Fireflight

Like Evanescence (from Arkansas) and Flyleaf (from Texas), Fireflight are a woman-fronted, vaguely goth-metal-leaning, urgently power-ballad-emoting, Christian-identified pop-rock band from the South -- in their case, Orlando, Fla. But where those other two bands have tended to downplay their religious aspects as time has gone on, Fireflight's primary success has been on Billboard's Christian Rock chart, where they've been placing both albums and singles since The Healing of Harms in 2006. The most exposure they've received with secular fans probably came from their 2008 single "Unbreakable," which was broadcast on TV's Bionic Woman and was said to be sung from the point of view of an adulteress saved from death by Jesus. The band formed in 1999, initially by schoolmates Justin Cox and Glenn Drennen, plus Drennen's wife, Wendy; the Drennens soon discovered Dawn Michele, who gave Fireflight their band name, when she was singing at a sibling's graduation ceremony. They self-released an album, misleadingly titled Glam-Rok, in 2002, and their audience has grown with each album since.