Louder Than The Music

Three-piece female rock band BarlowGirl have announced that they are to retire as a band after 10 years together. The group will release their final single 'Hope Will Lead Us On' on 30th October 2012.

The three sisters, Alyssa, Lauren and Becca Barlow, confirmed the news in an e-mail to their fans last night, 24th October. "In the midst of this journey our songwriting times turned less and less into songwriting and more and more into God speaking to us about His new plans for us. And the outcome is that God is gently leading us in a new direction", wrote the band.

"After much prayer and counsel we have decided that we are retiring the band BarlowGirl. We don't know what God has in store for us...He hasn't revealed that yet. But in all this we know - He is guiding us to move forward in our destinies and He is faithful no matter what! We are so excited for this new season because we serve an amazing God."

"We want to thank you all for your support over the last 10 years. We are truly grateful for this part of our journey with you. We are not sure where our path will lead from here but these last 10 years have been sweet ones that we will never forget."

The trio went on to announce that their final appearance as BarlowGirl would be a live web chat with fans on 29th October on Ustream, where they will play some acoustic songs and allow fans to conduct their final interview.

BarlowGirl sold over a million copies of their self-titled debut album, released in 2004. The group also released 'Another Journal Entry' (2005), 'How Can We Be Silent' (2007), 'Home for Christmas' (2008) and 'Love & War' (2009), before releasing 'Our Journey... So Far' in 2010 featuring favourite songs from their albums. They earned four Number 1 hits, including 2005's 'I Need You To Love Me', which spent a record 13 weeks at the top of the chart.