Friday, July 13, 2007

Boaz Mauda video from Kochav Nolad (A Star Is Born)

Eva Broman pointed the Jewish Music mailing list to this cool video of Boaz Mauda performing on the Israeli TV Show Kochav Nolad (A Star is Born). I haven't followed Kokhav Nolad much. My impression has been that the performances are pretty much bland pop like American Idol. But, according to Broman, Mauda is a "Yemenite singer performing a song that has also been sung by Zohar Argov and Ofra Haza." While I find the arrangement a little flat (as I usually do for the American Idol type performances), Mauda sure can sing.

boaz mauda kochav nola 5 בועז מעודה כוכב נולד 5


The song that he's singing is Yad Anuga. According to the online sources I've found (including singer Esther Ofarim's website) Yad Anuga is a Zalman Shneur poem written in 1906 that migrated to Israel, was set to music (possibly twice) and became a standard pioneer song. Unfortunately, Hebrew Songs, my best source of English translations of Hebrew lyrics, seems to be down at the moment so I don't know what the song's about. That always bugs me, but what can you do. There are lots of recordings of Yad Anuga available from Ofarim, Ofra Haza, Amy Glicklich, and others.

Here's a Ofra Haza recording from the Fantasy Video Collection.

Ofra Haza - Yad Anuga


(Is it only me, but when the mirage fellow comes over the hill on horse back in full costume, didn't you want it to be Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran?)

Yay! HebrewSongs is back online. Here's a link to their translation and notes on Yad Anuga.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hiya Jack,

Glad to that you passed on my little tidbit on "Yad Anuga". You are right about "Kochav Nolad", it is a little bland. The contestants usually play it safe and tend to avoid overtly "ethnic" music, though many of them come from a Sephardi/Mizrahi background. Most of the songs are either classic Shirei Eretz Israel or older/contemporary pop or rock songs-which isn't that strange, maybe, when you consider that the contestants are all in their 20's. Ninet Tayeb did win with Zohar Argov's "Yam Shel Dmaot" in 2005, but I guess Zohar Argov has by now become part of "the all-Israeli songbook"! I loved Mauda's singing on "Yad Anuga", and I wish him all success in the competition!

Best, Eva Broman

Jack said...

Hi Eva,

Thanks for posting the video to the list. I don't have much of a sense of 'all-Israel songbook", but wish I did. Any idea where I could read about it / hear songs from it? I'm thinking, some top Israeli 100 singles or something like that.

Jack

Elizabeth said...

Hi,

I am an American who immigrated to Israael 2 years ago. I was doing a serch on Boaz Mauda (I'm just nuts for him!!!) His voice is amazing.

Keep learning about Israeli music I love it. Eventhough I still have a hard time understanding all the words, the melodies are so beautiful I feel I can understand so much.

I can recommend some singers if you like.

Shana tovah!!!!
Liz

Jack said...

Folks, Liz (author of the My So-Called Israeli Life blog) and I picked this conversation up over email. At some point I'm hoping to post a list of Liz's favorite Israeli singers. Stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

Hi again,

Here is, with some delay, a few Israeli artists that I enjoy. Most of them come from a Sephardi/Mizrahi background, but their music ranges from Israeli pop/rock to more ethnic sounds.

Boaz Sharabi-a Yemenite pop/rock and ethnic singer with many wonderful songs. Here is a classic one, performed together with David Broza:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuOUac-eNhU

Avner Gadassi, a Yemenite singer who made his debut in the 70's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84LW75oCRxk

Boaz Mauda won "Kochav Nolad" with a version of his song "Menagen veshar".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61AS00u3Kt0

Margalit Tzanani...the old school "malka" of Israeli female Mizrahi singers. She has got a unique, bluesy sound. Here she sings her big hit "Az ma"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjuAiklmv4s

Check out her "Chomot cheimar", again performed by Boaz Mauda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p1vODCIvj8

"Hamelech" Zohar Argov in a classic performance. With "Haperach Begani" he won the Oriental Song Festival in 1982:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UBLsSoEjaY

And his heir to the throne, Eyal Golan singing a somewhat "rockified" version of this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAxWboeF_9U

OK, I have to stop here, I'll be back with some more later on.

Best, Eva

Jack said...

Hi Eva, Thanks for the list. Great stuff. I hope you don't mind, but cut and pasted your email into a new blog post.