Girlfriend (group)

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Girlfriend / GF4
Girlfriend left to right: Lorinda Noble, Melanie Alexander, Jacqui Cowell, Robyn Loau and Siobhann Heidenreich.
Background information
Origin	Australia
Genres	Pop, dance-pop
Years active	1991–1996
Labels	Sony Music
Members	Robyn Loau Melanie Alexander Lorinda (Rindy) Noble Siobhánn Heidenreich Jacqueline (Jacqui) Cowell

Girlfriend was an Australian

, with their flower hats becoming a symbol of the band; at one point, they had their own clothing line.

After the departure of lead vocalist Robyn Loau, the group changed its name to GF4.

Career

Career beginnings and singing

Three of the members—Jacqueline Cowell, Siobhánn Heidenreich and Melanie Alexander — first met while taking dance lessons at age three. Years later, they decided to form a pop group, and through their dance teacher Janice Breen, met Noel MacDonald, a singer, songwriter and

in 1991, after a year of self-promotion. The band were formed with the ambition of being both Australia and Asia's #1 girl band, with the band members, particularly Robyn Loau, undertaking extensive Japanese lessons.

1992–1993: Make It Come True and It's Up to You

In April 1992, the group released their debut single, "Take It from Me", which reached No. 1 on the ARIA chart.^[2] This was followed by "Girl's Life" (#15)^[2] and "Without You" (#18).^[2] In September 1992, Girlfriend released their debut studio album, Make It Come True which peaked at number 6 in Australia.

In April 1993, Girlfriend released Girl's Life, a Japan-exclusive album, consisting of songs from Make It Come True, mostly re-recorded with Japanese vocals.^[3]

In September 1993, Girlfriend released "

In November, the group released a four-track Japan-only extended play titled Magic.

1994–1996: GF4

In 1994, after the group had returned from a tour in Europe and Japan, Loau left the group to start a solo career. She later enjoyed minor success with the hit "Sick with Love" which peaked at number 21 on the ARIA Charts,^[5] and released an album, Malaria.

The four remaining members renamed themselves as GF4. GF4 released two singles; the first, a cover version of the 1971 Grass Roots song "Sooner or Later", reached No. 11 on the ARIA singles charts.^[2] In 1995, Jacqui Cowell left the band and was replaced by future Bardot member, Belinda Chapple, who was featured in the music video for GF4's second single, "Need Love (To Make the Sex Right)", a cover of Olivia Newton-John's "I Need Love", filmed at a Sydney nightclub. The video featured band member Siobhann Heidenriech miming to Cowell's spoken lines in the opening to the song. The single narrowly missed the ARIA Top 100 singles chart,^[2] resulting in the debut album that GF4 had recorded in Los Angeles being shelved. GF4 did not release any further material as a band and split in 1996.

Later appearances

On 13 May 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 cappella rendition of "Take It from Me" for the live audience.

A "best-of" compilation, Essential Girlfriend, was scheduled for release in November 2010, but remains unreleased.

In November 2010, former member Melanie Alexander provided guest vocals on the song "Falling for the Dance Floor" with Australian DJ, Stonedog. The track appears on the compilation album Club Anthems Asia, released through Hong Kong-based independent dance music label Volume Up Records.

In May 2017, Robyn Loau confirmed that the original members were reuniting for the 25th anniversary of their #1 hit "Take It from Me".^[6]

Members

• Robyn Loau
• Melanie Alexander
• Lorinda (Rindy) Noble
• Siobhánn Heidenreich
• Jacqueline (Jacqui) Cowell
• Other

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions	Certification
		AUS [2]
Make It Come True	Release date: 21 September 1992[7] Label: RCA Records (74321115982) Formats: CD, cassette	6	ARIA: Platinum[4]
It's Up to You	Release date: 25 October 1993[8] Label: BMG (74321166644) Formats: CD, cassette	29	ARIA: Gold[4]

Compilations

Title	Album details
Girl's Life	Release date: 21 April 1993 (Japan only) Label: RCA (VCR-611) Formats: CD

Extended plays

Title	EP details
Magic	Release date: 21 November 1993 (Japan only)[9] Label: BMG (BVCR-1003) Formats: CD

Singles

Year	Single	Peak positions			Certifications	Album
		AUS [2]	NZ [10]	UK [11]
1992	"Take It from Me"	1	44	47	ARIA: Gold[4]	Make It Come True
	"Girl's Life"	15	—	68
	"Without You"	18	—	—
	"Bad Attitude"	28	—	—
1993	"Love's on My Mind"	65	—	—
	"Heartbeat"	36	—	—		It's Up to You
	"Wishing on the Same Star"	44	—	—
1994	"Sooner or Later" (as GF4)	11	—	—		Non-album single
1995	"Need Love (To Make the Sex Right)" (as GF4)	101	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.

Awards

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. Girlfriend received three nominations.^[12]

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1993	Make It Come True	Best New Talent	Nominated
	"Take It from Me"	Highest Selling Single	Nominated
1994	It's Up to You	Best Pop Release	Nominated

See also

• List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

References

External links

• Girlfriend on
  Facebook
• Girlfriend at
  IMDb