Lovely Rita, American star?
Everyone knows Rita, the longtime queen of Israeli song. But even she was surprised when a remake of one of her hits “Bo,” that she recorded in English a couple years ago suddenly began popping up on American Top 40 playlists over the last few months.
The buzz around the song – “Love Has Begun” – became so loud that US trade magazine New Music Weekly named Rita as ‘Top 40 Breakthrough Artist for 2009′ in its recently released list of winners.
“It’s funny and a bit weird. I didn’t expect it at all, it’s something I really didn’t think about,” Rita told The Jerusalem Post this week as she prepared to travel to the US for a series of shows next month.
The song was recorded at the behest of a longtime American friend of Rita’s, Florida-based attorney Arnold Beizer. From what I can gather, Beizer, the director of the US non-profit organization Let Freedom Ring which focuses attention on US veterans allegedly still being held in Vietnam, is also a Bible Codes scholar and involved in other activities.
He took Rita into a studio and recorded “Love Has Begun” and a cover of Bette Midler’s Wind Beneath My Wings” and brought them back to Florida where producer Carlo Pennizi remixed them and added more contemporary accompaniment.
Meanwhile, Rita had forgotten all about it, and was surprised in recent months to find out that the song, which appeared on an album of the same name that Beizer and Pennizi compiled with other singers, was charting in some radio station across the US.
Hot on the heels of her well-received performance in Jerusalem earlier this month for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berloscuni, Rita’s headed for a short US tour, which begins March 13, and includes two shows in New York and one each in Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles.
Focusing on her latest album Remazim, Rita has performed the well-received show over 200 times in Israel and abroad. But this time in the US, interspersed with the expat Israelis, maybe there’ll be a few new American fans of Rita, who may not even know she’s Israeli.
Recruiting Yossi to explain Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Social Justice
Talk about putting your best foot forward. Yuli Edelstein, the Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, has decided that Israel’s greatest asset in stating her case on the world’s stage is the average Israeli citizen.
His ministry has launched Masberim Israeli (roughly translated as ‘Explaining Israel’), a citizens’ campaign aimed at equipping the average Yossi with the information needed to present a positive, modern version of Israel to visitors and when they travel abroad.
TV ads have already started airing that portray an exaggerated view of how some of the world perceives Israel – most of us ride camel and barbecue kebab outside because we don’t have kitchens.
The voiceover in Hebrew then proclaims: “Are you fed up with how they portray us in the world? You can change the picture.”
The Christian Science Monitor reported that other videos featured on the new website, include a French-language clip of an announcer describing an Israel in which bombs are exploding in the streets of every city.
“My call upon Israelis is not to become world experts on United Nations resolutions, or to explain the policy of the Netanyahu government. What really worries me is the distorted image of Israel that an average person gets,” says Edelstein in a phone interview from London. The program was launched after six months of research in which, he says, the ministry discovered that Israelis are unhappy about their image abroad, and that 85 percent of respondents said they’d like to work to change it.
The program has a budget of about $1.5 million, includes a focus of helping Israelis explain and present a “normal” picture of Israel when they go abroad. This will include training for delegations of average people who are not diplomats – such those headed for sports meets, student conferences, municipal symposia, or business gatherings.
“We already have 70 workshops scheduled in which we will address the issue of how to deliver the message, how to avoid shouting and arguing,” Edelstein explains. “This is very important. Israelis sometimes have this image of being, you know, loud and arrogant.”
I think that if the only result of the program is to get some Israelis to stop being loud and arrogant, then it will be worth every shekel being spent on it. But somehow, I don’t see Moshe, my corner grocer, or Shimon, my car mechanic, suddenly evolving into public diplomats for Israel. Not when they’re so busy grilling kebab and tuning up their camels…
Idan Raichel project salutes Jerusalem
Two years ago, Israel’s capital introduced the “Jerusalem Card” which provides discounts on a whole range of Jerusalem attractions – from restaurants and museums to music performances and even discounts on parking and taxis. We bought ours at the opening to the annual Hutzot HaYotzer arts and crafts festival for NIS 60 (around $16) and it’s paid for itself many times over.
Last night, the city decided to celebrate the card’s birthday with a festive concert featuring the Idan Raichel Project at Jerusalem’s International Congress Center. Card holders got in for only NIS 50 ($13) instead of the non-resident price of NIS 140 ($37). In an age when concerts by big names are going for hundreds of shekels, this was a can’t miss deal.
That, apparently, was what half the city seemed to think too. The concert was sold out within hours of tickets going on sale and the performance hall was packed.
Raichel is one of Israel’s most unique talents. Bursting onto the local music scene in 2002, he’s assembled an 11-piece band composed of performers from around the world that sings in Amharic, Spanish, Arabic, English and, of course, Hebrew. Flute, sax, oud and mandolin could all be heard, along with a unique percussion instrument that involved pouring water into buckets. It’s true world music…with a rock beat.
The crowd was a unique Jerusalem mix of young and old, completely covered up religious and scantily clad secular. It was encouraging to see the way that music can bring together an increasingly polarized population.
That may have been due in part to Raichel’s multi-cultural and pluralistic emphasis. He punctuated the 2 hour plus concert with anecdotes about the texts he uses for his songs, many of which come from Biblical sources and have double meanings – love stories about longing for God that at the same time year for a more physical partner.
Perhaps the most poignant moment came when Raichel recounted the band’s performance earlier this year for Martin Luther King Day with U.S. President Barack Obama in attendance. On his return to Israel, though, he received a call about several young children under the age of four dying from cancer. His father picked him up at the airport and they immediately drove to the hospital.
The concert in the U.S., by comparison, Raichel realized, was all “shtuyiot” (“unimportant” or “nonsense” in Hebrew). He then proceeded to play an emotional ballad that had the crowd alternately cheering and crying.
Our Jerusalem Card is due to expire soon. There’s no question that we’ll renew it.
You can watch a clip from the concert above or click this link.
Israel’s size becomes an issue
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Travel
It may be that frigid winter up there freezes the brain into thinking about nothing but sex, but our Canadian friends of Israel seem to have gone off the deep end, with a new campaign on universities to promote Israel.
‘Size Doesn’t Matter’ is the name of the campaign and web site that is touting many of the same things we do here at ISRAEL21c and Israelity – Israel’s diversity, innovation and achievements and how the tiny country is contributing to make the world a better place.
The site includes a blog, a selection of photographs of Israeli personalities and places, and a listing of campus activities that Size Doesn’t Matter is hosting throughout the year.
However, their first oral, er… I mean viral effort at trying to attract the attention of Canadian university students relies more on ‘spring break’-like wink and nod innuendo than any particular factual information.
Which, I guess, may be a smart move in order to attract a crowd. But on what level do we have to stoop to portray Israel positively? Even YouTube has censored this one for an 18-year-old plus audience. Check it out here.
The Hilton lottery
Filed under: Blogging, Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture
It seems that the Israeli Lottery thinks people will buy more lottery tickets if they will get to go on a shopping spree with socialite Paris Hilton.
A number of celebrity blogs are talking about Hilton’s latest celebrity turn, as she was spotted filming a commercial on the streets of New York City for Mifal Hapayis, also known as ‘Lotto’ or Israel Lottery.
Wearing a leopard print coat and carrying many bags, the sense is that the winner will get to shop on Madison Avenue, although that is completely unconfirmed. They might just be heading to Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff, Kikar HaMedina, Sheinkin and Gan Hachashmal for some Sabra duds.
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