Sabina Sciubba is the former frontwoman of New York-based dance-pop outfit
Brazilian Girls. Born in Rome, raised in Germany, and with stints in Italy and France, in the '90s the multicultural singer eventually found her way to New York, where she collaborated on two different jazz albums for the audiophile label Naim. After falling into the scene based around the downtown club Nublu, she met future bandmates
Didi Gutman,
Jesse Murphy, and
Aaron Johnston and the quartet formed
Brazilian Girls in 2003, landing a weekly gig at the popular New York club. Mixing elements of jazz, electronica, reggae, and bossa nova with pop, the group went on to release three LPs and a host of singles for the Verve Forecast label, beginning with their self-titled 2005 debut. After the band released its third album in 2008,
Sabina became involved in a variety of outside projects including a collaboration at Lincoln Center with
Riverside Symphony director/composer
Anthony Korf, in which she sang a piece called "Goldkind, written about her childhood. In 2012, she began to record her solo debut with former
Brazilian Girls producer Fred Rubens. The resulting album, Toujours, was released in February 2014 by Bar/None Records. ~ Timothy Monger