To understand meaning in a song/music you need to understand the artist or band behind it. Here are some of my favorite influential artists/bands to add to your Amazon Music, Youtube, and Spotify playlists!
Eurovision and HaKokhav HaBa (Rising Star)
Eurovision is an annual song contest where a country can submit an original song and perform it live. Israel was the first non-European country permitted to participate in the event in 1973. Israel's latest win in the competition was with Netta Barzilai's submission Toy in 2018. Most of the lyrics are in English with a few Hebrew phrases and the Japanese word Baka=stupid. She has a powerful message (covering the "me too" movement, women's empowerment, and an overall idea of "ladies, let's be there for each other") backed by her powerful vocal cords. When she won in Lisbon, it showed the world to accept others and that diversity is beautiful and to be proud of who you are. She performs with looping and this was controversial for her performance as the song must be performed live and the judges weren't sure if she was recording the sounds beforehand. Dana International was the last winner for Israel 20 years prior to Netta's win! It was also a big deal for the LGBTQ+ community as Danna International is trans and was the first transgender person to win the contest with her song Diva. The winning song is an ode to powerful women in history.
Another fun fact is whoever wins the competition, gets to host the competition in their country the following year. It is great for tourism. Israel showcased Tel Aviv when they hosted in 2019 after Danna Internationals won the next year the competition occurred in Jerusalem.
Netta was chosen to represent Israel, as she was the winner of an Israeli music TV show competition similar to American Idol. It is called HaKokhav HaBa (Rising Star) since the 2nd season of the show, the winner goes on to represent Israel in Eurovision. Two of the judges on the show are Static/ Liraz Cohen and Ben El and I'll talk more about them below.
"Bassa Sababa" is a song connected to her childhood when her family lived in Nigeria and her love of Rhinos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1sjm9Lz_Q
Goldenboy was Israel's 2015 semi-finalist submission for the same Eurovision contest. It was the newest pop sensation across the nation but this also means it became heavily overplayed. At the time the song was sung by 16-year old Nadav Guedj. This was the first song Israel had ever submitted for the contest completely in English.
This year (2020) Eden Alene was supposed to represent Israel as the first Israeli with an Ethiopian background and sing Feker Libi, which is written in multiple languages (English, Amharic, Hebrew, and Arabic). This song will get stuck in your head!
More great Ethiopian artists
Cafe Shahor Hazak קפה שחור חזק which means Strong Black Coffee is an Israeli hip hop cousin duo. I love the entire album, Rak Laalot from 2015 so I'm essentially going to suggest you listen to the entire album. I have it in cd form so I can have it while driving.
Ihiye Beseder- It'll be alright https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQp2a_yunmM
The Way you move- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYNSMaX04xg
Sof Shavua- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC038BmKCf0
Yamim Tovim- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzaoDLTjRaU
Tishtof Panim- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mi-1P9Rikc
More Hot Artists of Today
Stephane Legar- It doesn't seem to matter your age, everyone knows this artist in Israel. He sings in Hebrew, French, and English (and is also fluent in Ewe and Spanish). Born in Israel to Christian parents from Togo who were in Israel as foreign diplomats working in the Nigerian embassy. He even served in the IDF.
You'll notice in this first song, "Comme Ci Comme ça" his dance moves are different than traditional Israeli dancing, it's similar to trends you'd see on TikTok and mainstream moves in the States (like the floss).
How can you not dance when you hear "Vida Loca"? It's almost like he made sure this song would be perfect to dance for all those trying to get on board of trends with TikTok and other social media platforms.
Static/ Liraz Cohen and Ben El- Static/Liraz Cohen was adopted by an Israeli couple and doesn't know his birth country but thinks it's in South America. Ben El is the son of Shimi Tavori another singer and they are Mizrahi (Jews from Arab countries). They have released together about a dozen hits but you won't notice necessarily a theme with their music as they want to resonate with listeners from all backgrounds.
They don't want to just be an Israeli mainstream group. So each song has a different style to represent a different culture. This is why they have collaborated with Pitbull creating a blend of languages and viewers from around the world while they listen to the song "Further Up". It is the perfect time to be doing this too since the half time show at the Superbowl this year had Latin fusion from the queens Shakira and J. Lo. Across the world, Hispanic music is blowing up and the same with Korean pop, international music in other languages has a better chance now of becoming popular in places that speak English.
Tudo Bom wasn't only popular in Israel but Brazil too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtoDhtMVK_c
They have a version in English as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNng9mbl9wY
This song, Silsulim put them on the map. Oh, and did you notice Stephane Legar is dancing in the music video?
They made a funny version in English as well, called Broke-Ass Millionaire. LOL at the reference to bar-mitzvah money.
Wow, Kvish HaHoff is a banger. The perfect song to nod your head to while cruising down the song.
Alright, I'm now just showing how basic I am and this is the last song from them I'll share (for now hehe), "Barbie" but come on you have to admit they got talent.
They collaborated with Eden Ben Zaken as well as Stephane Legar for the song Yassu, a way to say hello in Greek. Four major Israeli singers together for one epic song, means you better pay attention. She rose to fame after participating in the first season of X-Factor Israel, coming in 2nd place.
In case you wanted to listen to Eden Ben Zaken solo. Here are some songs I like by her. https://open.spotify.com/track/6Y3umon4a386lCHi9zZF9b
Hadag Nahash the bands' name means literally "fish snake", they are somewhere between hip hop and punk. The band's icon, depicting a child urinating, comes from a Hebrew idiom loosely translated as I will show you from where the fish pees (אני אראה לך מאיפה משתין הדג) meaning "I will show you how it's done." The (bumper) sticker song is popular, political, and catchy while referencing Israeli society. It's an oldie but a goodie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH-GepDymiA
Idan Raichel Whenever I hear his music I always am "in my feels", his music is so calming to unwind to. He also serves as a global ambassador working with artists in their country to break down barriers with people from different backgrounds or beliefs. He's gone from long dreadlocks to a buzz cut.
This first song, Mon Amour is about love and he collaborated with Vieux Farka Touré from Mali.
This next song, Sabe Deus mixes Hebrew with Portugues.
The last song I want to show from Idan is Mi'Ma'amakim (Out Of The Depths)
I'm including Anna Zak because she has become such a popular internet star from social media, especially among Gen Z. She has one of the highest followings on social media platforms as an Israeli. She is originally from Russia. She is like the Kylie Jenner or Charli D'amelio of Israel.
Highlighting Mizrahi artists
This is music coming from Middle Eastern communities like- Yemen, Iran, Iraq and is different than Ashkenazi (European) and Sephardic sounding music (Spanish and North Africa). If you read my other pieces on Israel, you'll know I cover the history, and many Mizrahi Jews were forced to leave their homes and many either went to Israel or the United States. Half the population in the 70s was from Mizrahi Jews although unfortunately they weren't accepted as much as they should've been. They now are trying to reclaim their culture.
Omer Adam עומר אדם born in North Carolina to an Israeli Family. They moved back to Israel when he was a child. He like Netta and Nadav Guedj competed on the competition show called Kohav Nolad. He was almost 16 years old but since he technically lied on his application for the show and a blogger found out, he was disqualified. This didn't take away from his popularity though. Something interesting to note is even though he considers himself secular he won't perform on Shabbat, due to the spirit of the holiday to reset.
I would love to go to Tel Aviv for Pride and this song was the theme for the 2013 parade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMQw29nfzpg
Sheni Meshugaeim שני משוגעים, one of his big hits that has a pop sound that resonates with a young audience. It's about connecting with someone and running away from your problems.
A revolution of Joy. מהפכה של שמחה A popular wedding song.
You'll feel ready for a beach with Paradise פרדייז
Omer Adam performs Modeh Ani (prayer for waking up) beautifully.
Hopa
Hi Rak Rotza Lirkod
A-WA meaning Yes, is not your typical girl band, they are sisters and you can see how they dress, dance, and sing in their music videos they are paying tribute to their Yemenite roots. They use tunes they learned from their family, mostly from women as the men would go to synagogue to pray. They are also Moroccan and Ukrainian. My beloved for me, a song sung in Arabic topping Israeli charts and also doing well in other Arabic countries. They sing about lovers from the past. If you look at the comments on the video you'll see some from many places but this one stood out and I want to highlight it. "Most of Iraqis today, remember you with a sense of remorse and sadness for what happened in the past, you are the lost treasure of Iraq."
Orthodox artists Gad Elbaz and Nissim Black - They are both orthodox singers especially popular in the States. Gad comes from Israel and Nissim had an interesting journey and converted to Judaism. Nissim is a rapper and his parents were as well. Their hit song Hashem Melech 2.0 can be heard played at religious community celebrations. They also perform solo. I like Gad's song Save Me from my selfie with our addiction to our technology.
Learning the Alef-bet
If you went to Hebrew school or Jewish overnight camp you likely learned the Aleph-Beit from Naomi Shemer, she was one of Israels leading musicians/songwriters/poet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRXc8vjAHz4
In 2015 the Alef-bet song (Hosha'ana) got a makeover with a feminist spin. The artist Victoria Hanna reflected on her own Ulta-Orthodox upbringing when creating the music video. The video takes place in an all-girls religious class, she is dressed as a teacher and at some points a student in the video.
She is teaching the class how letters sound when you combine them with vowels and then she puts in parts of a sukkot prayer service with Mizrahi melodies (her dad is from Egypt). Traditionally boys were the ones to study Torah. A tradition was for a rabbi to place letters dripping in honey and for the student to taste the honey from the letters to begin sweetness in the Torah study. Similar to the tradition of dipping apples in honey at the start of the Jewish (sweet) new year. When the music video reverses the honey it's almost like the artist is trying to go back in time and show that girls can study too!
American Jewish artists/singers
Matisyahu- Although American, Reggae singer Matisyahu has many songs connected to religion and Israel. He has changed his look significantly over the years. He went from a secular nonobservant Jew to Hasidic Orthodox back to secular again. He's had a long beard, to short hair to a hippy ponytail, and even added some ear piercings as of recent.
One Day- This song expresses hope for peace around the world, especially in the Middle East. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRmBChQjZPs
Jerusalem- Symbolism in this video uses images from the Holocaust and The Civil Rights Movement to create an image of the Western Wall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ULIw0Zgaw
Sunshine- A feel-good song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_Vt4MlbM0c
Maccabeats
They are an all-male funny American Orthodox a-cappella group. They formed at Yeshiva University. I even met them when they toured.- LOL here is the evidence.
Their original Hanukkah song, "Candlelight" likely is what put them on the map and helped them land on Good Morning America and all over social media. They followed it up with songs on other holidays. Some covers and others originals.
A classic Passover song, "Dayenu" with a fun twist.
We love Les Mis and the retelling of the Passover story.
Pitch Perfect cups song meets Shabbat (D'ror Yikra).