Last November, singer Avi Toledano released the song "Abigail" after he was touched by the personal story of 3-year-old Abigail, who was kidnapped to Gaza. Since then, to everyone's delight, Abigail has returned to her family, but many are still abducted in Gaza, the fighting continues, and Toledano continues to create.
Today he is releasing a new song, "If I Meet God," which raises questions and questions in the face of the situation, and seeks comfort and hope that better days will come. "The period is very challenging, painful, difficult for everyone, and everyone is looking for a corner where they can contribute, do something," Toledano says. "I got the words of 'Abigail' through someone I didn't know, and when I read the text I just got goosebumps. I went to the piano and immediately composed the song. It was clear to me that we wouldn't put out a song that was planned to be released, that didn't talk about the situation, and that 'Abigail' would be the song.
"Abigail was still in Hamas captivity when the song came out, and a few days later she returned. It was an exciting closure for me and made my heart feel good. I didn't meet her, but I spoke on the phone with her aunt. I imagine the family now wants to be with Abigail and wrap her up, and that's understandable."
And now you put out a song that also touches on the situation and the war.
"True, this difficult time is oppressive, there is no other word, and I have a lot of questions. I imagined that if it were possible, then the only force that could answer, to give some logical explanation for what happened, for questions that were mine but of course questions that anyone would ask - it was God.
"As early as first grade, I wrote in the student's diary, 'I'll be a singer.'" Avi Toledano, Cinematography: Arik Sultan, Makeup: Vered Badosa Rotro
"I imagined the meeting with God, what I would say, what I would ask, I would seek to understand what would happen in the end, asking for direction, a way. I am a person of faith, and somewhere I also ask here, in a kind of prayer, that He will protect us from the storm wind, that He will protect us.
"I wrote the text, a moving song came out and I decided to release it. I have four more songs in my drawer ready not in the spirit of the times, and I feel like I can't put something like that out now."
After years of working alone, Toledano feels he has found a new musical home. "I put out songs all the time," he says. "They don't always get marketing and playback, but I found an organized house, Anana Music, and now I'm part of a mechanism that takes care of bringing my songs into consciousness and distributing my work, and that's something I haven't had for many years, I admit."
"Proud of my kids"
"I've always been a lone wolf in these things," he continues, "I've worked less with people, and in the last year I'm glad I found these people at my age of 75 [laughs]. Now, after months in which I performed for the evacuees in hotels, we are slowly returning to performances, and on 6.2 I will perform at the Diamond Theater, on 20.2 at Zappa Haifa, and there are more to come."
Finally, your next generation is doing well. Your daughter Leahy stars.
"For Leahy it was from childhood, she and my son Uri, who is a musical prodigy, are the only ones out of six children in the field. They're doing well, and I'm very proud of them."
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