Meet Barlow & Bear: The Grammy-Winning Musical Duo Behind theMoana 2Soundtrack (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Barlow & Bear.Photo:Alex Feggi

Alex Feggi

As Grammy-winners at ages 23 and 25, there’s no telling how farBarlow & Bearwill go.

Abigail BarlowandEmily Bear, who are each musicians in their own right, met through sheer serendipity five years ago. Now, not only are they inseparable, but they’ve taken on their biggest project yet: over the last two years they composed the soundtrack for the highly anticipatedMoanasequel,out Nov. 27.

“It’s one of those little life decisions that end up changing everything,” says Bear. Barlow adds: “We had a songwriting session together and immediately clicked. It all just fell into place.”

Making the soundtrack forMoana 2made Barlow & Bear the youngest composers in history to write all the songs for an animated Disney film and the first female writing team to do so. Fittingly, the duo was only a few years older than Moana when they took the project on — and they think she’s “such a badass.”

Before they got together, Barlow and Bear were each making their way in music, with Barlow pursing a career in pop songwriting and building her social media presence. Bear, who’s a pianist, composer and performer, was a child prodigy whoQuincy Jones took under his wingandtoured as the pianist on Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tourin 2023.

“We have such different musical backgrounds and view music in completely different ways, which is why it works,” Bear, who scored two films releasing this holiday season, adds. “Because why would you want to collaborate with someone who thinks the same as you.”

Get to know Barlow & Bear below:

Barlow & Bear.Alex Feggi

Before you met, you were each trying to make your way in music. What was that journey like?

Barlow:I grew up in Alabama, a big musical theater girly. Very serious about it and thought I was going to go to school for it. But then I did a scholarship program where I met a songwriter and she produced her own pop music. We wrote a song together and I immediately was like, “Oh, never mind. This is what I want to do with my life.” Then, I graduated high school a little early and moved to Los Angeles when I turned 18. I started writing, doing the whole thing, doing the pursuit of the dream, which just led me back to social media and growing an audience on my own. Then me and Emily met during that time that I was on social media and doing the pop thing. We started writing musical theater together, which neither one of us had done.

How did you meet?

Barlow:We met through a mutual friend who had an idea for a show, and he thought that we would work well together, but the show is very much going to be pop musical theater. So we got in a room together after he had said that, and kind of magic was made. [But] we didn’t know that until we just met us friends first. She came over to my house, I made her cookies.

Bear:We watchedThe Bachelorette. [Back then,] I was alone. I had no friends. It sucked. And then we met and we were like, “Oh my God, you get it.” Because we didn’t go to college, we had no friends, and we were just trying to do the thing. And there was a mutual understanding there that was really special.

You won a Grammy on your first collaboration,The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Album. How did that feel?

Barlow:It’s what brought us really close and taught us what our superpowers were musically together. I didn’t know that I was capable of anything other than a pop song. Then, that experience showed me that I can have a career in writing music and telling stories through music

Bear:It personally showed me a lot because I’ve done a lot in my career, but so much of that was when I was a kid. For me personally, theBridgertonexperience was the first thing that reached a ton of people where they didn’t know anything about my background and anything that I did when I was a kid. It was purely based off of the work that I’ve done as an adult. I felt that bridge-crossing moment for me where it was like, “OK, I’ve left the kid prodigy stuff in the past and I’m now…” The dancing monkey is gone, the shock factor is gone, and people respect me for the work that I do.

What was your reaction when you got the call aboutMoana 2two years ago?

Barlow:“Is this real life?”

Bear:Like, “Really?” And from that first call, we learned about Moana’s journey that she was going to be going on, and immediately felt connected to a lot of the struggles that she was going through as a young woman trying to find her place in the world.

When you were working on the soundtrack, where did you find inspiration?

Barlow:And a lot of incredible people. In the screening, they talked about the Oceania cultural trust and we met with real life wayfinders. That was really, really fascinating and I think informed pretty much every part of the songwriting process.

Did you face any challenges along the way?

Bear:The whole thing is pretty daunting, but I feel like a challenge is what makes the best music because it pushes you to do better and do more.

Bear: And this is not just one or two rewrites. It’s like, a thousand.

In what ways did you relate to Moana’s journey?

Barlow:Ultimately, she becomes a better leader in this sequel. Like I said, this process, I felt like life was a classroom and I was learning so, so much about myself, about this industry. I think that’s the way I relate to her is that I just feel like I’ve grown a lot, and I’m proud of me for that because it’s not easy. Being a young artist is such a mindf— sometimes. So having a path that was like a brick road laid out in front of me was the biggest joy, and it felt like I was following a fire in the sky like Moana.

Bear:Especially in this movie, Moana makes mistakes but she learned from them instead of letting them beat her down. Because it’s Moana. I think it’s a powerful thing to see on the screen and to write about, and it’s very real because we all f— up and it’s just a part of life. To learn and accept yourself as you do these things and as you make mistakes and stumbles instead of feeling sorry for yourself and letting it drag you down is important.

source: people.com