & Bear), were awarded the Grammy for their album The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. Musical theatre composition and writing is a primarily male-dominated field, and Barlow & Bear made history as the first female pair to win in this category. The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical was also the first album of its kind to be nominated (and win!) the musical theatre Grammy — the album originated on TikTok with Barlow asking the world “what if Bridgerton was a musical?” following the height of its release in December 2020. Emily, at only 20 years old, is also the youngest person nominated in the category.
Following their Grammy win, we have a hunch we’ll be seeing a lot more of both Emily and Abigail in the years to come — here’s everything you need to know about the singer-songwriter pair!
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Emily Bear is a classically-trained pianist from Illinois. She trained at the Chicago Institute of Music and is the youngest person to ever perform at the Ravinia Festival, where debuted at age five. She gained popularity after making guest appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and performances at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Hollywood Bowl. Abigail’s mentor, Quincy Jones, produced and published her first album Diversity.
Emily is the recipient of two Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and two Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Awards. Emily has been in the composition game for quite some time and has written music for Walt Disney World, the Radio City Rockettes, and Carnegie Hall. Her compositions have been featured in films such as A Dog’s Journey, Nancy Drew, and the Hidden Staircase.
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Abigail Barlow is a singer-songwriter from Alabama whose focus lies mostly within pop music. Abigail’s song “Heartbreak Hotel” peaked at #2 on the charts and has over 6.5 million streams across platforms. A trained vocalist and dancer, Abigail’s passion for performing began at a young age — so young that she graduated high school early to kickstart her career.
Abigail’s talents garnered a large online fanbase, which is how she initially gained traction. A founding member of Musical.ly, Abigail earned a following of over 600k and a nomination for a 2017 Shorty Award. She now has over 2 million followers on TikTok, where her offhand idea for a Bridgerton musical went from a 1-minute clip to a full concept album consisting of 15 songs. A pop artist by trade, Abigail now chronicles her journey to a pop tour in her TikTok series “Diary of a Pop Star.”
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Emily and Abigail were initially introduced by a mutual friend who wanted them to create a concept album for another popular piece of media, The Bling Ring. The pair clicked instantly and found it only natural that they write an album for their (and the internet’s) favorite television show, which they promoted through TikToks and live streams before being asked to record the album in a studio. We can’t wait to see what this pair does next, whether together or separately.
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Did y9ou learn something new about the Grammy-winning duo? Tell us at @AfterBuzzTV on Twitter!
