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.