The new album of the singer and composer Rotem Cohen, "42", opens with the song "Suit and Shoes".
The lyrics of the song connect to the story of his relationship and preparations for his wedding with the choice of his heart and his new wife, Shai Sagi, whom he married three months ago.
The music video that accompanies the song includes a home shot of the marriage proposal in their living room, and documentation from the multi-participant wedding, including the shared trip to it and romantic moments of the couple.
"When she looks into my eyes, she sees me, and not 'Rotem Cohen'."
Rotem Shai, photo: Karni Cohen
In general, the whole story of the wedding brings out a lot of romance from Cohen, which is also found in his routine in significant quantities.
"Three months before the marriage proposal, I took a picture of us at 3 in the morning when she was sleeping, exhausted, and I was wearing the ring on her finger, and we put it in the clip," he recalls.
"In the marriage proposal itself, which was also included in the clip, I set up a tripod with a camera to shoot from the side. I have 40 minutes of footage of both of us crying together after I proposed to her, everything is recorded.
"It was hysterical to produce this thing, and I was under terrible pressure. After all, if you had come to me two years ago and told me that now I would be married, I would have struggled to get up from the floor for half an hour with laughter. Who thought of getting married? After all, 'only dead fish flow'. And suddenly I I find myself living with a woman I love, all of whose fears, which I surrounded with walls as high as possible, she knocked down so easily, with the click of a finger."
How did Shay react to the song "Suit and Shoes"?
"She cried, like that for months before he came out - listening and crying. The song was written and composed by Tal Castiel and I recorded it even before I knew her. It's like I summoned her love with this song, which is the craziest."
How did you propose to her?
"It was on Saturday. I made chowder, I invited my family and her family for a certain time, when I know I'm going to propose to her, and in order to have an excuse for the camera with the tripod I tell her, 'Let's make a video for Tiktok.' And she doesn't understand what Tiktok is now, because The parents are about to arrive and she wants to prepare salads and set the table. Then I bring out iced coffee and tequila and all kinds of cheese, I was completely confused, from the pressure. By the time I was already sitting down in front of her, I suddenly remembered that the ring was not on me, and I went to the room to get it, and she did not understand what was happening, but she is used to it that I'm a little confused. Then I sat opposite her on the sofa and proposed to her, and we both cried for half an hour together, and then the parents arrived."
And everything in the clip, including the wedding.
"When the song came out, we thought about a video, I put the song in the background of the photos and I realized that it had to be this, so I released it, and Shay agreed that it would be the music video, even though she very much stays away from exposure. Listen, if I'm selling, and my video from the wedding will leak out anyway - I won't ask Those invited to deposit their phones at the entrance - so it will come from me, with materials I filmed. But I didn't release the song to the media the week of my wedding, because the song is strong enough on its own."
How was the wedding for you?
"I was so upset when it ended. I enjoyed it so much and it was incredibly exciting. And there were no singers singing, and there were no stages, and I myself did not go up to sing. People expected there to be an independence rave, an Arad festival, and asked why there were no singers. Why would there be singers? I'm getting married . Want singers? Go to Zappa Live."
Speaking of singers at the wedding, were you disappointed that Eyal Golan didn't come to celebrate with you?
"I would like not to think that he is like that. I don't think he came to hurt me, it probably wasn't urgent for him to respect me. I wrote quite a few songs for him, including for his last album. I have an expectation that they will respect me the way I respect others. I'm really not hurt . It's disappointing - and that's it, move on. I wouldn't behave like this to people I respect.
"During the wedding itself, I could barely breathe. No performance at the Culture Hall or Caesarea, or in front of 55,000 people in Yarkon Park with Enrique Iglesias, prepared me for the excitement I experienced there. I didn't drink much, I was drunk with love there, we were flying in the air. The next day people called to tell me It was a high-quality wedding, but so simple. The canopy was simple, talli with sticks, no flower arrangements on the tables. My investment was in quality. I bought the suit the day before, in a few minutes. I went in - I went out. Shai had a hard time choosing her wedding dress, Because I wasn't there to tell her it was amazing, and she trusts me so much. She didn't choose one flashlight in this house."
"I wouldn't act like that."
Golan,
How did you get her married at the age of 22?
"It wasn't like that, really. It's like you telling me that someone who gets married wants to have children, and asking me if she's ready for it. She's completely 'baked'. I'm very longing and waiting for a child. We both want it, that's clear. When? I have a touch Small in the decision. It is the Holy One, blessed be He, who decides when, how and why. Whatever will come will come, with God's help, when it is needed. I am not stressed."
You named the new album "42", like your age.
"Because I decided to release, I don't need a name for the album. 42 is my age. This is me, neto, I'm here, and this is the year of my life when I declared my love."
With a drone to the parents' penthouse
Indeed, it seems that at the age of 42 Cohen found rest and inheritance.
Three months after the wedding, he and Shai live in a spacious apartment in Tel Aviv, to which he moved about two years ago.
He bought the apartment with a mortgage, for those who try to do calculations in their head.
"I have no interest in laying down so much money on an apartment at once. As far as I understand real estate, it seems to me that Beyoncé didn't put all the money on her house in advance either," he says.
At the entrance to the apartment is the famous piano that belonged to the late Eric Einstein, which Cohen purchased a few years ago. Every day he plays a newer piano, which is in the large living room, which is lined with massive sofas. The kitchen is also impressive, thanks to Cohen himself, who is responsible for the design of the house.
In one of the corners is a four-wheeled electric vehicle of the Easy Rider type, a kind of combination of an electric bicycle and an ATV, with a rare off-road offense, which is used by special units in the IDF and the US Army.
Through it, Cohen goes on walks around Yarkon Park and goes to fitness training, three times a week, with a personal trainer who helps him burn calories and develop muscle mass.
"I constantly struggle with the issue of weight," he says, while serving coffee and cookies on the balcony.
"I don't like my wife. I relate to it more than she does, commenting on the croissants she eats. I have a tendency to gain weight. It's only in recent years that I'm beginning to understand how important it is."
When Cohen steps out onto the balcony on the 21st floor, the view of Tel Aviv is spread out before him in all its glory.
It is connected to the city, but also a little far from it.
From the wide balcony you can look out over the penthouse of a nearby, lower tower, where his parents live, who moved from Lod to live near the children.
"Children" in the plural, because Cohen's sister and his personal manager, Carney, lives in the very same building, two floors below.
"My parents are 60 plus years old, and bringing them from Lod to Tel Aviv was not easy. A long process of persuasion. Karni worked hard to convince my mother, and found these apartments for us to live in."
In addition to the Easy Rider, he also flies drones for fun.
"I stand here under the building and bring a drone up to my parents' penthouse, bring it into their living room. I also bought the glasses that allow me to see what the drone sees. It's tremendous."
"I am very much at peace with the musical place I am in."
On stage, with Enrique Iglesias (right), photo: Coco
It's never too late for the Titanic
Five and a half years ago, Cohen was interviewed by the Israel Hayom supplement, and said: "I can never be with someone who came to me through music. The thought of dating a fan is difficult for me."
However, contrary to all his plans and predictions, he met his new wife at his performance.
"Shay came to my concert in Zappa Herzliya with her parents and two friends. After the concert they came to me to say hello, to hug, to take pictures. She looked at me in a way that I can't explain. She saw me. She was interested in knowing how I was at the concert, if I enjoyed it. On the way They usually ask if the audience is enjoying themselves, and suddenly a young lady comes and asks what's up with Rotem. And that moved me, to this day.
"So I asked her to tag me in a photo she was uploading to Instagram, and I was curious to know who she was. I looked for her among the hundreds of photos I was tagged in, and that's how we started chatting. Until I made sure in my sophisticated ways that when she looks into my eyes, she sees me and not 'Rotem Cohen' - I didn't calm down , and the truth is that quite quickly she was able to make me feel this sense of security."
Like many stars, you "fell" in the end with a fan.
"So that's it, she's not a fan. How do I know? Because the beginning was very, very slow. She meets me again and again and again, the seventh time, and there's no selfie. The girl doesn't pick up the phone, she's not at all interested in taking a picture with me. And I'm used to it Suspect, check, look, see what's going on. Even letting someone into my house takes time, and I realized that she's not interested in taking a picture and showing her friends or anyone else that she's with me in my house. By the way, these are fears that everyone has. I want to know why you're here and that From the right place. I did small, quick tests on her, and it proved itself very quickly."
The age difference didn't bother you?
"No, and I remember that throughout our beginning period I asked her - do your parents know you're in a relationship with me? And she said of course, they think you're a lovely man. Like, it was never a big deal. She's almost 23, there's 19 years between us. We have a lot to talk about. I learn a lot from her, from a 22-year-old girl. I can share with her some small crisis I'm having, and this girl tells me the most precise sentences to make me feel the most open, comfortable, relaxed. She tells me the things That I don't know how to tell myself. It's true, when I watched the movie 'Titanic' she was in kindergarten. Okay, great, so she'll watch 'Titanic' now. When they ask me how old she is, I say she'll be 30 in seven years."
Have you received insulting comments about the age difference between you and Shay?
"I came across such comments on Instagram, when they wrote 'What is this, she looks like his daughter', but I have nothing to do with these people, they don't interest me. It's insulting for a few seconds when you take it out of proportion. Over the years in the industry you learn not to take it to heart. Obviously, I'm tickled to respond, but I don't respond."
Shai and you had a relationship crisis?
"Yes, of course, of course, almost a year ago, even before the engagement. We fought over fundamental things that are ours. It's a relationship that even when it has ups and downs, I learned that I'm not going. That's why I decided that I want her for life, because after a fight I don't want to go. So we fought, we argued, tomorrow is a new day and everything is fine."
There are artists whose spouses suffer because they are away from home a lot.
"It's not the genre. When I finish working in the studio I come home to my wife. If I perform in Eilat and stay the night there, she has a plane ticket and can join. She decides which of my activities she joins and which she doesn't. She joined me, for example, when I went to Cuba To shoot the music video for the new song 'Chile Colombia' with the director of Enrique Iglesias' music videos. I knew we wouldn't have time for a honeymoon after the wedding, so we went to Cuba together, two months before the wedding. We invested a lot of money in this music video, just as we invest a lot in concerts, On stages, in recordings."
Did you play her the album before it came out?
"Sure. When I come back from the studio I play material here at home. Or I send it to her phone, after I make sure she has headphones on, I ask her to take a picture of the headphones for me before I send them. Also other artists, authors, to whom I send my songs before they are released, I I ask them to send me a selfie with headphones and they send me one. Because I am a perfectionist. If I could, I would release an album with a home surround system so that they could hear it perfectly."
"I like a lot of music, make sure not to run completely off the rails."
Cohen, photo: Moshe Nachomovich
Shlomo Artzi from sleep
This is his fourth album, and it comes five years after his predecessor and nine years since the beginning of his career.
"But I wasn't in the freezer for five years," he hastens to point out, "but I did a lot of things. I wrote a lot of songs, I released a lot of songs, I performed a lot, I participated in 'Dancing with the Stars', I was a presenter on the Ace network for three years. In between there were also Two years of Corona".
Among other things, during this period he released duets with Shlomi Shabbat, Kobi Afallo, Roni Dalomi, Beit Bouvavat and Kevin, collaborated with artists such as Dolly and Fen and Elia Rousiliou, participated in a song with Omer Adam, Moshe Peretz, Neta Barzilai and Eli and Mariano, and released ten more singles own example
But in the new album, Cohen puts aside the multitude of compositions and attempts, and returns to the combination that worked great in his previous album, between the Latin style and romantic ballads.
Alongside them, he combines rhythmic pop and ballads that are influenced by Shlomo Artzi.
"Shlomo definitely influenced me on this album," he admits.
"He's quite a bastard, he managed to influence me even in my sleep."
The album was signed by his own performance of two hits he created at the beginning of his career for Eil Golan, "Kashachher" (which he composed to the words of Noam Horev) and "Negat Li Belav" (which he wrote and composed).
He has been singing both of them for years in concerts, but only now has he recorded and released an album.
In my opinion, his performance of "When Another" manages to be more exciting than the original, and he takes "You Touched My Heart" to the Latin area.
Were you debating whether to record these two songs?
"There is such a fear, after you give a song to an artist like Il and he appropriates it for himself, and then with what audacity do you give it back? But I really see my songs as children that I put up for adoption until the moment I can stand on my feet. I have a large audience that joins me in songs throughout The way, and I sing these songs at concerts, that's how they find out that these are songs I wrote."
In the creation of the album he was helped as an artistic director by Betel Castiel, who created for him the songs "suit and shoes" and "losing to beautiful girls".
"Sometimes you need another ear that is completely detached from me and my sister Karni, who manages me. There should be someone else from the outside, completely objective, who will express his opinion on the songs. Sometimes I write a song that doesn't suit me, and I have to know how to give it to another artist."
And rays?
"Karni manages me because she is very, very talented. Since she was a little girl, I have called her 'Erin Brockovich.' When she was in the 6th grade, she already advised me which songs to send to which artists, and where the chorus should be refined. She also grew up on the music I grew up listening to, so it suits me."
Artistically, are you where you wanted to be?
"I'm very much at peace with the musical and artistic place I'm in. My natural style is romantic. I grew up on Julio Iglesias. The music I create and perform is me, and every time with version updates. For example, a song like 'I'm wild', which doesn't really sound like me, But if I created him, he's probably also a part of me. I want to sound like The Weeknd too, because I love him. I like a lot of musical styles, make sure not to run completely off the rails, but also see other landscapes, because I want to interest myself as an artist as well . Not to be a prisoner of a certain radio station or of the audience's expectations, even though I know what they expect me to be - the romantic with the Latin rhythms."
overload
When it comes to social networks, Cohen has something to say to colleagues from the industry.
"I don't look at the crazy numbers of views that songs have here on YouTube. There are some that reach 6-7 million views overnight, which doesn't make sense. I learned to look at the Shazam app, to see how many people searched for me. There is something more beautiful than how many listeners searched for me ? So the song 'So beautiful to you' in its Spanish version, 'Como el Agua', was searched by 130 thousand people. This is a number that for others may be the number of views for the song, and for me it is the number of Shazam searches. And I see tags from people from all over the world, from Russia As far as Colombia and Cuba, and in Cuba in general I'm broadcast on the radio. It's amazing."
He does not believe in artificial musical compositions.
"I don't believe in making songs as a business connection. For example, take the singer of the year and the singer of the year and let's do a duet with them. I don't believe in that, it doesn't interest me. I'm ready to do a duet with whoever I connect with. If I connected with Noa Kirel - then of course, But I won't agree that it will be mechanical. Connections that are technical in the end don't happen.
"'Ani Pra', for example, I wanted to record with Assaf Amdorsky, I really imagined him singing the song. He came to the studio to record it, because he liked the song. We tried to record, but it didn't happen because we were both honest enough to say that it didn't work It doesn't mean I'm giving up Assaf, because I really like his voice and want to do something with him."
Are you calm even when you don't have a hit on the radio?
"Yes, because I perform. And if my audience used to consist of 90% women, in recent years, with the exposure, it balances out. More men come, and women with men together. I'm very busy, sometimes even too much."
When, for example?
"When we started the campaign for this album, I opened the diary and saw how many performances and how many interviews I had to do in such a short period of time, and I had an anxiety attack. It happened when I returned from two full concerts in one evening, in two different places in Eilat. I was on the plane on the way back, and they started Heart palpitations. I saw that the next day I have to participate in Didi Harari's program on the radio and that I don't have enough time to prepare, because it's a program that I like to come prepared to, after rehearsals.
"I panicked, and even raised my voice, which is very inappropriate for me, and told her that I couldn't stand it, that I wanted a quiet moment because I was under pressure. I asked to stop all plans for that week. I sent a message to my friend that I was a little stressed and had to breathe, And he wrote to me, 'My soul, rest, whatever your soul needs. We'll arrange a new date,' and at once I relaxed, like after a storm that's over. I got proportions, everything's fine. The album is out, and on the 29th of the month I'm opening a concert tour at the Shuni Amphitheatre."
No push on the phone
Following the case of abuse that recently occurred at a school in Be'er Sheva, Cohen wrote a protest post which he signed with the words: "To hell with you, the education system. Stop everything and do a whole day where you only show children what the consequences of their behavior are."
"I write a lot about the education system," he says.
"To say that I believe that this system will educate my children? I don't know. I'm looking for the added value that the child will receive. And I speak as one who was ejected from the system because it failed to understand that there is another child here, with attention disorders, who finds it difficult to sit and who draws on the tables. I learned Ramla-Lod High School and I stayed a class in the 9th grade, I stayed a class in the 10th grade, and in the end I was kicked out. I moved to Ben Fat, and I was kicked out from there as well. They didn't understand that I was an artist and they didn't see me. I finished 12 years of school because I stayed a lot of classes. I don't have a matriculation certificate , and in the end I came out a poet, so they missed something here.
"A few years ago, I was exposed to a girl who was boycotted at school and abused, and she went to bang her head against the wall. I came to school, put the teacher aside and talked to the students for two hours about this girl, because it's more important than the multiplication table. I'm glad it helped, but I can't come to schools every day. It makes me angry and humiliates me. The treatment of Holocaust survivors also outrages me."
What about politics? Who will you vote for in the election?
"I don't know. I think that both this prime minister and the other prime minister have good things. If I could put together one person with the advantages of both, that's what I would do. But it can't be that there are hungry people - and doing five election campaigns for billions. After watching Netflix In the film that clarified how many engineers our minds are, I stopped the pushovers on the phone."
Are you a believer?
"I believe and put on tefillin. Karni and I gave a lot of money a few weeks ago to write a Torah scroll. We pay for a person to sit five to six hours a day and write a Torah scroll. It takes a year. Now it is already in the fourth sheet. We will eventually donate this book to a synagogue." .
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