Israeli music – not only in Hebrew: Mira Awad

Mira Awad has become familiar to the Israeli audience when she collaborated with Achinoam Nini (Noa) in the last Eurovision contest. In the 50 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, Mira is the first Arab chosen to represent Israel. Mira and Achinoam performed a catchy song , "There Must Be Another Way" written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, which led Israel to the finals. At the time, people on both sides were enraged demanding that the Mira and Achinoam withdraw, saying they were given a false impression of coexistence in Israel. As long time peace activists, both Achinoam and Mira expressed their surprise.



From what I've read about Mira Awad, this beautiful woman never rests. Mira is not only a singer, she's a song writer and an accomplished actress. She has played in "Arab Labor" a successful TV show about the life an Israeli Arab family, and its relations with Jewish Israelis (a very good show if you ask me!) and even made a guest appearance in the Israeli TV shopw Hasufim (the best Israeli soap opera to date). Mira also plays in the Israel theater (she's got great reviews for her recent performances), and in cinema: she participated In Eithan Fox's film The Bubble about the life of the gay community in Tel Aviv (Fox is also the creator of Yossi and Jagger and Walk on Water) .

Following the Eurovision contest, Noa and Awad released a collaborative album on May . On June, Mira has released her debut solo album, Bahlawan (circus girl). In the album, Awad combines western influences with classic Arabic music. Even though I don't speak Arabic, Mira's music touches me. I'm curious to see how the Israeli audience responds to these beautiful foreign sounds.

Enjoy this clip, Mira Awad sings as part of the Idan Raichel's Project

Israeli movies review: The Band's Visit

A few days ago I watched a very interesting Israeli movie called The Band's Visit (Bikur HaTizmoret), which I highly recommend. I don't need to praise any further that highly acclaimed movie that has already won dozens of international awards.

A small Egyptian police band arrives in Israel to play at an initiation ceremony. To their great dismay, no one is there to welcome them at the airport. The band tries to make their way to the Arab cultural center on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate development town, somewhere in the Israeli desert.

The first encounter between the Egyptian police officer and an Israeli woman introduces us to two opposite types of characters. When the officer asks the Israeli woman where the Arab cultural center is located, she firmly responds: "No Arab culture here, no Israeli culture, no culture at all". The Israeli is portrayed as informal with open in mannerism which may even come across as vulgar. The Arab is portrayed as polite, formal and refrained. The two visibly and drastically different individuals form a very unique friendship in the movie. As you might expect from the title, music as at the heart of the film; with great magic it binds people together. This only goes to show how art can create most unusual of human connections.

The Band's Visit was submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film Category in 2008. However, the films was disqualified by the Oscar committee because its dialogues were mostly in English. The irony is that the English spoken by the characters only further emphasizes how foreign these two cultures are to each other. This movies is another example at the dramatic progress that the Israeli cinema has made in the last decade. I'd definitely give us an Oscar!

Watch The Band's Visit trailer