Not many singers, certainly not those who want to develop their careers and break out, will say no to the opportunity to be Adele's warm-up show, just so they can go to the synagogue for Shabbat prayers and Kiddush.
But for one British singer who was forced to choose between faith and the stage, the choice was clear.
A decade ago Alex Claire was a beginning British Jewish singer who had just begun to make a name for himself in the local music scene (and even holds the title of Amy Winehouse's ex), when the label he signed forced him to choose between his faith and his musical career.
Claire (36) received an offer to perform the warm-up show of a rising and successful singer named Adele, who would later become the huge diva we all know today.
But since quite a few of the shows planned as part of the tour were expected to fall on Fridays and Saturdays and on Passover and Claire adheres to a religious Jewish lifestyle, he was forced to choose between his musical career and faith.
Claire chose faith.
At first, he said, his label agreed to express some flexibility, but when this was repeated a while while he had to record during the Sukkot holiday, he was summoned for a tough conversation with his executives at the company after which it was decided to withdraw his contract after only one album.
"They told me it was clear that I was more invested in my religious beliefs than in my musical career," said Claire, who grew up in a secular Jewish home but repented in his twenties, in a recent interview with the BBC.
"It was not true. I was very invested in my musical career as well, but it was my personal choice and choices of this kind are not always accepted with understanding and tolerance," he said.
"I do not think they fully understood when they signed me, how central the matter of keeping the Sabbath rules would be. Somehow it turned out that every show or promotional activity fell exactly on the Sabbath and I rejected one offer after another. When I had to refuse to perform with Adele because at least five such shows fell "On Saturday, they were convinced I was completely crazy," he added.
A decade after that decision to fire Claire, the circle came to a close when officials at the Island Music label (now owned by Universal Studios, the label that fired him in fact because of his faith), contacted him and apologized to him.
"What was said then ten years ago was wrong and in no way represents our values or our worldview," a company source told the BBC in an interview.
After the label decided to give up his services, Claire says he almost completely gave up music in his life, until fate intervened and he found himself a few months later with a huge hit in hand.
In fact, the hit was so successful that in 2013 he competed (and lost) against Adele for the title of best single at the Brit Awards.
"Everything is for the best," Claire added, referring to the well-known proverb.
"My label fired me, but months later I had a crazy hit all over the world. I sold Palestinian albums and got a much bigger recording contract in the second round."
Today Claire divides his time between his home in Jerusalem, after making aliyah with his wife in 2015, and developing his career in London, making a musical comeback after a five-year break from the music industry, which he decided to take when he felt he was soulless and lost interest in her.
Despite the so significant part that religion is in his life, Claire notes that his songs do not have a distinctly Jewish hue and defines them as sad personal songs.
“As a creator and as a songwriter, you need to connect to your emotional side, to empathy, to an unfiltered ethos,” he concluded.