Rita ( Yahan-Farouz) (part 0)

You would think that having a simple, one word name a simple matter to find everything about a celebrity... It might be true, sometimes, but not so when the simple name is Rita - a very common first name for so many actresses and singers that search engines on online merchants yield massive thousands of results. 

Yehuda Poliker (album 4) - Less but hurts (part 2)

After sharing my personal experience (in part 1) with the 3 most influential songs from this album, I now share its 

Track listing : (excerts )

1. Less but hurts
2. Good night, go to sleep
3. The shadow and me
4. Trans Orient (instrumental)
5. Things I wanted to say 
6. A story of times past (instrumental)
7. Today you are laughing
8. Flower
9. Yoram

(the links are only for you to discover - once again, I do not promote piracy)

Yehuda Poliker (album 4) - Less but hurts (part 1)

Yehuda Poliker's 4th record was released in 1990 and is my first encounter with this singer. 
I was a teen, living in difficult conditions, and three of this album's songs spoke to me as if they were written about my own case : 

The first of these is the third on the CD. It's called hazel ve'ani, which means the shadow and me. It tells mostly of him living in the closet (from which he'd come out publicly many years later) ; to me it was about the double life I was leading, and the massive difficulties that lead to this choice... I wasn't allowed to listen to music, mind you, so I had bought a small portable radio that was also a foldable headphone on which I'd listen to this song every time it'd air. 
It was my mantra, right from the first notes - drums rolling in, and a dancy pop song ensuing. 

Yehuda Poliker (album 2- update) - Day dreamer

After many many years waiting for this, I have finally bought, received and listened to Yehuda Poliker's second solo album. 

It was released in 1986, like I mentioned, and was very difficult to find.

I was a bit surprised to hear that the album was actually recorded live - which wasn't announced anywhere on his website, nor wikipedia. The liner notes, however, do specify this detail. 

All 12 songs have Greek melodies, several instrumental pieces and Lyrics are either in Greek or translated from it in. 

Yehuda Poliker (album 3) - Ashes & dust

Yehuda Poliker's third solo album, Afar VeAvak, or, Ashes and Dust, was released in 1988, and deals once more with the heavy topic of WW2 and being second generation to Holocaust survivors. Poliker continues here his collaborative work with Yaakov Gilaad.

Yehuda Poliker (album 2) - Day dreamer

I don't yet own Yehuda Poliker's second solo album. It was released in 1986 and is one of the rarest to find, and its price hasn't been affordable when I did find it... I'll probably have to search for it more actively to complete my collection before it disappears.

How nostalgia can lead to discover old & new songs

So, recently I had thought about a few old songs that I hadn't been able to locate and in their search, have found that one of my favorite songs was sang by a singer I knew, but not associated with this song. It is called ''song to my sister'' by Avihu Medina, and after listening to it as well as many of his other songs, discovered his sister's name is Nava Medina, an actress and singer in her own right.
Whilst Avihu seems to have more oriental songs, Nava favors greek music in her songs...

However, I cannot find her discography, and I can find no website with any of her cds... only clips on youtube (well, the song with the supposed album cover as an image), and downloads, which is very odd because to my knowledge, in Israel she probably would have cds, unless she retired too early and that her albums are only available on cassettes... hum hum! very very odd that I can find almost nothing.

Yehuda Poliker (album 1) - These eyes of mine

 Yehuda Poliker's first solo album was released in 1985. Yaakov Gilaad whom he met during his Benzene days translated Greek Folk songs into Hebrew, and Poliker composed some of the melodies.

It's labeled ''these eyes of mine'' in English, but the actual translation of the Hebrew title is simply ''My eyes'', referencing a cute, pet-name one can give to one's lover : my eyes, to whom the narrator pleads his lover not to be angry at him as he leaves her, and, heading to another country, another city,  from which he (just) might come back one day on a birds' wings, he asks her not to wait for him for many years...

Yehuda Poliker (part 0)

I’d like to introduce you to my favorite singer of all times: Yehuda Poliker. I believe the first song I heard was ‘’the shadow and me’’ from his 4^th album ‘’less but hurts’’ from 1990. As far as I know, that song was written about a homosexual’s wish to live in a better world where he wouldn’t have to hide in the closet – to cast light on the shadow so to speak. Although not concerning my personal case, I had to lead a double life and thus had my very own shadow. The hope expressed in the bridge ‘’let’s soar high above, you’ll be my wings’’ spoke to me greatly as I, too, wished for freedom – and that’s how my love for Poliker’s music and songs was born and never waned.