The Puppini Sisters

British female vocal trio, The Puppini Sisters, formed in London in 2004 on the initiative of Marcella Puppini, an Italian living in London. A student of fashion design and graduate of the Royal College of Music, she decided to form the trio with her friends Kate Mullins and Stephanie O'Brien after seeing the film Les Triplettes de Belleville, and contacted the composer of the original soundtrack, Benoît Charest, to produce their first track in the retro vein they wished to revive, a cover of the standard "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", popularized by The Andrews Sisters. The first album, Betcha Bottom Dollar, met with international success, particularly in the USA, where it reached No. 2 in the jazz charts. Released in 2006 in the U.K., the following year in the U.S. and in 2008 in France, it launched the retro swing wave, based on covers of jazz and pop standards, performed in the style of the golden age of orchestras. However, far from locking themselves into an identically reproduced style, The Puppini Sisters took the opposite tack with their second album The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo (2007), featuring modern hits fashioned the old-fashioned way, such as Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" revisited in 1940s style. The album, ranked No. 5 on the US jazz charts, was followed by the Christmas album Christmas with the Puppini Sisters (2010), and then Hollywood (2011), featuring film themes such as Marilyn Monroe's beloved "Diamond Are a Girl's Best Friend". In 2012, Stephanie O'Brien gives way to Emma Smith. As the band's popularity declines. After seeing several of its interpretations served up in numerous compilations or in film, the trio launches a fundraising campaign to produce the album The High Life (2016), the reissue of which includes a series of remixed tracks. In 2020, Dance, Dance, Dance, with the help of the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, revives the sound of the dance halls of the interwar period. Since their debut, The Puppini Sisters have collaborated with Michael Bublé on a cover of "Jingle Bells" in 2011, and with Raphael Gualazzi, Seal and The Real Tuesday Weld in 2013. In 2026, the trio returned in a new guise, with Rosanna Schura taking Emma Smith's place, with the album The Birthday Party (No. 16 in the UK jazz charts).