Dragonette

Singer and songwriter Martina Sorbara leads the Canadian electro-pop outfit Dragonette, whose shiny, melody-driven style draws from new wave roots. Early releases such as the 2007 album Galore and 2009’s Fixin’ to Thrill prompted frequent parallels to Scissor Sisters, No Doubt, and the Killers, yet subsequent projects including the 2012 set Bodyparts and the worldwide smash “Hello” with producer Martin Solveig confirmed the band’s distinct, dance-floor-oriented voice. Although 2015’s Royal Blues closed the chapter on Sorbara’s long partnership with Dan Kurtz, she continued under the Dragonette name and issued the solo debut Twennies in 2022.

Sorbara launched Dragonette in 2005 alongside multi-instrumentalist Dan Kurtz, previously of the Toronto jazz- and electronica-tinged jam band the New Deal, guitarist Simon Craig, and drummer Joel Stouffer. As the daughter of York University Chancellor and former Ontario provincial government member Greg Sorbara, she had already issued several AOR/adult-alternative albums in the vein of Sarah McLachlan, among them 2002’s The Cure for Bad Deeds; after forming both a creative and romantic bond with Kurtz, she chose to pursue music collaboratively through Dragonette.

An independently issued 2005 demo bearing the band’s name caught the ear of Mercury Records’ U.K. division, which signed Dragonette the next year. The group relocated from Toronto to London—losing Craig, who was succeeded by British guitarist Will Stapleton—and delivered its debut single “I Get Around” in April 2007. Three further singles appeared that year: “Take It Like a Man,” “Competition,” and the gender-flipped Calvin Harris cover “The Boys,” originally titled “The Girls.” Dragonette’s first full-length, Galore, arrived in late summer 2007; Sorbara also supplied lead vocals for Basement Jaxx’s hit “Take Me Back to Your House” the same year. I Surrender Records brought Galore to American listeners in 2008.

The more streamlined and refined second album Fixin’ to Thrill reached Canada’s Top Ten upon its 2009 release and earned a 2011 Juno Award nomination for Dance Recording of the Year. Dragonette followed with the 2010 remix collection Mixin’ to Thrill and guest appearances on tracks by various dance producers, most prominently Martin Solveig’s “Hello” from his 2011 album Smash. The single topped charts in five countries, placed inside the Top Ten in ten additional territories, and reached number one on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs tally in the U.S. in early 2011, ultimately securing the group a 2012 Juno for Dance Recording of the Year.

In 2011 Dragonette wrote and produced “Lucky Day” for Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts and her solo album Cinderella’s Eyes, then returned to recording their own material. Bodyparts, issued in 2012, marked the first Dragonette album both self-produced and simultaneously released in Canada and the United States. Subsequent years brought a string of singles and outside projects, including a 2013 rendition of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood theme “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” featured in Target Canada advertising, plus 2014–2015 collaborations with Mike Mago, LENNO, Joey Stylez, Paul Harris, and Big Data.

Dragonette unveiled the single “Let the Night Fall” in June 2015 as the initial preview of fourth album Royal Blues, partly shaped by Sorbara and Kurtz’s split; the record appeared in November 2016 with additional production from Mago and U.K. producer Dada. Following the breakup, Kurtz rejoined the New Deal while Sorbara carried Dragonette forward as her solo endeavor, returning in October 2022 with the full-length Twennies, tracked in Toronto alongside producer Dan Farber.