Happy Novy God to Everyone Except Omer Adam

Happy Novy God! Happy Sylvester! It’s 2023 and It’s No Ibiza is BACK. Let’s get started.

How are YOU?

At the risk of giving him more publicity, we are nonplussed to report that the singer Omer Adam has decamped to Dubai indefinitely, citing the very justified public criticism of his lifestyle and often racist, misogynist music. Don’t worry, he’s taking his younger model girlfriend, Yael Shelbia, with him. (Yael Shelbia made headlines before when her rich American then boyfriend Brandon Korff, son of billionaire Shari Redstone, got deported from Israel after getting special permission to enter as a non Israeli citizen. Turns out he was not visiting his IDF soldier brother as Korff claimed he would. Rather, he just came to the Holy Land to hook up with Yael and flaunt all Covid restrictions in June 2020 as the pandemic raged and Israel was closed basically to all non citizens. But we digress.) 

Caption: Omer Adam (center) visiting Dubai in 2020, shortly after the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Before leaving, he made a surprise appearance during a Hanukkah concert in Tel Aviv to sing his parting song, unsurprisingly titled “Ani” (I), the topic about which Adam is most passionate. In the song he claims to be seeking peace after the “character assassination” he’s experienced (boo hoo), and complains that “all year I’ve just had to apologize.” Once the most popular singer in Israel, often dubbed “hazamar shel hamedina,” the singer laureate of Israel, Adam’s star began to fall with the 2021 release of the song “Kakdila” (we won’t link to it, but you can find an English analysis of the song here), which cruelly made fun of women immigrants from Russia, and continued its decline in the summer of 2022, after he headlined a concert in Yarkon Park in which he sang for a mere 58 minutes. 

Given that the UAE just urged the UN Security Council to discuss the visit of the new Israeli Foreign Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, to the Haram al-Sharif (also known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or, to people like Ben Gvir, as the Temple Mount), Adam’s move comes at a strange time in the nascent relationship between Israel and the Abraham Accords countries. Perhaps, as the Canadian-Israeli writer Matti Friedman put it, Adam’s little sojourn in Dubai will be just what the two countries need to repair their relationship.

Big Chanshi News!!!

CHANSHI IS GOING TO SUNDANCE AND YOU CAN TOO!  Chanshi will be making its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival–the first Israeli tv show to do so. Sundance is one of the most prestigious festivals where companies like Netflix, Hulu, etc. shop for shows for their networks–so this is a big deal! But most importantly for you, dear readers, is that this means you can watch the first four episodes–either in person, at Sundance (if this is you, email us please and bring us along) or virtually if you are located in the US from January 24-30. Details, including how to buy tickets, are here.  Can’t wait to see how the show is received and we hope the entire series is on American TV ASAP. The show is hilarious and sexy and as frum people love to say—STUNNING. Soon by you girl!  Chanshi for Ambassador, Chanshi for PM, Chanshi for President. 

1+1=2023

This holiday season has brought us a new collaboration that we didn’t know we needed between Israeli pop stars Netta Barzilai and Stéphane Legar. After teasing the collab on their social media for weeks, near the end of the year they released a new single, “Matematika” (Mathematics). The song, in Hebrew, French, and English, is a light, romantic story in dialogue, which the duo illustrated with a sexy music video featuring Netta (as she is popularly known) as a club dancer in lingerie and Legar (his stage name, a diminutive of Le Garçon, “the boy”)  demonstrating his extraordinary dancing talents in a skintight black leather outfit.

Netta, a singer best known for her 2018 Eurovision-winning song, and Legar, the multitalented son of Togolese diplomats who was born and raised in Israel and, somewhat unusually for non-Jewish immigrants, served in the IDF and earned Israeli citizenship, might seem like an unusual combination. But “Matematika” brings together two artists who, in their own ways, push the norms of Israeli culture and challenge popular images of what it means to be Israeli. While “Matematika” is, on the one hand, a fun and sexy song about a romantic relationship, it’s also illustrative of certain trends in contemporary Israeli culture represented by the popularity of artists like Netta and Legar.

Like much of both Netta’s and Legar’s other music, the song is multilingual - not incidentally, but as a feature of its narrative and flow. The three languages used in the song are used deliberately to describe a multicultural and multinational romance that is not inhibited by language barriers but enhanced by a certain global lingua franca. Travel, international landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and code-switching are all deployed as modes of attraction and methods of seduction. In this song, multilingualism is sexy, travel is worldly, and desire is mobilized simply by the mention of certain international touchstones: LA, the Champs Élysées, Jimmy Choo.

Both Netta and Legar are experienced at deploying the signs of a multicultural, globalized world as engines of popularity for their music. Netta’s Eurovision-winning song, “Toy,” is in English supplemented with a variety of unusual vocalizations that lie outside of any particular language. The message of the song also picked up on the girl-boss feminism of the 2010s, with its chorus of “I’m not your toy/you stupid boy,” references to Wonder Woman, and even its sole Hebrew words, “Ani lo buba,” which seem to refer back to the Israeli poet Dahlia Ravikovitch’s famous poem “Mechanical Doll.” The song also introduced Netta’s particular type of sexy self-confidence, delivered with consciousness that she does not conform to the typical stereotype of the skinny supermodel pop star.

Legar, who as a Black non-Jewish man quite evidently does not conform to the typical image of Israeli celebrity, has also traded on his nonconformity in his music. In one of his hits, “Naim Meod” (Nice to Meet You), he introduces himself as “the goy, the other, the national Black man” - in perfect Hebrew.* The whole song is a play on the fact of his belonging to Israeli society, beginning with a shot of him in his IDF uniform, confounding expectations of who is Israeli and who represents Israeli culture. 

“Matematika” is a recognition on the part of these two great artists that they are both on the cutting edge of an Israeli popular culture that increasingly looks outside of Israel for its inspiration and its influences, and is not tethered to Israeli cultural norms, Hebrew language, or social expectations. As Stéphane Legar says in “Naim Meod”: “They’re not ready for what’s coming.”

Robots, Coral Reefs, And Hamsas—Oh My!

If we were to cover all the pandemonium that the Masked Singer has unleashed just this season alone, we would need another newsletter. But here’s a few highlights. We’d also like to thank our Masked Singer Correspondent Amy Spiro for all the screenshots and keeping us informed. By the way, Netta says she’s not the chick, and she’s offended you thought so. 

1. Static’s ex wife, Sarit Pollak, was revealed to be the ROBOT. This was filmed while they were still married, but this revelation of course caused everyone to lose their minds and speculate if this meant they were getting back together. No, they are not, but no worries–Sarit says they are still good friends!

2. The CORAL REEF  (yes, that’s a costume) was revealed to be Dudu Fisher. Dudu Fisher is a chazan to the stars, Broadway actor, and has released over 25 albums. He performs in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. So what the hell is he doing on a reality TV show? Well, he does have a good voice. But more importantly, due to a messy personal life which includes two divorces, including one to his much younger agent (yikes), he apparently is in need of some cash. We suspect this is the reason for his Masked Singer appearance, but hey–we aren’t mad about it. Dudu Fisher also cameoed in Sisu V’Simkhu, a criminally underrated Kann comedy about the IDF military rabbinate that Shayna is OBSESSED with. Are we in the midst of a Dudu Renaissance? We sure hope so. He’s the cantor/singer/coral reef we could all use right now. 

That black kippah on his head is so great. We think Herzl would be proud. 

3. Rudely, there are not as many uniquely Israeli/Jewish costumes this season. (Justice for the Rugelakh.) But the one this season is so wacky that it almost makes up for it. Behold, the Hamsa!!!  Everyone’s favorite palm shaped amulet, popular all over the Middle East and in Jewish, Muslim, and Arab culture.  Hamsa comes from the Arabic word for five, and is sometimes called the hand of Fatima.  In Israel, it’s often associated with Moroccan Jews. Saying  “Hamsa Hamsa Hamsa” is sort of like saying knock on wood or kein ayin hara, warding off the evil eye The first flight from Israel to Morocco was appropriately named Flight 555. We have no idea who the Hamsa is yet, but that costume is definitely going to haunt our dreams. 

Finally, there’s a “couples” costume for the first time, a king and queen. Shayna’s guess is that they are Rami and Rita. Melissa’s tongue-in-cheek guess would be Bibi and Sara. Have any other guesses for us? Leave them in the comments. Hamsa Hamsa Hamsa indeed. 

Until Next Time,

Shayna and Melissa

*Thanks to attentive reader Stephen Belsky for noting that this line is “the national Black man,” perhaps nodding to his tokenization, not “the international Black man.”