Sabina Margrit Sciubba or Sabina is a singer, composer, and actress. She is best known as the lead singer for the Grammy-nominated
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...
band
Brazilian Girls. She is also a visual artist. She has a solo career, and also worked as an actress, appearing in a recurring role on the
FX series ''
Baskets
A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...
'', beginning in 2016. Sciubba has composed the scores for feature films and commercials.
Early life
Sabina was born in Rome to a German mother and an Italian father.
She lived there until age 5, then moved to Germany with her mother, painter Hannelore Jüterbock, and her brother, Christian, where she grew up in
Berg, Upper Bavaria
Berg is a municipality in the district of Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany, on the shore of the Starnberg Lake. It is most famous for the royal Berg Castle.
Notable residents
German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (2 ...
.
After living in Italy, Germany and France, Sciubba later lived in New York from 1999 to 2009, before returning to France.
She has commented on her childhood: "I grew up singing to trees, donkeys, sheep and horses, so I suppose there isn't an audience I'm not prepared for."
Sciubba is fluent in six languages: German, Italian, French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Her father, Enrico Sciubba is Professor for Thermodynamics at the University in Rome, San Pietro in Vincoli, La Sapienza.
Career
Brazilian Girls
Sabina is best known as the frontwoman for the band
Brazilian Girls. She stands out because of her unique contralto voice and her signature multilingual storytelling.
She has also been called 'enigmatic' and is noted for her sense of fashion, wearing theatrical outfits often made by herself or by her fashion-designer friends
threeasfour, Carolina K, and Gemma Kahng.
In 2008 Sabina composed and sang the songs "Bring Back the Love" and "Os Novos Yorkinos" for
Bebel Gilberto
Isabel Buarque de Hollanda Gilberto de Oliveira (born May 12, 1966), known as Bebel Gilberto, is an American-born Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle ...
's album ''Momento''.
In 2009, Brazilian Girls were nominated for a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
in the
Best Dance/Electronic Album category, but lost out to the band
Daft Punk
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...
.
In 2009 Sabina and Brazilian Girls member Didi Gutman wrote and produced singer
Baaba Maal
Baaba Maal ( ff, 𞤄𞤢𞥄𞤦𞤢 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤, italics=no, born 13 June 1953) is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. In addition to acoustic guitar, he also plays percussion. He has released several al ...
's album ''Television'', released on
Palm Pictures.
The band disbanded in 2019.
Solo career
Her solo record, called ''Toujours'', was released on February 18, 2014 on
Bar None Records
Bar/None Records is an independent record label based in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Early history
Tom Prendergast started Bar/None in early 1986 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Having previously worked in pirate radio and booked and promoted bands in his n ...
and
Naim Edge, UK on March 23, 2014.
Sabina's album was welcomed with overwhelmingly positive reviews.
''The Boston Globe'' reviewer Rebecca Ostriker calls Sabina "a goddess".
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' describes her as nonchalant, elusive, sophisticated and resolutely hedonistic.
Allmusic says "Toujours is an album of true originality, executed with humor, warmth, and spark, and captivating from beginning to end."
''Q'' magazine calls it "A thoughtful solo debut", ''Uncut'' calls Sabina "A Dietrich pour nos jours".
In 2009 Sciubba records the song 'Silence is golden' on
Forro in the Dark's album 'Light a candle'.
In 2011, Sciubba sings at the
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
, premiering 'Goldkind', a musical fairytale composed by Sciubba and
Anthony Korf
Anthony Korf (born 1951 in New York City) is an American composer, artistic director and conductor. While his output spans vocal and chamber music, his primary focus has been the orchestra, among which ''Goldkind'', a work for young audiences w ...
, accompanied by
Riverside Symphony
Riverside Symphony is a New York-based professional orchestra founded in 1981 by conductor George Rothman and composer Anthony Korf. The orchestra performs an annual three-concert series at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center and is recognized for ...
.
She also composes and sings on
Pretty Good Dance Moves
Pretty Good Dance Moves is an indietronica band from Chicago, Illinois in the United States. Their style is also labeled as electropop. It is influenced by 1980s new wave, electronic, pop and indie rock genres.
Career Genesis of the Group
P ...
's 2012 album ''Limo''.
On the collaboration project with
Big Gigantic
Big Gigantic are an American instrumental electronic hip hop and jazz musical duo based in Boulder, Colorado.
The band have played at a wide range of music festivals, including Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Lollapalooza, Ultra Mu ...
in 2012, she appears on the track "Love Letters".
Sabina has composed musical scores for a number of films, including ''
The Party's Over'' (with
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...
) and ''
Forty Shades of Blue'', ''
Jimmy in Saigon'' amongst others.
In 2019, Sciubba released a new single called "I know you too well", a song featured in the TV series "Baskets" with Zach Galifianakis, and first solo work in 5 years.
On January 25, 2020 Sciubba premieres her new project "Force Majeure", a crossover between music performance and stage art, performing in a Theatre in Florence, Italy, alongside other musicians, and most notably her shadow (alias Daelen Cory). Her second solo record "Force Majeure", due for release on March 21st 2020, is pushed back because of the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
emergency, but Sciubba decides to self-release the record on her website, stating: "I named the project Force Majeure since 2018. The fact that the release date happened to be during a major event of Force Majeure, made me feel like it was the perfect time to release it regardless, at least to my closest fans."
Acting
From 2016 until 2019, Sciubba plays a recurring character, Penelope, alongside
Zach Galifianakis
Zachary Knight Galifianakis (born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He appeared in '' Comedy Central Presents'' special and presented his show '' Late World with Zach'' on VH1.
Galifianakis has starred in films including ''T ...
in the television comedy series ''
Baskets
A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...
'' on
FX.
Video work
Sabina released a self-produced video for her single 'Toujours' in 2013.
She also made a series of short animated films, which she named Minifilms, which are political comments on human behaviour.
In early April 2014, renowned British artist Oliver Clegg created a video for and with Sabina for the single 'Viva l'amour'.
The video consists of thousands of hand-drawn images of Sabina.
Discography
* with
Antonio Forcione
Antonio Forcione is an Italian jazz guitarist. His 2000 album ''Live!'' was recorded at The Vortex in London. He also recorded a duet album with bassist Charlie Haden – ''Heartplay''.
Biography
Forcione grew up on the Adriatic coast of the Mo ...
, ''Meet Me in London'', (Naim, 1997)
* with
Chris Anderson, ''You Don't Know What Love Is'', (Naim, 1998)
*
Brazilian Girls, ''Brazilian Girls'', (
Verve, 2005)
* Brazilian Girls, ''Talk to La Bomb'', (Verve, 2006)
* Brazilian Girls, ''New York City'', (Verve, 2008)
* ''Toujours'', (
Bar None,
Naim, 2014)
* Brazilian Girls, ''Let's Make Love'', (Six Degrees Records, 2018)
* ''Force Majeure'', (
Goldkind records, 2020)
Filmography
References
External links
Official websiteSabina's video of the song 'Toujours'Brazilian Girls on the Dave Letterman showBrazilian Girls 'Rules of the game' video by Adria Petty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sciubba, Sabina (singer)
Living people
Italian expatriates in France
Italian people of German descent
Italian pop singers
21st-century German women singers
German jazz singers
21st-century Italian women singers
Year of birth missing (living people)