Alisa Childers (born Alisa Noelle Girard; April 17, 1975) is an American singer and songwriter. She is known for being in the all female Christian music group
ZOEgirl
ZOEgirl was an American contemporary Christian music, Christian teen pop and pop rock band formed in 1999. The group comprised Chrissy Conway-Katina, Alisa Childers and Kristin Swinford-Schweain. They were signed to Sparrow Records from 1999 to ...
. She has had a string of top ten radio singles, four studio releases, and received the
Dove Award
A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...
from being with ZOEgirl. In 2020, she was included in the Christian
apologetics
Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...
film ''
American Gospel: Christ Crucified''.
Career
Early years
Born Alisa Noelle Girard to Karen and Christian music pioneer,
Chuck Girard
Chuck Girard (born on August 27, 1943) is a pioneer of Contemporary Christian music. He moved to Santa Rosa, California in his young teens and was a member of the Castells and later the surf-rock band The Hondells. In 1970 he was a founding membe ...
of
Love Song
A love song is a song about romantic love, falling in love, heartbreak after a breakup, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order. ...
, she grew up in
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. She studied gymnastics and piano at a young age. At the age of 21, she moved to New York and ran a youth center in southeast
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
ZOEgirl
Childers left New York and moved back to California, where she was contacted by a family friend about starting a group upon return. After a few months, Childers agreed to pursue the idea. She was introduced to
Kristin Swinford-Schweain and the two began composing songs. A few months later,
Chrissy Conway-Katina
ZOEgirl was an American Christian teen pop and pop rock band 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 released their debu ...
joined the group. In 1999, ZOEgirl was signed to
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. Purchased by Thorn EMI in ...
and became one of the fastest-selling debut artist in the record label’s history. While with ZOEgirl, Childers wrote the
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
"I Believe", "One Day", "Unchangeable", and "Scream". She toured with many artists including
Carman
In Celtic mythology, Carman or Carmun was a warrior and sorceress from Athens who tried to invade Ireland in the days of the Tuatha Dé Danann, along with her three sons, Dub ("black"), Dother ("evil") and Dian ("violence"). She used her magica ...
,
Newsboys
Newsboys (sometimes stylised as newsboys) are a Christian rock band founded in 1985 in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia, by Peter Furler and George Perdikis. Now based in Nashville, Tennessee, the band has released 17 studio albums, 6 of which ...
,
TobyMac
Toby McKeehan (born Kevin Michael McKeehan; October 22, 1964), better known by his stage name TobyMac (styled tobyMac or TOBYMAC), is an American contemporary Christian music singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He was first known f ...
,
Avalon
Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...
,
Jump5
Jump5 was an American Christian teen pop group active from 1999 until 2007. The group was made up of five members from Nashville: Brandon and Brittany Hargest, Chris Fedun, Lesley Moore and Libby Hodges. After Libby Hodges left in 2004, Natash ...
, and
Natalie Grant
Natalie Diane Grant (born December 21, 1971) is an American singer and songwriter of contemporary Christian music. She received the Gospel Music Association's Dove Award for Female Vocalist of the Year four consecutive years (2006, 2007, 2008 an ...
.
In 2002, ZOEgirl won the New Artist of the Year award at the GMA
Dove Awards
A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Award ...
. In 2011, she joined former bandmates Schweain and Katina for a ZOEgirl reunion interview on ''the Brian Mason Show'' in Nashville. The group later announced their reunion in 2013 to record a lullaby album, though nothing has materialized as of yet.
Solo
ZOEgirl stayed together for seven years.
Their split was amicable. At the end of 2006, Childers started a solo career. Her
self-titled album was released on December 1, 2007 under Vintage Street Music.
Girard
Childers started a band with two of her sisters Kristin and Nikki and Kristin's daughters Lauren and Kaitlyn in late 2009 called Girard and they released their self-titled debut album together on April 20, 2011. They released this album independently under
Calvary Chapel
Calvary Chapel is an association of evangelical churches, maintains a number of radio stations around the world and operates many local Calvary Chapel Bible College programs.
Beginning in 1965 in Southern California, this fellowship of chur ...
Music. Girard is currently inactive.
Personal life
Alisa is married to Mike Childers, who played drums for ZOEgirl.
On October 9, 2008 the couple had their first child together.
''Dyllan Joi Childers, born Oct. 9th''
, Alisa Childers Official MySpace, retrieved October 13, 2008 Childers gave birth to a second child in 2011. She is currently an artist in residence at Whitewater Crossing Christian Church in Cleves, Ohio. In 2020, Childers was featured in the film '' American Gospel: Christ Crucified'' and detailed her journey from the Contemporary Christian Music movement to Christian Apologetics. Childers is the author of ''Another Gospel'', detailing her introduction into, and her escape from, a church which taught progressive Christianity.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Childers, Alisa
1975 births
20th-century Christians
21st-century Christians
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
American women singer-songwriters
American performers of Christian music
Christian music songwriters
Living people