Grammy Award Winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear

On Sunday night, the 64th Annual Grammy Awards were presented in-person in Las Vegas after being delayed for a few months due to the pandemic.

While we here at NiceGirlsTV primarily focus on all things TV, this year’s award presentation had a very big TV tie-in to a worldwide phenomenon that drew record viewers on Netflix back in December of 2020. What is that TV show? None other than Bridgerton.

The first season of Bridgerton, which is based on the book franchise by author Julia Quinn, debuted on Christmas Day in 2020. In its first 28 days airing on that platform, 625 million hours were viewed. That set a record for Netflix, and turned Bridgerton into a colassal hit!

RELATED: Bridgerton

Shortly after Bridgerton debuted, social media performer Abigail Barlow asked the question, “What if Bridgerton was a musical?” Since Broadway was closed up tight – along with pretty much everything else – the talented singer-songwriter joined forces with her recent musical partner, talented composer Emily Bear, to create songs based around the characters and stories of Bridgerton, bringing to life in song and music the lives of Daphne Bridgerton, her husband the hunky Duke of Hastings, Penelope Featherington *SPOILER ALERT* (aka Lady Whistledown), Daphne’s sister Eloise, and the sensational coiffed Queen Charlotte.

As the months rolled by, Barlow and Bear shared their process of creating the songs based on the series via TikTok, quickly making them as much a sensation as the period piece drama on which their material was based. They started getting invitations for talk show appearances, online interviews and much, much more. Talented performers all over the globe started sampling the songs composed and arranged by Barlow and Bear – even many of the cast members of Bridgerton joined in the online fun.

By September of last year, the “Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” concept alum was available online for fans of the series and the talented women behind the music and lyrics to enjoy over and over again.

Their success continued when the talented young pair learned they received a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album, going up against “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella,” “Girl From the North Country,” “Les Miserables: The Staged Concert,” and “Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots.”

When Levar Burton took to the stage to present the Grammy for this category, fans waited with bated breath to learn who won. The award went to The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” with Abigail and Emily rushing to the stage in their fashion finery to accept their Grammy Award, the first award from the Recording Academy to go to a project that originated on TikTok.

Here is the acceptance speech by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear:

Congratulations to Abigail and Emily on their win!

Now, let’s hope that the dream of the winning pair and their legends of fans that this musical album can be turned into a full-on, legitimate Broadway show actually comes to fruition. After all, if what started out as a simply question of “What if Bridgerton was a musical?” can bring about this album, and can bring about a Grammy nomination and win, what is stopping them from getting it on the stage on the Great White Way?

For fans of Bridgerton, season two premiered on Netflix on March 25.