Lovely Rita, American star?

February 25, 2010 - 11:50 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Music, Pop Culture 

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.

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“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.

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Rally in Tel Aviv

August 9, 2009 - 11:24 AM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life 

(Photo: Reuters/ Ronen Zvulun)

(Photo: Reuters/ Ronen Zvulun)

It makes you proud to live here. Last night, over 20,000 people gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to express solidarity with the gay community, a week after a gunman killed two people at a center for gay youth.

“The bullets that hit the gay community at the beginning of the week struck us all as people, as Jews, as Israelis … criminals will not set our agenda,” said President Shimon Peres from the podium. “The Creator of the world did not endow anyone with the power to murder his peer.”

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai also spoke at the rally, saying that “we thought that in Tel Aviv-Yafo… we had created an open and accepting society for our children.”

Police still have the case under a gag order, and have not revealed a motive for the shooting. Speculation ranges from it being a hate crime against gays to a personal attack, either by a father of one of the center’s patron’s or perhaps a scorned romantic involvement. Outspoken activists were quick to point fingers at conservative, religious legislators for creating an environment that would enable the attack to occur, but there’s been no evidence released tying in any religious aspects to the shooting.

Last Saturday, a masked gunman burst into a community centre for gay teenagers in Tel Aviv and shot dead Nir Katz, 26-year-old, and a 16-year-old Liz Trubeshi. Thirteen other people were wounded.

Vigils have been held at cities around the world for the victims, and last night, several musicians and entertainers appeared at the Tel Aviv rally, including Rita, Dana International, Ninette Tayeb, Amir Fay Guttman, Keren Peles, Corinne Alal and Ivri Lider.

Would it better if if turned out that the shooter was targeting gays out of hate, or if it was simply a random mass shooting, the kind that takes place in the US on a weekly basis, like last week’s ramapage at a fitness center in Pennsylvania? Both scenarios are kind of horrific, and neither bode well for Israeli society.

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