Gali Atari

Gali Atari

Avigail "Gali" Atari ( Hebrew גלי עטרי; * December 29, 1953 in Rechovot ) is an Israeli singer and actress . She gained international fame in 1979 through her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), which she won together with the Israeli pop group Milk & Honey . In the 1980s and 1990s she was named "Singer of the Year" several times in Israel. She has released more than 130 songs and her albums have won multiple silver and gold records in her home country .

Life

First appearances as a singer and actress

Gali Atari was born as the seventh and youngest child of Yemeni Jewish immigrants in the Sha'arayim district of Rechovot. Her father Shalom was a cantor in a synagogue and died when she was four years old. Her mother Naomi took care of the upbringing of the children and later trained as a social worker. Atari was to maintain a close relationship with her until her mother died. She grew up in modest circumstances and attended a religious school from the age of six. Three years later she switched to boarding school. Atari described herself as a shy, skinny girl who loved reading books. She later attended a city high school in Tel Aviv . Due to an overabundance of recruits, her class was exempted from compulsory Israeli military service. Atari's dream of working as a radio presenter after school did not come true. Her sisters Shoshana "Shosh" Atari (1950–2008) and Yona Atari (* 1934) would later embark on successful careers as radio and television presenter or singer and actress. Her brother Yossi worked as a scientist.

A musician friend recognized Atari's singing talent when she was 17 years old and recorded her first songs with her. Atari first attracted international attention as a singer in 1971 when she won the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo , where she represented Israel with the English-language title Give Love Away . She then moved to the United States at the age of 18, where she and her sister Yona found work as a showgirl in an off-Broadway musical and performed in clubs. Around this time, she changed her first name from Avigail to Gali , a nickname given to her by her sister Shosh. From 1974 Atari decided to pursue a career as a singer and returned to Israel. In addition to appearances at festivals, she moderated an Israeli children's program together with the later successful cabaret artist and actress Hanna Laslo and appeared in the Israeli television film Stella ( Hebrew סטלה). In 1976 Atari took part in the Japanese World Popular Song Festival again for Israel with the song The Same Old Game , for which her sister Shosh provided the lyrics .

After the success as a singer and actress failed to materialize, Atari earned her living from 1978 as a flight attendant for the Israeli airline El Al . A little later she made her debut as an actress in Israeli cinema with Gidi Gov with the part of Mali in Avi Nesher's feature film Ha-Lahaḳah (English-language title: The Troupe ) . Dubbed "' Chorus Line ' in Army Boots" by US critic Janet Maslin ( The New York Times ) , the film was set during the Six Day War and told the story of a group of soldiers who traveled to Israel and the army members performed musicals Tried to entertain numbers and stand-up comedy . Ha-Lahaḳah was a great success in Israel, reached 570,000 viewers and is now a cult film .

In the same year Atari took her first album Nesich ha-Chalomot ( Eng . "The dream prince") and stopped working as a flight attendant. Also in 1978 she took part in the Israeli preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) with the Hebrew title of the same name . After the Israeli ESC contributions had been determined internally until 1977, the public broadcaster IBA resorted to the traditional Hazemer Vehapizmon ( English Israeli Song Festival ) for the first time this year to determine the national participant. In the victory of the later ESC winner Izhar Cohen , Atari took third place with Nesich ha-Chalomot .

Victory at the Eurovision Song Contest

In 1979 she achieved international success as a singer. Atari and the band Milk & Honey ( Hebrew חלב ודבש, Halav u-devash) around Reuven Gvirtz, Yehuda Tamir and Shmulik Bilu won the Israeli ESC preliminary decision with the title Hallelujah by a large margin. In the previous year the song was rejected by the Israeli group Hakol Over Habibi . The Hebrew-language ballad, composed by Kobi Oshrat and written by Shimrit Orr, included all elements of the Eurovision recipe. Although the piece of music had no refrain , it had a memorable, "international" word that was repeated in almost every line, as well as a short symmetrical melody of sixteen bars that built up to a climax through constant changes in the structure. With the song "Gali Atari & Milk and Honey" won the 24th Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem in front of the Spaniard Betty Missiego and the former ESC winner Anne-Marie David from France.

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Hallelujah (with Milk & Honey )   DE 11 05/07/1979 (11 weeks)   AT 15th 05/15/1979 (12 weeks)   CH 2 04/15/1979 (9 weeks)   UK 5  silver 04/14/1979 (8 weeks)

Hallelujah became an international hit, was recorded by Atari and Milk & Honey in different languages ​​and sold over 4.5 million times in Europe. In the British singles charts, the title was able to hold its own for eight weeks, where it reached number five (Atari's name sometimes did not appear on the records sold by Polydor ). Although the Federal Republic of Germany did not award any points to the Israeli entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, the title stayed in the German airplay charts for 30 weeks , where it reached number one and number eleven in the sales charts.

Atari and the band members of Milk & Honey went on an international tour with their winning song for 18 months and prepared other songs in English, German and French. Meanwhile, the Israeli Song Festival was to continue from 1981 - after it had produced two international ESC winners - under the name Kdam Eurovision with success as the Israeli preliminary decision for the ESC.

After winning the Eurovision Song Contest, Atari was named Singer of the Year in Israel and Hallelujah was named Song of the Year. She also received an award for her role as a talented but insecure singer in Ha-Lahaḳah . Atari appeared again under the direction of Avi Neshers in the teenage comedy Drei unter'm Dach (1979) alongside Gidi Gov and Meir Suissa . In 1980 the formation "Gali Atari & Milk and Honey" broke up due to contractual disputes with the management. The legal battle, which involved misappropriated revenue and which Atari finally won, would drag on until 1994.

Resumption of the solo career

Atari in 1981

After separating from the group Milk & Honey , Atari pursued a solo career as a singer again from 1981. She released her second album Qach oti ha-Baita ( Eng . " Bring me home"), which sold 13,000 copies in her home country and brought her the awards for the best Israeli singer and the best production of the year. In the following years Atari began to work with rock music- oriented arrangers and producers. This culminated in 1986 in the successful album Emtza September ( Eng . "Mid September"), produced by Ilan Virtzberg and Yaakov Gilad. Atari tried to break away from its Eurovision image with soft rock arrangements and hoped, like the ESC participants Jardena Arasi and Ofra Haza , that their pop image could gain artistic credibility, seriousness and personal authenticity. “After the great success of 'Halleluyah' there was a low [...] I tried to get away from the Eurovision image. I was seen as a singer for the whole family, singing unmoved songs - and suddenly rock 'n' roll . I wanted to be freed from this artificial image [...] I wouldn’t record this kind of song anymore, ” said Atari in October 1987 in an interview with the Israeli daily Hadashot .

In 1988, the Hebrew-language album Tza'ad echad liphne ha-Nahar ( Eng . "One step before the river") followed, which was named album of the year in Israel with over 80,000 sales. Atari did not have to act ambitions as a songwriter and she worked at loading Reshit (1989; dt./ s. "Genesis") together with the writer Rahel Shapira. This album should sell 15,000 copies in Israel. "There are singers who write and those who don't, and I know I was not born to write [...] I was born to be a singer," Atari said in a 1989 interview with the Jerusalem Post .

In the early 1990s, Atari had to contend with personal blows of fate. Her mother died, and her marriage to a private investigator, who was due to be sentenced to six months in prison in 1993, was picked up by the Hebrew tabloids. At the same time, she split from her manager Solo Yorman after five years and was signed by Lilian Shutz, who usually included actors and opera singers among her clients. Even if she was unable to establish herself as a rock musician in her home country and did not have dynamic stage performances or advertising contracts, she found her niche in mainstream pop and regularly released records that occupied top positions in the Israeli sales charts. The 1991 published compilation Raq etmol ( Eng . "Just yesterday") reached the gold record with 20,000 records sold . The album Ba-jom she-achare ( Eng . “The day after”), for which Atari was again named “Singer of the Year” in Israel in 1992, also sold well.

Although Atari was unable to build on the international success of Hallelujah (for a long time she took the song from her repertoire), she is still active as a prominent member of the Israeli music scene today ( "The singing is in my bones and my soul and my stomach" ). In addition to various awards as "Singer of the Year" and winning silver and gold records, by 2001 she published over 130 songs. The compilation Ha-Schirim, she-javi'u lachem Ahava (dt. "The songs that bring you love"), which resulted from the show of the same name, sold over 30,000 copies in the same year, her tenth studio album Chabeq oti le'at (dt . "Hug me gently") 15,000 times.

In 2004 Atari appeared in the USA together with the pianist Marvin Goldstein and the Canadian-Arab singer Najwa Gibran in a series of concerts entitled Peace With Music . Two years later, Goldstein and Gibran were to be followed by further appearances in Haifa and Jerusalem. In 2008 she released her twelfth album Ben ha-Esch u-ven ha-Majim ( Eng . "Between Fire and Water"), which she dedicated to her sister Shosh, who died in the same year, and was written and composed by Sagiv Cohen. A year later, a best-of album followed, while their song Stav Yisraeli (Eng. "An Israeli Autumn") was able to place in the Israeli radio playlists .

Atari returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 and 2020. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv she sang Hallelujah during the break in the finals together with Måns Zelmerlöw (winner 2016 ), Conchita Wurst (winner 2014 ), Eleni Foureira (2nd place 2018 ) and Verka Serduchka (2nd place 2007 ). At the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 , a prepared music video by Atari was shown for the alternative special program Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light . In it she sang her ESC winning song again in front of the backdrop of the Citadel of David , this time with children of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest .

Gali Atari lives in Tel Aviv and has a daughter (* July 1996). She was married to the private detective Udi Hershovicz, a former employee of the Israeli secret service Shin Bet, for five years until 1994 . She appears sporadically as an actress in Israeli film and television. She has been in a relationship with restaurateur Yoram Erzine since 1999.

Discography

Solo albums

• 1978: Nesich ha-Chalomot ( Hebrew נסיך החלומות) ( Eng. "The dream prince")
• 1981: Qach oti ha-Baita ( Hebrew קח אותי הביתה) (Eng. "Get me home")
• 1984: Mamri'a ba-ruach ( Hebrew ממריאה ברוח) (Eng. "Lifting off with the wind")
• 1986: Emtza September ( Hebrew אמצע ספטמבר) (German "mid-September")
• 1988: Tza'ad echad liphne ha-Nahar ( Hebrew צעד אחד לפני הנהר) (Eng. "One step before the river")
• 1989: Be-reschit ( Hebrew בראשית) (Eng. "In the beginning" / "Genesis")
• 1991: Raq etmol ( Hebrew רק אתמול) (German "only yesterday")
• 1992: Ba-yom she-achare ( Hebrew ביום שאחרי) (Eng. "The day after")
• 1994: Simanim ( Hebrew סימנים) (German "character")
• 1998: Glida ( Hebrew גלידה) (Eng. "ice")
• 2003: Chabeq oti le'at ( Hebrew חבק אותי לאט) (Eng. "Hug me gently")
• 2008: Ben ha-Esch u-ven ha-Majim ( Hebrew בין האש ובין המים) (Eng. "Between fire and water")

Compilations

• 1991: Raq etmol ( Hebrew רק אתמול) (German "only yesterday")
• 2001: Ha-Shirim, she-javi'u lachem Ahava ( Hebrew השירים שיביאו לכם אהבה) (Eng. "The songs that bring you love")
• 2009: Ha-Metav ( Hebrew המיטב) (Eng. "The best")

Filmography (selection)

• 1978: Ha-Lahaḳah ( Hebrew הלהקה) - Director: Avi Nesher
• 1979: Drei unter'm Dach (original title: Dizengoff 99 , Hebrew דיזנגוף 99) - Director: Avi Nesher
• 1985: Shovrim ( Hebrew שוברים) - Director: Avi Nesher
• 1999: Mishpachat Azany (TV series)

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Biography ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at gali-atari.cjb.co.il (Hebrew; accessed April 5, 2010). 
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} Goldberg, Andy: Gali's New Beginning . In: The Jerusalem Post , March 24, 1989, Features (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Helet, Mira; Wegsman, Ron; Yudelman, Michal: On The Redord . In: The Jerusalem Post, June 2, 1989, Features (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
4. ↑ ^{a b} הידעת?  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at gali-atari.cjb.co.il (Hebrew; accessed April 6, 2010).  
5. ^ 'The Troupe', Life in Israeli Militari . In: The New York Times, October 11, 1981 (accessed via movies.nytimes.com).
6. ↑ Halahaka . In: Leaman, Oliver (Ed.): Companion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film . London; New York: Routledge, 2001.- ISBN 978-0-203-42649-4 . P. 273.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Wolther, Irving: "Battle of Cultures": the "Eurovision Song Contest" as a means of national-cultural representation . Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2006. - ISBN 3-8260-3357-4 . Pp. 46-47.
8. ^ Regev, Motti; Seroussi, Edwin: Popular music and national culture in Israel . Berkeley, Calif. [u. a.]: University of California Press, 2004. - ISBN 0-520-23654-8 . P. 120.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Warwick, Neil; Kutner, Jon; Brown, Tony: The complete book of the British charts: singles & albums . London: Omnibus Press, 2004. - ISBN 1-84449-058-0 . P. 729.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Hit Bilanz - German Chart Singles 1956-1998 . Taurus Press (CD-ROM).
11. ^ Profile of Milk & Honey at hitparade.ch (accessed April 16, 2011).
12. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
13. ^ Regev, Motti; Seroussi, Edwin: Popular music and national culture in Israel . Berkeley, Calif. [u. a.]: University of California Press, 2004. - ISBN 0-520-23654-8 . P. 172.
14. ↑ quoted from Regev, Motti; Seroussi, Edwin: Popular music and national culture in Israel . Berkeley, Calif. [u. a.]: University of California Press, 2004. - ISBN 0-520-23654-8 . P. 172.
15. ↑ Marcus, Raine: Sitting pretty in the middle . In: The Jerusalem Post, March 26, 1992, Arts (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
16. ↑ ^{a b c} Press, Viva Sarah: Arts Seen . In: The Jerusalem Post, April 20, 2001, p. 25.
17. ^ PR Newswire: An Evening of Peace With Music . June 1, 2004, La Mirada, California (accessed via LexisNexis Business ).
18. ↑ US States News: Tallahassee Community College Professor Pam Laws, pianist Marvin Golstein Take 'Peace With Music' To Middle East . April 21, 2006, Tallahassee, Florida, 5:14 AM EST (accessed via LexisNexis Business ).
19. ↑ Collins, Liat: Gone for a song ... . In: The Jerusalem Post, October 9, 2009, p. 35.
20. ↑ Eurovision News, Participants News, Eurovision Participants, Fans: Eurovision Israel: Gali Atari films 'Hallelujah' performance for 'Europe Shine A Light' in Jerusalem - ESCToday.com. In: Eurovision News, Polls and Information by ESCToday. May 14, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 (American English). 

Web links

Commons : Gali Atari  - collection of images

• Profile at shiron.net (Hebrew)
• Interview at ynet.co.il, September 10, 2008 (Hebrew)
• Interview at ynet.co.il, July 24, 2008 (Hebrew)
• Gali Atari at Allmusic (English)
• Gali Atari in the Internet Movie Database (English)