Zoë Badwi entered the pop realm in the same manner as fellow Australians Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, and Holly Valance, shifting from screen roles to music after first forming one third of girl band Sirens and then pursuing a solo route that yielded multiple club-chart anthems. Melbourne-born, she began as a model and appeared in prominent Telstra and Mars commercials before taking a role in Raw FM, the ABC drama centered on an independent radio station. In 2001 she entered the girl group trio Sirens, whose two hits—“Like Fire, Like Rain” and a cover of the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited”—preceded the band’s dissolution later that year. Badwi kept writing and performing, creating jingles for assorted radio stations, until electronic duo TV Rock’s Grant Smillie caught her fronting Black Dog at a Melbourne club and, struck by her vocals, asked her to collaborate. Signed to Neon Records, debut solo single “Release Me” received a Best Dance Release nomination at the 2009 ARIA Awards and was succeeded by the Top Ten track “Freefallin’.” A U.S. contract with Atlantic Records followed in 2010, after which she began recording her first album with Static Revenger, Rogue Traders, and English singer/songwriter Amy Pearson.
