The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical
The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical is a concept album by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear that won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The album was the first Grammy winner to be developed on TikTok, while Barlow and Bear were the youngest nominees and winners ever in their Grammy category. Conception and development. In January 2021, singer-songwriter Abigail Barlow posted a TikTok video in which she asked, "What if "Bridgerton" was a musical?" and sang a verse of a song that she had written based on a line uttered by a character in  the Netflix series "Bridgerton". Before posting the video, she sent the song to her writing partner, composer-producer Emily Bear, who arranged the number. The video received wide attention, and so Barlow and Bear teamed up to write more songs inspired by the first season of the TV series. The two livestreamed their songwriting and recording sessions from Los Angeles, inviting and incorporating viewer suggestions, and posted demos of the songs on TikTok and other social media. Members of "Bidgerton's" cast, the writer of the "Bridgerton" novels and Netflix expressed their admiration of the musical numbers, and Netflix gave  its approval for an album of the songs to be released. By September 2021, Barlow and Bear had received more than 200 million views and 48 million likes on TikTok. The two performed several of the songs in New York City at Elsie Fest in August 2021 and in London in November, with Bear at the piano and Barlow doing most of the singing, along with several guest artists. Production and release. Bear orchestrated and produced a concept album consisting of 15 of the songs, "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical", with Barlow again singing most of the vocals, and Bear singing  the rest; they released the album on September 10, 2021. It debuted at No. 3 on the Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 36 on the Top Album Sales chart, among other "Billboard" charts. Post-release. Bear and Barlow performed their song "Ocean Away" with Darren Criss at the Kennedy Center 50th anniversary concert in September, which aired on PBS on October 1, 2021. Grammy award. The album won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. It is the first Grammy awarded to a project that originated on TikTok. Bear and Barlow were the youngest Grammy nominees, and youngest  winners, in the musical theater category.