Mizrahi music
Encyclopedia
Mizrahi music refers to the music integration that combines elements from Europe, the West, and Middle Eastern/North African countries transported to Israel by migrating Jews. It is usually sung in Hebrew, literary Hebrew and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 slang. The literal translation of Mizrahi from Hebrew is "Eastern".

Background

Israeli Jews from the Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa who have over the last 50 years created a unique musical style that combines elements of Arabic, Turkish, and Greek music. This is not to be confused with the New Hebrew Style, which was the conscious creation of Eastern European immigrants trying to define their new Israeli identity, the Mizrahit style is spontaneous and indigenous. Initially met with hostility by the mainstream cultural institutions of Israel, it has now become a major force in Israeli music culture.

After World War II, many Jewish families moved to the new state of Israel, created in 1948. The Muzika Mizrahit movement started in the 1950s with homegrown performers in neighborhoods with a high concentration of Jews from Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa who would play at weddings and other events. They performed songs in Hebrew, but in an Arabic style, on traditional Arabic instruments—the oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...

, kanun
Kanun (Instrument)
The Qanun is a string instrument found in the 10th century in Farab in Turkestan...

, and the darbuka. In the 1960s, they added acoustic and electric guitar to their sound and so their sound became more eclectic. Vocalists usually decorated their singing with trills
Trill (music)
The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....

, and delivery was often nasal or guttural in sound. Intonation was typically Western, however; singers did not use the quartertone scales typical of Arabic music. Into the 1980s synthesizers and electronic instruments made their debut in Mediterranean Israeli music. ").

Lyrics were originally texts taken from classic Hebrew literature, including poems by medieval Hebrew poets. Later they added texts by Israeli poets, and began writing original lyrics as well. An example is the song "Hanale Hitbalbela" (Hannale was confused), sung by Yizhar Cohen. The lyrics are by the modern Israeli poet and lyricist Natan Alterman, to a traditional tune. Singers also translated childhood favorites from Arabic to Hebrew and added electronics and a faster tempo.

The 1970s and onward

Two of the first popular Mizrahi musicians was Zohar Argov
Zohar Argov
Zohar Argov was a popular Israeli singer and a distinctive voice in the Mizrahi music scene.- Background :The most serious hurdle on the way to stardom was Argov's socioeconomic background. He was born in Rishon LeZion, and grew up in a poor family, the eldest of ten children...

 from Rishon LeZion 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...

. Argov grew up singing in his synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

 and a very defined Middle Eastern melisma. His defining Mizrahi hit was Haperah BeGani (פרח בגני) ("Flower in my Garden"). After his suicide he became an icon in Israel for what happens when one is cheated by society and a political activist. A play ha-Melekh was written about his life story, portrayed his fall to drugs and his troubles with the law. It was extremely popular.

Avihu Medina was a singer and composer. He composed many popular hits for Argov. Women also began to play a significant part in popular Mizrahi music. A popular artist was Zehava Ben
Zehava Ben
Zehava Ben is one of the most popular Israeli female vocalists in the Mizrahi music genre; the Middle Eastern-style of singing rising from Israel's Mizrahi Jewish population, dominating Israeli music in the 1990s and popular ever since.-Early life:...

. Because of her ties to Morocco and the Middle East she began her career singing Umm Kulthum. .

Because Mediterranean Israeli music was so popular within the Eastern Jewish communities, which were quickly becoming a large percentage of Israel, the natural outcome would be a continuous playback on the local radio station. However the national government restricted the play of Mizrahi music because it was not considered ‘authentic Israeli.’ The social researcher, Sami Shalom Chetrit, wrote "The educational and cultural establishment made every effort to separate the second generation of eastern immigrants from this music, by intense socialization in schools and in the media,".

The penetration of Muzika Mizrahit into the Israeli mainstream was the result of pressure by Mizrahi composers and producers such as 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...

, the overwhelming, undeniable popularity of the style, and the gradual adoption of elements of Muzika Mizrahit by popular Israeli artists. Yardena Arazi, one of Israel's most popular stars, made a recording in 1989 called "Dimion Mizrahi" (Eastern Imagination), and included original materials and some canonical Israeli songs.

The acceptance of Muzika Mizrahit, over the 1990s, parallels the social struggle of Israelis of Sephardic and Mizrahi origin to achieve social and cultural acceptance. "Today, the popular Muzika Mizrahit has begun to erase the differences from rock music, and we can see not a few artists turning into mainstream. This move to the mainstream culture includes cultural assimilation," writes literary researcher and critic Mati Shmuelof.

It is a widely accepted fact by now that the invention of the recordable cassette by the Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

 Corporation and the commercial cassette distribution network in the Tel Aviv train station had a large impact on the popularity of Mediterranean Israeli music. Cassettes allowed the Mizrahi population create and distribute their own music within their communities. They also allowed for more musical integration. One could have Umm Kulthum and a neighbor who is an emerging singer.
Cassette tapes were a predominant factor in the growth of Mediterranean Israeli music in the 1970s. After first being a favorite at community celebrations, such as weddings and birthdays, the recording of one particular wedding party became a desired commodity in the Mizrahi ma'abarot ("transit camp"). These cassettes are what caused ethnomusicologist Amy Horowitz to start researching this blossoming new music style.

"It all started with my wedding,” says Asher Reuveni "I didn't have a real wedding with a band and dancing and drinking till the morning. My wife's brother was killed in the [1973 Yom Kippur] War. Our happiness was shattered and we married in a quiet way in the offices of the Rabbinate. My friends promised that when the day comes, three months later, they will make it up to me with a real hafla [“party”]. They brought the original Oud Band from Kerem Ha’Teymanim, with Daklon and Ben Mosh. Close to sixty people squeezed into my mother’s little living room, three by four meters, and Daklon and Ben Moshe played and sang songs from our fathers’ home.” [Horowitz 1984]

After Reuveni’s friends and neighbors started offering to buy the cassettes he realized he might have a great opportunity on his hands. He and his brother later went on to become one of the major Mizrahi cassette companies in Israel.

Fusion genres

During time fusions of Mizrahi music with other genres emerged, including oriental rock, hip hop and pop.

Rock Mizrahi

Rock Mizrahi ("oriental rock") is an Israeli musical style combining rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 with middle eastern instruments, compositions and singing techniques. The outcome usually resemble progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

. Lead musicians in this genre are Orphaned Land, Knesiyat Hasekhel
Knesiyat Hasekhel
Knesiyat Hasekhel is an Israeli rock band from Sderot.Their name is a translation into Hebrew of Church of Reason, from Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance....

, Algir (and lead singer Aviv Guedj) and Dudu Tassa. The song "Shtika" by Aviv Geffen
Aviv Geffen
Aviv Geffen is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, keyboardist and guitarist. He is the son of writer and poet Yehonatan Geffen and Nurit Makover, brother of actress Shira Geffen, and an alumnus of Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.Geffen was and is extremely popular...

 and some works by Teapacks
Teapacks
Teapacks was an Israeli band that formed in 1988 in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Originally the band was named after the correction fluid Tipp-Ex, but the name was then changed so as not to infringe on the well-known brand....

 could also count though.

A closely related genre is oriental metal.

Today

Today music in Israel continues to change and encorporate the artist's home country and native styles. However, the search for authentic "Israeliness" is steps closer as time progresses.

Well known Mizrahi singers

  • Omer Adam
    Omer Adam
    Omer Adam is an Israeli singer. His music fuses elements of eastern "Mizrahi" and western pop instrumentation...

     (Kavkaz Jews)
  • Moshik Afia
    Moshik Afia
    Moshik Afia is a popular Israeli singer who sings in the Mizrahi style. He was born in Holon, Israel.-Selected discography:*A rain dripped- 1997 - גשם טפטף*A Story of love- 1998- סיפור אהבה*In my dreams- 1999- מתוך חלומותיי...

     (Lebanese Jew)
  • Dudu Aharon
    Dudu Aharon
    Dudu Aharon is a singer song writer, musician, and composer from Israel.Aharon is considered one of Israel's most prominent singers of Mizrahi Music in modern times . He is admired both as a singer and for the songs he writes for others . Aharon released his first album "First Love", in 2007...

      (Yemenite Jew) Official Website
  • Jo Amar (1930–2009) (Moroccan Jew)
  • Zohar Argov
    Zohar Argov
    Zohar Argov was a popular Israeli singer and a distinctive voice in the Mizrahi music scene.- Background :The most serious hurdle on the way to stardom was Argov's socioeconomic background. He was born in Rishon LeZion, and grew up in a poor family, the eldest of ten children...

     (1955–1987) (Yemenite Jew)
  • Rinat Bar (Georgian Jew)
  • Amir Benayoun
    Amir Benayoun
    Amir Benayoun is an Israeli singer-songwriter.-Biography:Benayoun was born in 1975 in Beersheba. His first album, "Rak Ath", was sold in 40,000 copies. after it, he created 11 other albums....

     (Moroccan Jew)
  • Daklon
    Daklon
    Daklon is the nickname of an Israeli musical artist Yosef Levy. He was born in 1944 in Tel Aviv's Kerem Hateimanim neighborhood, as a son of Jewish-Yemeni immigrants from the Shar'ab region in Yemen....

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Zehava Ben
    Zehava Ben
    Zehava Ben is one of the most popular Israeli female vocalists in the Mizrahi music genre; the Middle Eastern-style of singing rising from Israel's Mizrahi Jewish population, dominating Israeli music in the 1990s and popular ever since.-Early life:...

     (Moroccan Jew)
  • Yaniv Ben Mashiach (Western Sephardi)
  • Stalos and Oren Chen (Greek Jews)
  • Dana International
    Dana International
    Sharon Cohen , professionally known as Dana International is an Israeli pop singer of Yemenite Jewish ancestry. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums, positioning herself as one of Israel's most successful musical acts ever...

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Tamir Gal (Libyan Jew/Druze
    Druze
    The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

    : Israeli
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

     Jewish mother, Druze
    Druze
    The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

     father)
  • Eyal Golan
    Eyal Golan
    Eyal Golan, , is a popular Israeli singer who sings in the Mizrahi style. Golan is one of the most successful singers of the Mizrahi genre in Israel...

     (Yemenite/Moroccan Jew)
  • Zion Golan
    Zion Golan
    Zion Golan , also known as Tzion Golan, is an Israeli singer of Yemeni origin.-Background:Most of Golan's songs are in Yemeni Arabic. Many songs are from Yemen and are also sung by contemporary Yemeni singers. He also sings some songs in the ancient Yemeni dialect of Hebrew.-Personal life:Golan was...

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Ofra Haza
    Ofra Haza
    Ofra Haza was an Israeli singer of Yemeni origin, an actress and international recording artist....

      (1957–2000) (Yemenite Jew)
  • Pini Hadad
  • Sarit Hadad
    Sarit Hadad
    Sarit Hadad is an acclaimed Israeli singer. She stems from a musician family with both origins in the Tunisia and Caucases...

     (Juhuro)
  • Regev Hod (Lebanese Jew)
  • Nati Levi  (Yemenite Jew
  • Ofer Levi  (Kurd Jew
  • Shir Levi  (Yemenite Jew)
  • Yishai Levi
    Yishai Levi
    Ishay Levi is an Israeli musician, one of the valued artists of Mizrahi music in Israel.-Biography:...

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Bo'az Ma'uda
    Bo'az Ma'uda
    Boaz Mauda is an Israeli singer and songwriter. He won the fifth season of Kokhav Nolad, the Israeli version of Pop Idol, and represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, finishing in 9th place....

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • 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...

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Lior Narkis
    Lior Narkis
    Lior Narkis is a male Israeli singer. He was born to a mixed Iraqi and Serbian Jewish family.-Music career:...

     (Serbian/Iraqi Jew)
  • Kobi Peretz
    Kobi Peretz
    Kobi Peretz , also Koby Perez, is a popular Israeli singer who sings in the Mizrahi style. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Kobi comes from a big family, being the youngest of 10 siblings. After his one hit wonder Balbeli Oto , He sang in major concerts...

     (Moroccan Jew)
  • Moshe Peretz
    Moshe Peretz
    Moshe Peretz is an Israeli Mizrahi Pop singer-songwriter and composer. He was born on May 10, 1983 in Tiberias.-Biography:Born in Tiberias To a Moroccan-Iraqi Jewish family....

      (Moroccan/Iraqi Jew)
  • Yehuda Saado
    Yehuda Saado
    Yehuda Saado is an Israeli singer and the winner of the third season of the Israeli music competition program Kokhav Nolad.-Career:...

  • Shlomi Shabat
    Shlomi Shabat
    Shlomi Shabat is a popular Israeli singer, musician, and artist who sings in the oriental Mizrahi style. He comes from a sephardic family that immigrated from Turkey, and sings in Hebrew, Turkish, and Spanish.-Musical career:...

     (Turkish Jew)
  • Sharif
    Sharif
    Sharīf or Chérif is a traditional Arab tribal title given to those who serve as the protector of the tribe and all tribal assets, such as property, wells, and land. In origin, the word is an adjective meaning "noble", "highborn". The feminine singular is sharifa...

     Israeli
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

     (Druze
    Druze
    The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

    )
  • Shimi Tavori
    Shimi Tavori
    Shimi Tavori is an acclaimed Israeli singer. He performs in Hebrew and French.-Biography:Shimi Tavori was born to a Yemenite Jewish family in Ness Ziona, Israel....

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Margalit Tzan'ani
    Margalit Tzan'ani
    Margalit Tzan'ani , also known as Margol, is an Israeli singer and television personality. Tzan'ani is famous for her repertoire of Israeli oriental music style with soul influences, as well as jazz, blues, rock, pop and Arab music.-Biography :...

     (Yemenite Jew)
  • Idan Yaniv
    Idan Yaniv
    Idan Yaniv is an Israeli singer born in Tel Aviv to Bukharan Jewish parents. He has successfully recorded two albums with many popular singles from both albums. His debut single was "Hoshev Aleya" and it was a hit that generated a lot of attention in Israel and in other Jewish communities in the...

     (Bukharian Jew)
  • Sarit Yosef (Juhuro)

External links

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