Music and Technology Part One: The Soundtrack

If you’ve seen the commercial for Apple’s newest way to take your money – Macbook Air – then chances are you liked the background song accompanying it. You’ve probably never heard of her, but that clear, strong, accented voice belongs to Yael Naim. Although she has been recording for 8 years already and has one other record (In a Man’s Womb, which flopped in 2001), she didn’t catapult to success until her self-titled album debuted in 2007. It exploded in France - even though most of the songs were written in Hebrew – and is now popular in the U.S. after Apple selected “New Soul” as the soundtrack to the Air.



Here are three of her best songs: “New Soul”, “Toxic” (a beautiful and stirring cover of Britney’s hit single…I like this better than the original), and “Pachad” (one of her Hebrew songs).

WHO can cover a trashy pop song and successfully transform it into a melodic masterpiece? That takes talent. Yael Naim is the epitome of all I like in international music: she was born in Paris, raised in Israel, sings in multiple languages (and no one has online translations for Hebrew, so the lyrics are a total mystery and the songs are still moving). She’s been in the army; she left her home and boyfriend in Ramat Hasharon to take a chance on a recording contract in Paris. She experienced miserable failure before achieving commercial success, and as a result is humble and nonplussed about her accomplishments.

Isn't international music great?