''ZOEgirl'' is the debut studio album by the American

Christian pop Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith a ...

girl group

ZOEgirl ZOEgirl was an American contemporary Christian music, Christian pop girl group formed in 1999. The group comprised Chrissy Conway-Katina, Alisa Childers and Kristin Swinford-Schweain. They were signed to Sparrow Records from 1999 to 2006 and rel ...

. It was released on August 15, 2000 through

Sparrow Records Sparrow Records is a Christian music record label and a division of Universal Music Group. History Sparrow Records was founded in 1976 by Billy Ray Hearn, then artists and repertoire (A&R) director at Myrrh Records. Barry McGuire was the fi ...

. "I Believe", "Anything Is Possible", "No You" and "Living For You" were released as radio singles.

Background

After the ZOEgirl group was formed, they immediately began to work on their self-titled album at a fast pace. They temporarily separated during the Christmas holidays of 1999 to pray about the album and the message they should record on it. After this, they realized that they wanted to talk about their relationships with God and the romantic relationships that people may face in life. Producers remarked that paper, drafting the debut album's content, was scattered all around the studio. When the album's musical content was finished, ZOEgirl traveled to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to meet with a stylist for fashion suggestions regarding a photo shoot. After they agreed on what to wear, they traveled to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

for an entire photo shoot day. It is unknown whether the music video was also recorded in this city, but the similarities between the album art and the music video seem to suggest this to be true.

Release

''ZOEgirl'' was released to retail stores on August 15, 2000. It included a link to ZOEgirlOnline.com which served as the group's website. The music video for "I Believe" was released around that time and could be streamed online via this site. A higher quality version of the video was also released on the

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

cassette of

WOW Hits 2001 ''WOW Hits 2001'' is a compilation album of thirty Contemporary Christian music hits and three bonus tracks that was released on October 24, 2000. It included some music video content accessible with a CD-ROM drive. The album reached No. 36 on ...

. The album peaked at No. 173 on the Billboard 200, No. 11 on the ''Billboard'' Contemporary Christian Charts and No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' Heatseeker's Chart. As of October 2003, over 350,000 copies of the debut record were sold.

Reception

''ZOEgirl'' got mixed reviews. Jesus Freak Hideout noted that those who "like to dance but really don't like the secular junk (

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

) ..will want to check ''ZOEgirl'' out." Meanwhile, Christian Music Today pointed out that the album "still didn't seem to measure up to mainstream quality songwriting and production." This was echoed by American Culture Scope, stating that the "sweet and sour" album was "tasteless" and that "groups such as SHeDAISY

Dixie Chicks The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. The band consists of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Stra ...

remuch better." Nearly a decade after its release, ZOEgirl admits that their debut album was "bashed" by critics. The album remained on the

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...

Top 40 Christian Album chart for nearly a year after its release.

Track listing

All the songs from ''ZOEgirls debut album were written by at least one band member. Some songs were written with the help of non-members.''ZOEgirl'' album leaflet

Related products

Several products related to this album were released.

Book

A book, titled ''Backstage Exclusive'', was released in 2001, featuring full-colour photos and facts from ZOEgirl.

Other music

The following remixes can be found on Mix of Life: *"I Believe" rip Rock Remix*"No You" Mix*"Anything Is Possible" adame Lapulse Mix*"Living For You" he Ghost Mix Additionally, the following remixes can be found on

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

's limited edition single. *"I Believe" (Riverside Mix) *"Anything Is Possible" (Riverside Mix) Karaoke tracks were also released. Volume one of ZOEgirl's Open Mic Karaoke disc series features "I Believe" and "Anything Is Possible".

Video games

'' Original Dance Praise'', released in 2005, featured two songs from ZOEgirl's debut album: "I Believe" and "Suddenly".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoegirl ZOEgirl albums 2000 debut albums Sparrow Records albums