Artist: Suzanna
Real Name Suzanna Lubrano
Suzanna may have started out as a golden girl with an angelic voice, but since the release of her debut solo album, Without You In This World (Sem bó nes mund), she’s become even more - a voice for young women striving to reach their goals. In a number of countries, her concerts are usually sold out the minute they go on sale and her CD’s are some of the best sellers in the Lusophone market.
Born in the Cape Verdean Islands, Suzanna Lubrano and her parents moved to the Netherlands when she was four. She started to sing when she was still a young child, but picked up singing professionally when she was eighteen. She made her debut as a professional singer in the popular Cape Verdean band Rabelados. Together with Rabelados she recorded a very successful CD album. In the meantime Suzanna had already started a solo career, which has resulted in three solo cd’s: her debut Sem bó nes mund, the successful follow up Fofó and the latest one, Tudo pa bo. On Tudo pa bo (Everything for you) Suzanna is not only working with Jorge do Rosario, Dabs Lopes and Beto Dias, as she has done on her previous albums, but also started a cooperation with Ronald Rubinel, who had previously asked Suzanna to participate on his Jeux de Dames and Zouk me Love cd’s.
Suzanna has since become one of the most demanded Cape Verdean female singers within the Afro-Portuguese community world wide. She has performed live on stage in European countries such as France and Luxemburg, Spain and Portugal, Italy and Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. She also performed on stage in the United States, her home country the Netherlands and has attracted large audiences with her performances on the Cape Verdean Islands, Angola, Senegal, Mozambique and South Africa. Since the music industry in Mozambique has officially started to track CD sales, Suzanna has received both a golden and platinum CD in this Southern African country.
Her performaces at the famous Gamboa and Baia da Gatas Festivals in Cape Verde, were transmitted live by Portuguese Satellite Television RTP Africa. In December 2003 she won the prestigious Kora All African Music Award for both Best West African Female and Best African Female at an event watched by over 600 million tv viewers wordwide. She was personally congratulated by both the Capeverdean President and Prime Minister, the mayor of her home city in the Netherlands, Rotterdam, as well as the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation.
Suzanna’s music can be best described as a mix of Zouk and R&B. Most of her songs are in Capeverdean Creole, which is closely related to the Portuguese language. Suzanna writes most of her own songs in cooperation with Jorge Do Rosario, Dabs, Beto Dias, Ronald Rubinel and others. In 2004 she released the song Silêncio on a single cd. This song was not only released in the Capeverdean Creole language, but also in English and Dutch.
In 2007 Suzanna’s career has taken a new turn. After signing wth U.S. based Mass Appeal Entertainment, her fourth album Saida (2008) bridges the gap between popular African & Caribbean Zouk and Kizomba and mainstream American R&B. The first single taken from the album, Gone, an urban ghetto zouk track sung in a mixture of Cape Verdean Creole and English. The album contains 19 songs and includes cooperations Ronald Rubinel, Jacob Desvarieux, Dre Robinson and Ryan Toby.
“I want to reach as many people as possible with the message of love, honesty, and everything that has to do with the realities of our daily lives,” said Suzanna. She enjoys performing to the audience and hear them singing every word of her songs or when she receives a letter saying that her songs made someone feel good. “That’s what excites me,” she said.
