Robinella is the ban of singer Robin Ella Contreras. The band was first formed as Robinella and the CCstringband in the late 1990s by Robin Ella and husband Cruz Contreras (the "CC" in CCstringband) at the University of Tennessee. They released three albums under that name before shortening it to simply Robinella with the 2006 release of Solace for the Lonely, an album which began to explore areas of pop and funk.