Daklon
Encyclopedia
Daklon is the nickname of an Israel
i musical artist Yosef Levy. He was born in 1944 in Tel Aviv
's Kerem Hateimanim (Yemenite) neighborhood, as a son of Jewish-Yemeni immigrants from the Shar'ab region in Yemen.
As Daklon explains the source of his nickname: "In those days everyone in the Kerem had a nickname. Your given name was only good for your ID. As a kid I was very small and thin, almost skinny (Hebrew: דק, dak; daq). Therefore they called me Daklon."
For many Israelis, Daklon is the epitome of Israel
i roots music. He started his musical career as an 11-year-old when his teacher sent him to do a spot for a religious music radio show. "They taped the show on Wednesdays on one of those great big tape recorders and they broadcast it on Fridays. We all sat around the radio listening to it at home. My parents were so proud of me. I was a local superstar," he laughs.
Daklon was first inspired to take his music more seriously by Morocco
-born singer Joe Amar at the end of the 1950s. "Joe Amar started singing all those eastern songs but it didn't catch on so he left Israel," he explains. Daklon says he stepped into the breach. "In the Sixties we took Greek and Indian songs which were very popular here then and put Hebrew words to them. I, as a Yemenite, took over from the Greeks," he muses.
Daklon took Greek
and India
n songs and put Hebrew words to them in the 1960s when his career was launched. He is famed for his performances with Yemenite virtuosos Haim Moshe
and Avihu Medina
.
Daklon songs are usually themed on his love for the land of Israel
and the God of Israel
. Daklon's music draws on centuries of Hebrew poetry and musical traditions of the Yemenite Jews
.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i musical artist Yosef Levy. He was born in 1944 in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
's Kerem Hateimanim (Yemenite) neighborhood, as a son of Jewish-Yemeni immigrants from the Shar'ab region in Yemen.
As Daklon explains the source of his nickname: "In those days everyone in the Kerem had a nickname. Your given name was only good for your ID. As a kid I was very small and thin, almost skinny (Hebrew: דק, dak; daq). Therefore they called me Daklon."
For many Israelis, Daklon is the epitome of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i roots music. He started his musical career as an 11-year-old when his teacher sent him to do a spot for a religious music radio show. "They taped the show on Wednesdays on one of those great big tape recorders and they broadcast it on Fridays. We all sat around the radio listening to it at home. My parents were so proud of me. I was a local superstar," he laughs.
Daklon was first inspired to take his music more seriously by Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
-born singer Joe Amar at the end of the 1950s. "Joe Amar started singing all those eastern songs but it didn't catch on so he left Israel," he explains. Daklon says he stepped into the breach. "In the Sixties we took Greek and Indian songs which were very popular here then and put Hebrew words to them. I, as a Yemenite, took over from the Greeks," he muses.
Daklon took Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n songs and put Hebrew words to them in the 1960s when his career was launched. He is famed for his performances with Yemenite virtuosos Haim Moshe
Haim Moshe
Haim Moshe born 1956)is an Israeli singer whose musical style has crossed over from Yemenite and Mediterranean "ethnic" music to include mainstream Israeli and western pop elements. He has helped Mizrahi music achieve wide popularityboth in Israel...
and Avihu Medina
Avihu Medina
Avihu Medina is an Israeli composer, arranger, songwriter, and singer of Mediterranean Israeli music.-Biography:Medina is the third son of Aaron and Leah Medina. His mother's family immigrated in 1906 and she was born in Jerusalem, and his father immigrated to Israel from Yemen in 1939 when it was...
.
Daklon songs are usually themed on his love for the land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
and the God of Israel
Tetragrammaton
The term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
. Daklon's music draws on centuries of Hebrew poetry and musical traditions of the Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
.