Liza Dubrow

Twenty-year-old Calabasas resident Liza Dubrow is ready to perform her first set of all original material this coming Wednesday at Café Cordiale in Sherman Oaks. She has her songs. She has a five piece acoustic band that has been rehearsing diligently. And her grandmother, who is her best friend, is in town from New York.
What she doesn’t have are those pesky nerves that tend to pop up when traveling in uncharted territory. “I’m not nervous. I’m really anxious for everybody to hear the new stuff. I love to perform and I love to write songs and sing them to people, so I’m not nervous.”

Liza Dubrow
But then she adds, “The only thing I’m a little nervous about is that some of the boys I sing about might be there that night. Other than that, I think I can handle pretty much anything.”
Spoken like a typical 20 year-old which is the aspect of her “pop, rock, girlie” music Dubrow wants the pubic to connect with most.
She says she had a normal life and grew up in a good family with the typical ups and downs. There’s nothing edgy or tragic about her or her music, and that’s OK. “It’s time for girls to realize you can be normal and still be cool,” she says. “[There’s the idea that singers] must be edgy or misunderstood, but it’s not true.”
Dubrow’s father is Burt Dubrow, the creator of talk shows Sally Jessy Raphael and Jerry Springer, and she shares his obsession with entertainment. But her parents taught her that success is the product of diligence and hard work, not just destiny. “I was lucky enough to see a success story in my own house, and [to see that] if you work really hard and you love what you do, anybody can make it.”

So she’s been finishing songs, practicing her stage presence, marketing her upcoming performance, and rehearsing with her band that includes two of her Calabasas High School alumni, Nicole Weisberg and David Burris.
She’s hoping to test the waters with this performance to see what reactions her music evokes, and then navigate her career from there. “I’m 20 years old and I’m kind of coming in to my own and I’m hoping the songs will either strike a chord with people my age, or people will remember this time in their life and how they felt about relationships, friends and family and all that kind of stuff.” - My Daily Find

A 20-year-old Calabasas singer wants to share her music with girls all over the world— and she wouldn’t mind being a role model, too.

Liza Dubrow, an aspiring pop artist and 2007 Calabasas High School graduate, said she’s just “a normal girl.”

“There’s this idea that musicians have to be these tormented souls,” Dubrow said. “I’m quite the opposite. I’m from a good family and lived sort of a normal life. Nothing too bad has ever happened to me.”

Dubrow said she wants girls to realize that not all successful singers are required to boast a tragic past.

“There are normal girls who write music who are cool and didn’t do drugs and don’t have their belly button pierced,” she said. “There’s a void up there on the stage. It’s like every girl up there has to have something wrong with her, has to be edgy or crazy. I’m not like that.

“But I don’t wear pink all the time, either. I’m somewhere in the middle, and I think that’s something that everybody can relate to.”

Dubrow, who writes all her own songs, is counting down the days to her first show of all her original music. On Wed., Aug. 26, Dubrow will perform a 30minute set of eight songs at Cafe Cordiale in Sherman Oaks.

“This is my first show that will really let people know that I’m out there,” Dubrow said. “I’m showcasing what’s yet to come. This is it for me. It’s what I was meant to do. And I can’t wait for people to see what I’ve been doing.”

Dubrow was raised in New York before her family moved to Calabasas seven years ago. Dubrow has always been active in music and theater. She says the defining musical moment of her life was when she was 8 years old and saw Celine Dion perform.

“It was the first time seeing someone do what I wanted to do in my head,” Dubrow said. “From then on, that’s all I wanted.”

Dubrow performed in every musical she could while growing up, and once she got to Calabasas High School she joined several bands, singing groups and theater productions. When she graduated, Dubrow decided she wanted to pursue a career in music instead of going away to college.

Her parents supported her decision with the stipulation that she attend a nearby college and study something else while singing and songwriting. Dubrow is a communications major at Cal State Northridge. She also takes acting classes, and she interned at an entertainment public relations firm last year to learn another side of the business.

Dubrow attends classes and works as a nanny but spends at least one day a week writing new material. In her songs, Dubrow talks about boys, friends and relationships.

“I’m 20—it’s a real comingof-age time in my life,” she said. “It’s a time when you’re still trying to find out where you belong. Everything makes sense, but nothing makes sense.”

Dubrow also wrote a song about her parents’ relationship for their 25year wedding anniversary.

“My ultimate goal is to get a record deal,” Dubrow said. “Since I was 8, I’ve dreamed of being onstage with a ton of people in the audience singing all the words to my songs back to me. I want to tour the country and to be able to sing to tons of girls.”

Dubrow’s Aug. 26 show will feature a fivepiece band, including two members who also graduated from Calabasas High School. David Burris and Nicole Weisberg, both on guitar, were involved in music and theater with Dubrow in high school.
- The Acorn