Sabina Sciubba

Sabina Sciubba

Sabina Margrit Sciubba (born February 23, 1975 in Rome ) is a German - Italian singer , songwriter and actress . She became known as the front woman of the band Brazilian Girls . She has released solo albums as well as soundtracks and jazz records with other artists under the name Sabina . She also works as an illustrator and has made animated short films .

Life and origin

Sabina Sciubba was born in Rome in 1975 as the daughter of the Berlin painter and artist Hannelore Jüterbock (1938–2018) and a Roman. She lived in Rome until the age of five and then moved to Bavaria with her mother and brother, the flamenco guitarist El Sciubba . Until the end of their school days, the family lived mainly in Allmannshausen-Berg on Lake Starnberg , where their mother lived and owned a studio until her death in 2018. Sciubba described the move from Rome to Germany as a positive culture shock.

The bustling nature of the mother shaped the small family, which was both artistically and politically active. They commuted between Rome, Munich and France . After finishing school, Sciubba studied singing, first at the MHS Graz and then at the Richard Strauss Conservatory . After her first concerts, she moved to Nice with her mother and then to Paris . From 1999 to 2009 she lived in New York City .

career

Sciubba recognized her weakness for singing early on and trained as a jazz singer, with a focus on vocal jazz . In Munich she had a. a. Appearances in Unterfahrt and Café Giesing. She is the recipient of the Music Promotion Prize of the City of Munich , the Tassillo Prize of the SZ and winner of the “ Concorso Internationale di Musica Libera a Roma ”. For a while Sciubba worked as an actress in the German soap opera Marienhof . In the TV series, she acted for 15 episodes as a career-oriented rock singer who does everything for success. Nonetheless, she remained loyal to music and received critical acclaim for her duo recordings from New York with Paulo Cardoso , Chris Anderson and Antonio Forcione. It was also Antonio Forcione who discovered her at the age of 19 in Hamburg and won her for the joint album Meet Me In London .

Beginning with the Brazilian Girls and debut "Brazilian Girls" in 2005

After returning from Brazil, she had teamed up with the Argentinian keyboardist Didi Gutman in New York and had become a kind of house singer for the East Village scene club "[NuBlu]". The Sunday jam sessions were joined by bassist Jesse Murphy and drummer Aaron Johnston, who had worked with Harry Belafonte , David Byrne and John Scofield , among others ; they understood each other immediately, Sabina described it as "immediately noticeable energy in the group", which is why she was intuitively sure that something special would arise. A band concept was formed from wild improvisations. Inspired by Brazil, its culture and its music, they called themselves Brazilian Girls , a joke and misleading name, as Sabina is the only female band member and none of the four band members of Brazilian descent (Gutman is Argentinian, Murphy and Johnston are US-American). David Byrne noticed them at one of their early concerts at NuBlu and collaborated with them on a piece. Philip Glass , who also discovered them at NuBlu, recorded their first mini-CD with the band, which was directed to producer Ron Goldstein, boss the label Verve was leaked. Goldstein felt encouraged to record an entire album with the band called Brazilian Girls , which was released on Verve in 2005 and sold very well for an alternative album. The vibe of the album was loungy, relaxed and more electronic chill.

2007 - Talk to la Bomb

In 2007 and 2008 the band toured worldwide, and after the very relaxed debut, the successor called Talk to la Bomb emerged , which was a great success for the band with its single Jique . While the first album was still more influenced by jazz, acid jazz now crossed with chanson, Latin and punk as well as funk pieces, supplemented by tango. The album was much more condensed and shaped by the discharge of energy on the tour. Once again, Sabina's eclectic and creative use of language was shaping the style, in which English mostly forms the framework for the individual songs, but Sciubba's artistic and cultural identity is more than just adorned but expanded by German, Italian, French and Portuguese. Whole songs are also sung in a foreign language (for example on the first album "The thoughts are free" or "Me gustas cuando callas"). What is particularly typical, however, is the sudden mixing of languages ​​in the same sentence, such as "I have a faiblesse for you" or "every time that we are together" in the song "Jique". Multilingualism and a multicultural identity characterize Sabina Sciubba and the Brazilian Girls and form the unmistakable identity and sound of the band. Sabina's polyglot texts fit perfectly into New York's cultural melting pot, but primarily aim to be poetic and artistic.

The media highlight after the release of "Talk to la Bomb" was an appearance on the popular US Late Night Show with David Letterman , where the band Jique performed live. During this time, Sciubba experimented more and more aggressively with her appearance and used particularly artistic fashion: She wore outfits that she designed herself or from well-known fashion designers such as threeasfour, Carolina K and Gemma Kahng. The clothing was sometimes sculptural, sometimes emphatically erotic, sometimes illustrative of song texts, but in any case striking and distinctive. It was also noticeable that at this time she deliberately hid her face in part and blindfolded her eyes completely and withdrew them from the view of the audience: Behind nylon, behind paper or masks, the eyes mostly only to guess what a mysterious to erotic game with identity and Hiding arose. On the Brazilian Girls' album LIVE IN NYC and its video, she wore a cardboard censor bar on her body and face, a clear statement during the Bush era, when the depiction of guns and war on television was allowed as harmless, but sexual Features such as breasts and isolated words were subject to censorship. A statement on this was also the song Pussy, Pussy Marihuana , which could not be played on the radio because of the censored vocabulary and had to be "blued" intensely. Fans understood the song literally as a statement about sexuality and marijuana consumption, which was not the original intention of the text, as Sciubba explained in interviews. In the combination of the polyglot texts, the danceable vibe of many pieces, the fashionable and artistic appearance in particular by Sciubba and the multicultural New York background, critics awarded the label "Art Rock Party - Band". This created a context for epigones like Velvet Underground and the like. a. made, memories of the singer Nico, who was also of German descent, but who the band did not serve on purpose.

In addition to working with the Brazilian Girls, more experimental music continued to emerge, such as the soundtrack Orgasmic Birth with John McDowell (2009). She expanded her artistic expression through animated short films like tempi moderni, which she published on YouTube under the label antipaganda minifilm. The films are critical and humorous comments on typical human behavior.

2008 - New York City

One year after the last album, the band released their third album "New York City" in 2008 and developed the typical style of the band. The album showed lyrically further international references (Berlin, St. Petersburg), songs like "Good Times" stand for the relaxed, hedonistic, fun-loving and humorous lifestyle of the band, hymn-like refrains invite you to sing along. Brazilian girls remained stuck in the alternative genre, the music and commercial success, contrary to expectations, did not break the sound barrier to the mainstream and great commercial success on a global scale. The band has long been hyped as "the next big thing" among insiders. The constant popularity of these years and the guaranteed artistic independence are a great success from today's perspective. It is also conceivable that the labels' doubts about the marketability of the band contributed to the fact that the financial commitment did not increase and therefore the popularity did not increase any further. The doubts were based on the range of polyglot texts and the less liberal attitude outside the New York area at the time of the George W. Bush administration; Ultimately, the Brazilian Girls also refused to be clearly assigned to the hottest musical styles of the time, such as hip-hop or mainstream pop, the desire for commercial success was not compromised by the artistically declining repertoire. A sign of recognition was the nomination for the Grammy in the category Best Dance Record Grammy Award for Best Dance / Electronic Album in 2009 , but lost to the strongest competitor in the field, the French duo Daft Punk with "Alive 2007".

In 2008 Sabina composed the song "Bring back the Love" and "Os Novos Yorkinos" for Bebel Gilberto 's album Momento. Also in 2009, Sabina and Brazilian Girls co-founder Didi Gutman wrote and produced the Baaba Maal album "Television". She released "Amatoria" (2009) with Frederico Aubele .

2009 - move to Paris

After the success of Brazilian Girls and extensive tours in the USA and Europe, she moved to Paris in 2009. She collaborated u. a. with Diego Buongiorno for the album The Bush with Fenrir and the Owl and Freiheit , supported by the formation Strings of Amiina . In 2009 she released a single, Silence Is Golden, on Forros in the Dark album Light a Candle . In 2010 the Brazilian girls separated for the time being.

In 2011 Sciubba sang the premiere of Goldkind , a musical fairy tale composed by Sciubba and Anthony Korf , accompanied by the Riverside Symphony, at Lincoln Center . She composed for and sings on Pretty Good Dance Moves 2012 album Limo . In a joint project with Big Gigantic, she appeared in the song Love Letters in 2012 . With Sarazino she released Everyday Salama in 2012 .

2014 - Solo debut "Toujours"

From 2012 Sabina Sciubba began to intensify the composition and production of her first solo album, which she named "Toujours" and released on February 18, 2014 on Bar None Records and on March 23, 2014 on Naim Edge. Your debut was received extremely positively by the critics and showed your full artistic breadth. The lyrics of the album are very personal and autobiographical, but in any case completely taken from your own world of thought. She played instruments such as guitar, piano and harpsichord herself. The Boston Globe (Rebecca Ostriker) called Sabina "a goddess". Jon Pareles of the New York Times described her as nonchalant, fleeting, cultured, and utterly hedonistic. Allmusic called "Toujours" original, executed with a lot of humor, warm and sparkling, beguiling from beginning to end. Q called it a "thoughtful solo debut", and Uncut magazine called it "Eine Dietrich für Unser Tage".

The British artist Oliver Clegg created a video for and with Sabina in April 2014 for the single "Viva l'amour", which was created from thousands of hand-drawn pictures by Sabina. Sciubba is working intermittently on a follow-up album of an unknown name.

2018 Brazilian Girls - Let's make love

Despite rumors and the separation of the band announced on Facebook in 2010, Brazilian Girls got together again in 2016 for the production of a new album, which was supported by PledgeMusic with the support of numerous fans as part of a crowdfunding campaign. Fans supported the band financially and in return received not only the album, but also memorabilia, signed records and lyrics written by Sabina herself. After a long production period, the album was released on April 12, 2018 on Six Degree Records under the name "Let's Make Love", the single "The Critic" was already released from the album in 2017. A video was produced for the single "Pirates", and Sciubba directed the song "Let's make Love" with Juan Gonzs, visually quoting your earlier mini-films.

Sabina Sciubba has also composed soundtracks for various films such as The Party's Over (with Philip Seymour Hoffman ) and Forty Shades of Blue .

various

Sciubba speaks German, Italian, French, English and Spanish fluently as well as some Portuguese.

Sciubba sings in the alto range . The language coloring is guttural, the accent is colored Italian-German, which also easily resonates in English singing.

Sciubba has been acting again since 2016. Zach Galifianakis , who she knew from New York's NuBlu days , suggested her for the role of Penelope in the television comedy Baskets . She plays a French woman who married the clown Chip to get a green card . This humorously references Sciubba's own problems with visas in her New York time.

Private

Sciubba has a son (* 2009) and a daughter (* 2011). She has German and Italian citizenship. The father of their children is the actor Pablo Saavedra de Decker . They sang Jacques Prévert's Pour toi mon Amour together on a beach in Guadeloupe in a video they shot themselves . She lives with her family outside of Florence and tours around the world, with the Brazilian Girls' concerts still focusing on the USA.

Web links

Commons : Sabina Sciubba  - Collection of Images

• Homepage
• Sabina Sciubba in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jazzzeitung 2005/05: cover story, Sabina Sciubba with a new band on a (successful) tour. Retrieved October 31, 2018 . 
2. ↑ "The singers are all half naked" . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2010, ISSN  0174-4917 ( online [accessed July 30, 2018]).
3. ^ Roland Lindner: Allmannshausen in the East Village. In: FAZ.net . July 26, 2005, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Chris Anderson & Sabina Sciubba: You don't know what love is, 1998 (Jazz)
5. ↑ Antonio Forcione & Sabina Sciubba: "Meet me in London," 1998 (Jazz)
6. ^ Toujours, by Sabina. Retrieved October 31, 2018 . 
7. ^ Sabina Sciubba: tempi moderni. October 4, 2007, accessed October 31, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Brazilian Girls Back In Action With Assist From New York Senator. In: billboard. September 10, 2009, accessed August 7, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Polyglot Pop - Six Languages ​​on One Album . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . ( deutschlandfunkkultur.de [accessed October 31, 2018]).