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When most musicians say that they had a musical childhood, what they normally mean is that they spent two weeks in the recorder club or had a couple of piano lessons if they’re really being honest. This is very much not the case for Yael Naïm, as a couple of years after moving with her family to Israel when she was four, she joined the Israel Defence Force as a soloist in the Israeli Air Force Orchestra. I’m sure you’ll agree that that’s some heavy stuff, but all the same singing shortly became her passion, and once she came of age she began her singing career in musical theatre. After spending a couple of months playing a role in the musical Les Dix Commandments, she signed a record deal with EMI and recorded her first album in Los Angeles. The record was released in 2001 but wasn’t an enormous success, so she was dropped from the label and in 2003, Naïm moved from Israel to her home city of Paris.
In 2005, she began a musical partnership with David Donatien, a Parisian percussionist, and over the next two years they worked on the songs that would become Naïm’s self-titled second album. The record was released in 2007 and became a huge hit in her home country, charting at number 11 on the French Album charts, but the best was yet to come for Naïm. Near the end of 2007, Steve Jobs hand-picked her song “New Soul” to feature in the adverts for Apple’s latest laptop, the MacBook Air. The commercial aired in January 2008, and a mere month after it debuted, the digital sales of the song alone saw it hurtle into the Billboard Hot 100 at number nine, before peaking at number seven a week later. Naïm’s career was well and truly made after that, and ever since then she’s remained a cult hero to many music fans all over the world, and a star in her native France. In all, she comes highly recommended.
Live reviews
Yael Naïm is a French singer and songwriter, who first became well noticed in 2008 in the US with the single 'New Soul', which was actually used by Apple in one of their adverts for their MacBook Air, which is where I mostly recognised the song from originally. It got to number 7 as well on the Billboard Hot 100. She has quite an interesting back-story, which includes serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a soloist in their orchestra. Her first solo album was called 'In a Man's Womb', which was released in 2001, and despite it's strange name it did quite well for her, leading to bigger and better things. She went on to join up with percussionist David Donatien to continue to create music together. The duo recorded 13 songs in France together over a 2-year period that they released as part of her second album in 2007. The songs actually include a mix of French, English and Hebrew in them and the album reached number 11 in the French album chart after it's release date. She is not someone who I'd rush to see at a huge venue, but she is very talented and has uniqueness to her voice that is enchanting. When she's on stage I'd say she even comes across slightly shy, but just her and her Ukulele could capture an audience’s attention, which takes a lot of skill. Someone who I’d say you should look out for.
ehubb93
French born Yael Naim came across my radar probably the same way she came across other Americans…an Apple commercial. Her song “New Soul” was used for the release of one of their new products, and having heard it so many times on television, I went online to check her out. Turned out that she was performing at a small venue in Los Angeles, so I decided to drag a friend out with me to see her perform. It turned out to be the perfect summer time show, mainly due to the venue being outdoors. The crowd was fairly small, and most didn’t know who she was. She took to the stage with her guitar and a percussionist, and started to play. Her music is perfect for this particular night, with the weather starting to cool down from the intense heat, giving you the opportunity to just sit back, relax and listen to good, mellow music. Her voice is delicate but not sleep inducing; in fact quite the opposite since her songs are mainly all upbeat. When she spoke she had a beautiful French accent, and she spoke quite frequently between songs as she would tune her guitar. She closed out the show with “New Soul,” and as soon as she started to sing it, you could tell that all of the people who didn’t know who she was became proud that they did in fact know who she was because they recognized the song.
Ellinoinsta
Israeli-French singer/songwriter Yael Naïm experienced the power of the American influence in 2008 when her alt-folk track 'New Soul' was featured in an Apple commercial and suddenly everybody wanted to know about this unassuming artist from Paris. Fortunately this did not change Yael's sound or mentality, after the success simmered down she carried on performing in a way before 'New Soul' became world recognised.
The humble artist has recorded three solo albums and a number of collaborations with David Donatien over her decade long career. The multi-instrumentalist picks her setlist well this evening as she selects some of her personal favourite material and fan favourites such as 'Toxic'. She performs everything with a similar endearment and charm that is pretty hard to personify until you see her. She acknowledges the madness of 'New Soul' before performing with ukulele and takes a deserved bow as the fans rain down applause on her.
sean-ward
Where do I start? Well, I discovered Yael Naim a few years ago while I was in a small coffee shop in París. I love it from the first time a heard her. So, I started to follow her. I moved recently to the South of France. When I saw she was having a concert in Lyón, I did not think it twice to buy tickets and go see her live!
Is has been the best decision ever! If she is already good in her cd's, she is ten times better in live! After this wonderful concert I have become a real fan!
The venue was amazing because it was a small, intimate and cozy just perfect to enjoy Yael Naim. She was so humble and nice during the concert. Also, she made jokes that I did not understand because I don't speak french but the public was laughing.
After the concert, she came to the bar to sign autographs and speak to her followers. She seem so cool and relax :)
I really recommend to go to a concert of Yael Naim if you have it near.
daniela-buscaglia-ca
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