On her new album, Lonely Sun, singer Lynette dedicates a song to her mother, who passed away in March of last year. This was preceded by dementia, which she was diagnosed with about four years ago, and advanced ovarian cancer.
"She felt unwell, had a very swollen stomach and a great craving for sweets. We didn't know these were symptoms. It was horrible and horrible. On the other hand, you say at least she didn't suffer. It's very hard to lose a parent."
Especially someone who has meant so much to you in every area of life.
"Yes, she was very present. Even when we were no longer performing together she was always there, she didn't leave me alone. At every performance, she sat right across from me to look at her. It's still very hard for me, but it makes it easier for me to be able to talk about her because of the song, mention her name and dedicate a song to her that tells about us.
Lynette. "In the pre-Eurovision Song Contest '93 we came in last place - and to this day they sing our song", Photo: Ronen Akerman
"Sound Clippy invited me into the studio to hear a song called 'Look at Me' and be impressed by it. I felt that he was telling my story and my mother's. Because my mother wasn't just a mother – she was a teacher, she was a very great and well-regarded singer in Turkey before she left in the '70s. She promoted the Turkish genre in the country. And when I heard the song, I said, 'That sounds like our story.' I sing in it, 'A bouquet of roses brings me back to the night, how I kissed your hand and said you'll never be alone. We sang for hours and our hearts hovered. Now I'm alone, but I want to say thank you.' I added Turkish lyrics to the song that say, 'Come on my daughter, get on stage, it's your turn.'"
She has a complicated life story, Lynette. The loss of a father at a young age, and performances in clubs on the Bat Yam promenade at the age of 5 as part of a duo with her mother called "Lila and Lynette". Turkish music was not common knowledge then, and the emerging Israel of the 80s was reluctant to give a stage on local television to the songs she sang, field hits that sold cassettes by the thousands.
Two years ago she returned to Israel and performed here, after participating in the X Factor show. Now, after 25 years, she performs and sings in Hebrew again. But despite the passage of time and the renewed success in her country, there are wounds that do not heal. "I was silenced for many years," she says. "I was a child, and Dan Shilon was in prime time, and to this day it's like a wound in me that I didn't appear on the show, or with Rivka Michaeli on 'Reason to Party.'"
You really define it as a bare wound, still.
"Yes, Eurovision too. I participated with my mother in the pre-Eurovision Song Contest 1993 with the song 'I Please' and we came in last place. And to this day they sing this song. Today, when I look at the way I did, I say: Wow, you don't always have to win to stay in the mind. Sarahle Sharon won then."
Lynette will perform with the Jerusalem East and West Orchestra, along with Ishtar, Eleni Vitaly, Valerie Hamati and Esther Rada as part of the East and West Jerusalem Festival.
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