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Barlow and Bear Make History at Disney
Back in January of 2021, I first wrote about Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear who, at the time, were working on songs inspired by the then brand new Netflix series Bridgerton, which is based on the books by Julia Quinn and executive produced for the small screen by TV veteran Shonda Rhimes.
The series had dropped on Christmas Day of 2020, and had taken the streaming world by storm, garnering impressive numbers of views all over the world. Singer-songwriter Abigail Barlow was one of the millions who was captivated by Bridgerton; so much so that she started writing songs based on the debut season. In conjunction with her musical partner, accomplished pianist Emily Bear, they began creating one song after another that slowly began to develop into a much-buzzed-about project with social media fans, who had been following the talent duo online, hoping it would become either a Broadway play or, at the very least, perhaps a full album.
Soon enough the duo was making TV appearances on most of the popular talk shows, podcasts, radio programs (and much more). The duo also inspired other talented artists who were creating dance numbers to the songs as well as covers of those newly created songs, turning this passion project into a full-blown worldwide phenomenon not unlike the first season of the TV series on which it was based.
Barlow + Bear Winning the Grammy Photo Credit: Instagram/@recordingacademy
Eventually Barlow and Bear created an entire musical – all unofficial, of course, but with the verbal approval of the powers that be at Netflix and the show not to mention its cast (keep in mind verbal approval is your take-away here) – featuring 15 songs that they composed, orchestrated and produced, not to mention also sang. That album was released on September 10, 2021.
Jump to the 2022 Grammy Awards when the talented twentysomething duo won for Best Musical Album, beating out competitors like industry veterans Andrew Lloyd Webber, Burt Bacharach and Stephen Schwartz.
They were at the peak of their popularity after that – with fans hoping that Broadway would come calling to make the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical a legitimate stage play. But then the duo held a “for-profit” concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. that included Bridgerton trademarks. Unfortunately, though, they did not have permission to do so and soon found themselves in a lawsuit with Netflix over copyright infringement. What started out as an ode to a popular show, and with the best of intentions, turned sour a mere year after the much-buzzed-about album was released. That lawsuit was soon settled out of court, and very little has been said about the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical since then.
That unsettling part of their lives has not stopped the duo from moving forward with other projects, including their latest, a project, in fact, that will make them the first female duo of Disney composers.
Let’s backtrack a moment.
Barlow and Bear will compose the music for the film Moana 2, taking over for Broadway vet and Tony-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda who isn’t returning for the sequel.
This is truly impressive given the fact that before this only 10 women have ever been composers at Disney – meanwhile nearly 200 men have had that honor. What’s more, this is the first time – EVER – in 87 years of Disney songs that a female composer duo has been selected; and it should also be noted they are also the youngest to compose for a Disney feature film.
While Barlow and Bear broke into the film industry by first winning fans on TikTok, they have both been performing, composing, writing and singing for most of their lives. Needless to say, this is exciting news for all women songwriters and quite the accomplishment for this talented duo.
Congratulations to Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear!
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