Ysabellabrave
Ysabellabrave is the username of a karaoke singer of notable popularity on YouTube.
Biography
Ysabellabrave has not published her full name; her first name is MaryAnne, and her username derives from her middle name Ysabella. She was born December 4, 1979, lives in California, and works as a fraud and securities analyst for Yahoo!. Her heritage is part Azorean Portuguese and part Apsáalooke.
Videos
On July 14, 2006, Ysabellabrave began to post videos of herself singing from her apartment on YouTube, using a Kodak digital camera and backed by karaoke tracks. Her initial output consisted of classics from the 1960s and earlier, often blues or jazz, though she has lately broadened her repertoire. Her videos are shot in one take, and are usually five to ten minutes in length, and are unedited.
Although the production values of Ysabellabrave's videos have never been very high, and are necessarily limited by the small-screen format and limited audio range, as well as the inflexibility of the karaoke tracks, Ysabellabrave soon became a notable presence on YouTube. In part this is due simply to the quantity of her output; she currently has produced over 90 YouTube videos, and continues to add videos at the rate of about two a week.
Also contributing to Ysabellabrave's popularity are a strong voice with a good range, and her ability to successfully imitate a wide range of singing styles, to the extent that her singing has often been mistaken for lipsynching (that she is not doing so is adequately shown by videos in which she interjects spoken comments during instrumental tracks in what is unmistakably her singing voice). Adding to the content of her videos is her emotional interaction with the music (seen via gesture, facial expression, and dance moves, all well-suited to the small screen), her spoken dialogue with her video listeners, and her willingness to respond to praise and criticism on YouTube, which create for the listener a sense of apparent intimacy.
Career
Ysabellabrave's popularity took a notable step outside of the confines of YouTube when she was signed as a performer for Cordless Recordings, a netlabel of the Warner Music Group, though this has so far had no impact on her YouTube output. She was consequently interviewed and reported on by the Los Angeles Times.
Other
Ysabellabrave was also a finalist for Miss Horrorfest 2006.