Girlfriend (band)
Encyclopedia
Girlfriend was a five-girl pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
group from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, formed in the early 1990s. Their debut album Make It Come True was released in 1992 and became a major hit in Australia with hit songs such as "Take It From Me" and "Without You". After the departure of member Robyn Loau
Robyn Loau
Robyn Loau is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. During 1991–1994 she was lead singer of pop group, Girlfriend.- Girlfriend :...
, the group changed its name to GF4.
Background Profile and History
Three of the members — Jacqueline Cowell, Siobhánn Heidenreich and Melanie Alexander — first met while taking dance lessons at the young age of three. Years later, they decided to form a pop group, and, through their dance teacher Janice Breen, met Noel MacDonald, a singer, songwriter and jingleJingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
producer who saw promise in them. Two more singers were added in Robyn Loau, who MacDonald saw singing at Australia's Wonderland Theme Park, and Lorrinda Noble, who auditioned for the group. As well, singer and choreographer Kelley Abbey
Kelley Abbey
Kelley Abbey is an Australian actress, choreographer, singer and dancer. She has been a leading performer and choreographer in TV, film and musical theatre for more than 20 years....
was brought in to choreograph the group's dance moves. The quintet was signed to a deal with RCA Records Australia
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
(now part of Sony Music) in 1991, after a year of self-promotion. The band were formed with the ambition of being both Australia and Asia's #1 girlband, with the band members, particularly Robyn Loau, undertaking extensive Japanese lessons.
In 1992, the group's first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Take It From Me", reached #1 on the ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
, followed by "Girl's Life" (#15) and "Without You (#18)." In "Girl's Life" the girls sing about 'Girl Power
Girl Power
The phrase "girl power", as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism...
'. This was four years before the Spice Girls used it as their slogan. The group's two studio albums, 1992's Make It Come True and the 1993 follow-up It's Up To You both became Gold certified
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. The group also became recognized for its fashion sense, with their flower hats becoming a symbol of the band; at one point, they had their own clothing line.
In 1994, after the group had returned from a tour of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Loau announced she would be leaving the group to start a solo career. She later enjoyed minor success with the hit "Sick With Love" which peaked at #21 on the ARIA Charts, and released an album Malaria. The four remaining members decided to ditch the clean-cut image and remake themselves into a new group, GF4. Under the new name, they released two singles, the first, a cover version of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
classic "Sooner Or Later", reached No.11 on the ARIA Singles Charts.
Sometime later Jacqui Cowell left the band and was replaced by future Bardot member Belinda Chapple
Belinda Chapple
Belinda Barbara Chapple is an Australian singer and former member of female pop group Bardot.Since Bardot's split, Belinda has been developing two live acts; a more traditional jazz show with Darren Mapes, and her preferred dance and pop performance with choreographer and dancer Michael Boyd...
who featured in the video clip to GF4's second single 'Need Love (To Make The Sex Right)' shot in a Sydney nightclub. The clip featured band member Siobhann Heidenrich miming to Jacqui's spoken lines in the opening to the song. The song did not chart on the ARIA Singles Top 100, resulting in the debut album GF4 had recorded in Los Angeles being shelved. GF4 did not release any further material as a band and had split up by 1996.
Reunited on "Where Are They Now"
On May 13, 2007 the former five members of Girlfriend appeared on Channel 7's Where Are They Now program. The five spoke about their time with Girlfriend and performed an a cappellaA cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
rendition of "Take it From Me" for the live audience.
A "best-of" compilation, Essential Girlfriend, was scheduled for release in November 2010, but has been postponed until 2011.
In November 2010, former member Melanie Alexander provided guest vocals on the song "Falling For The Dance Floor" with prolific Australian DJ Stonedog. The tracks appears on the compilation album "Club Anthems Asia", released through Hong Kong-based independent dance music label Volume Up Records.
Members
- Robyn LoauRobyn LoauRobyn Loau is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. During 1991–1994 she was lead singer of pop group, Girlfriend.- Girlfriend :...
- Melanie Alexander
- Lorrinda (Rindy) Noble
- Siobhánn Heidenreich
- Jacqueline (Jacqui) Cowell
Studio albums
- Make It Come True (1992) (#6 AUS; AUSAustralian Recording Industry AssociationThe Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
: Platinum) - It's Up to You (1993) (#29 AUS; AUS: Gold)
Singles
- "Take It from Me" (1992) (#1 AUS, #47 UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
) - "Girl's Life" (1992) (#15 AUS, #68 UK)
- "Without You" (1992) (#18 AUS)
- "Bad Attitude" (1992) (#28 AUS)
- "Love's on My Mind" (1993) (#65 AUS)
- "Heartbeat" (1993) (#36 AUS)
- "Wishing on the Same Star" (1994) (#44 AUS)
- "Sooner or Later" (as GF4) (1994) (#11 AUS)
- "Need Love (To Make the Sex Right)" (as GF4) (1995) (did not chart)