Zahava Ben, Mizrahi Crossover
Outsider Singing In
"In the complex tangle of Sephardi-Ashkenazi relationships,
Zehava Ben comes off as something of a unique figure," writes Shai Tsur in the
Jerusalem Post.
Her recent work spans the "classical" Israel pop of the '50s and Arabic-language singing -- a unique blend at a time when other Sephardi singers are complaining of discrimination, writes Tsur.
Trance Comes To Town
A Jerusalem Post feature story
The Jerusalem Post reports on "A generational battle over 'trance' is pitting the music's young
fans against the police, who charge that it encourages drug abuse."
"Words are irrelevant, atavistic even, in the atmosphere created
by the electronic music blasting from the rally across the street in Kikar
Rabin - an insistent thumping like a colossal heartbeat shaking the center of
Tel Aviv, punctuated by the ascents and descents of some computer wizard
whose synthesized riffs explode on the brain with the impact of a flying
saucer taking off and landing."
Get intimate with Ben Artzi
Haaretz: Catch his club dates while you can
Ha'aretz's Gidi Avivi urges you to see Ben Artzi in small concerts while you still can. Comparing him not only to his father, Shlomo Artzi, but to "The Who" leader Pete Townshend, Avivi writes that "the jump from appearances in
small clubs to giant shows could also happen for Ben Artzi."
(
July 1)
The Divine Miss Dana
The Jerusalem Post Profile
The morning after Dana's Eurovision victory,
Allison Kaplan Sommer profiled Dana in
The Jerusalem Post.
While she has long since achieved icon status
in the Tel Aviv nightclub scene and national
notoriety through her string of hit songs,
Dana's fame has multiplied thanks to the
magnifying glass of international publicity.
But when she brought home the trophy last
night in Birmingham, England, the colorful
and flamboyant singer also won first place in
the race for media attention.
Perhaps nothing describes Dana International better than the opening line of
the song that she belted out to the world last night, to win the Eurovision Song Contest:
"There are some women who are simply larger than life."
Read the rest of the story
(
June 11)
Shemer and Artzi: The next generation
The two famous Israeli musicians each have a son ready to release their first album
"The Helicon record company knows that the more
than slight similarity between Ben Artzi (Shlomo Artzi's son) and Ariel
Orovitz (Naomi Shemer's son) will lead to inevitable comparisons, and
the label wishes to clarify that these are two different artists. Nevertheless, the hand of Udi Anis, in charge of signing Hebrew artists
at Helicon, is discernible in both albums," writes Michal Palti in
his
Ha'aretz profile of the two artists.
(
January 19)