A few minutes before I said goodbye to the Yaniv era, I could not resist.
I plucked up courage and asked him to sing to me.
Yaniv held the guitar calmly, and sang as if it was not her private performance I won on the balcony, but in the audience of Amfi Shoni in Binyamina.
"You do not have to put on make-up, put a stripe on the stripes, you do not have to dress up, just smile, without hesitation," he sang "You Are Beautiful", his hit from 2007, and something else came out of it.
Something relaxed, light-hearted, flowing and devoted.
"When I sing I feel like everything is released from me," he concludes, placing the guitar.
"It's a moment where there are no thoughts, anxieties and questions. There's just nothing. I also think something has happened to me with age, experience and maturity. I feel more confident in myself and in the things I want to say and compose. Now I know exactly where I am and where I am going."
Although Yaniv has been in the field for 17 years, he's a total of 35, if you were wondering. "I'm a little weird with age, he says.
I had a lot of thoughts about all the things I have managed to do so far - and also about what things I really want to happen already, whether it's the new show going up or whether it's finding my estate and corner, my house and spouse, and setting up my own place with family and kids ".
Like the other artists, Yaniv had two difficult years.
Now he is counting down the minutes leading up to his return to the stage, in the shadow of the omicron, in a new show that will be launched on January 17 at Zappa Herzliya, and towards which he feels a bit like a fresh dad.
There are nights when he even has trouble falling asleep.
"I'm insanely excited. It's a new show with new arrangements of almost all the songs, and it was very difficult to sum up a 16 year career in an hour and a bit. Alongside the new songs there are songs I can't give up, and there were a lot of edits until everything came out accurate."
Ahead of the show, he released a few new singles: "Some Nights," "The Song You Love" and "Little Fire," which entered Galgalatz's playlist this week and talks about relationship difficulties that came out this month and caused him stress again.
"The night before a new single comes out I'm always excited and unable to sleep much. I have a lot of thoughts. Because I've a perfectionist, which bothers me a bit in certain places in life, for example at work. Really, the people who work with me deserve a paycheck.
To the musicians, to the PR office and to everyone around me. I'm looking for perfection in the smallest things that maybe no one else will notice. To be everyone's, and then there is no going back. "
Releasing a single today is different than what it was a decade ago?
"Sure, the world has changed a lot at the level of digital, media and media, but one thing remains clear: when a single is released it's a bit like letting a child go alone. Now it's the world's - and I'm waiting for feedback."
• • •
Until the feedback from the street, social networks and radio stations arrives, Yaniv takes a moment to remember the beginning.
"Already at the age of 11, I grabbed a microphone in my uncles' yard in Ramla. I sang Eyal Golan's' Return to Me 'to them, and there was enthusiasm. A few months later, on the eve of young talents at the Tel Hai school in Tel Aviv, where I studied, I went up to perform in the auditorium.
"We invited all the families, and the hall was blown up. More than 3,000 people, some of them sitting on the stairs because of the rush. I sang 'Mother Soul,' an original song written by my cousin, Zeev Bar, who was four years older than me. I felt there for the first time. What I sometimes feel to this day - that my stomach sticks to my back from too much stress.
"The principal, who saw that I was tense, brought me a bottle of water. I was pale as a wall, I felt my pulse was over 200, but in the end I reset myself and it was cool. This song became a kind of anthem at school, everyone sang it."
At the age of 14 he participated in a national festival of Zohar Argov songs.
"I performed 'The Flower in the Gardens,' and the judges were professionals from the field, for example, representatives of record companies and representatives of regional radio stations. They marked me and I won.
"I was in ninth grade then, I studied at ORT Singalovsky in Tel Aviv and I wanted to be a basketball player in general. I admired Oded Katash, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and I had four basketball practices a week, but life led me to music.
"In hindsight, I realized that my attraction to music is something much bigger than me."
"I realized that my attraction to music is something much bigger than me."
At the concert, photo: Kobi Richter
After high school, he studied software engineering in the thirteenth and fourteenth grades at ORT Singalovsky College, and at the age of 22 volunteered for military service due to a medical problem, and perhaps enrolled in the first "talent track" in the IDF, long before Noa Kirl or Jonathan Margie.
"I was in a military band of an education corps, a period that I remember and smile about. I had a crazy load, when besides performing in the army I also participated in two festivals and performed in the civilian market. It was challenging, but amazing.
"In the army, the crowd was warm and embracing. We performed in large bases and outposts, sometimes in front of 20 soldiers and in kitchens. We got everywhere we were invited, and thank God there was a great demand. I carried the equipment and speakers with the band, I was part of everything."
While recording, he will produce albums one after the other, for example "Think of her" (2006), "Wait for me" (2007), "On the expansion" (2009), "Yes to love" (2011) and more, including hits like "Think of her" , "Indian Movie" and "You Are Beautiful".
At that time, with "Think About Her", she released an album that reached gold and won the title of Singer of the Year.
Did you feel like a star?
"I was always with my feet on the ground. Even then I realized that the burden of proof is always on me. There are stars only in the sky, and I never felt 'star', even when my things were very successful. One or two successes guarantee nothing."
In 2014, Yaniv participated in the reality show "Bollywood", where he went out with six other celebrities to try his luck in the bustling film industry of India, in order to win a role in a Bollywood film.
Not tickling you to make another TV?
"'Bollywood' was an amazing experience. Connections were made there with people who are still good friends of mine, like Galit Giat and Itzik Cohen. We were a strong cast with an inclusive and embracing production team, and it was not easy there.
"I do not refuse to do more TV, but only if it really feels right in my stomach. In these things I listen to my intuitions and everything should go smoothly for me. There were suggestions, the majority were less interested in me. Half a year ago I was offered to participate in The X Factor, But it did not happen, I do not think I am suitable for the Eurovision Song Contest.
"Obviously reality shows are exposed to a lot of talent, but you have to remember that these are entertainment programs that make TV, for all that that implies. That means the most important things are the entertainment interest and ratings. In the early years of reality shows were much more innocent, but today everyone understood .
"On a personal level, I really miss the hospitality programs, such as Dan Shilon's circle or programs like Yitzpan and Yair Lapid's. As a viewer, I really liked them, even at the level of the artist who came to be a guest."
• • •
After seven albums, including the album "On the way to myself" from 2015, a compilation album and an album from a live performance, and when he is on his way to another studio album, Yaniv also finds time for fitness.
"I try to exercise three times a week, aerobics, weights or work out with muscle groups in the body. I do it to stay healthy, but the only thing I miss a bit is the diet. It's hard for me not to eat at night after shows because there is adrenaline, and then I I also like the fattest things there are - borax and shawarma. "
You do not really look like someone who suffers from a weight problem.
"I got good genes from my mom as a gift, but I need to start paying attention to what I eat. It all started with me earlier. I had white hair from the age of 26, and the little belly came out early, about the same age."
He now lives in Tel Aviv with his parents, Rami (58) and Rosa (55), an unusual affair for someone his age.
His parents own a minimarket and he has a younger sister and brother, Noya (31), married and a mother of two, and Elad (26), single.
"My parents and I learned to get along, but it was not easy," he admits.
"I lived outside the home for four years, and at the age of 28 I went back to my parents. A year earlier I lived with Grandma Luba, my father's mother, and it was not easy either, but my family gave and gave me everything.
"I came home because I was in a time when I had to reset myself, both financially and mentally. I had to go back to the mother base and pump out everything I was a little lacking outside.
"My parents do everything for me, at the level of laundry and food, so I do not have to worry about anything. I do not have one bad word to say, God forbid, but on the other hand I want to live alone. When you are not a small child you want your quiet, to be responsible for yourself, so "I have thoughts of getting out of there. It will happen with the help of the name."
• • •
Living with parents was found to be an even more complex matter during the Corona period, which it contracted last August.
"All these two years I was quite scared, especially of my parents and grandmother. I was very worried about my parents when I got sick. I was locked in a room for almost two weeks, and they did not approach me. Everything was with gloves and a mask, and I constantly disinfected the door handles. Scary".
Have you dealt with anxiety in the past?
"Yes. I know anxieties and negative thoughts closely and try to put it into my head that anxiety is something that happens mostly in my head. Once me and anxieties were close friends, but today, slowly, I try to understand that everything is fine and even if I am afraid of something, the world is not destroyed.
"Even today the anxieties and fears come sometimes, for example before the release of a new single, but in low doses, because I surround myself well. When I was in the beginning someone told me that if it passes me, I am not in the right profession, so for me as long as I do not sleep the night before New song release, good condition.
"This understanding has come through therapy. For several good years now I have been very much helped by a psychologist who I see changing frequently, and in recent years I have also studied and delved into Judaism. I feel it gives me peace of mind and new spiritual tools."
"Doing everything for me."
With his parents Rami and Rosa, Photo: From Instagram
Although Yaniv does not wear a kippah, as part of his approach to religion he puts on tefillin every morning, and then engages in study.
"I try to go to Torah lessons," he says, "until the Corona I had a regular class with a group of content people, broadcasters and producers. I have a class that I go to once a month, on Rosh Chodesh, and there is another class with friends I was exposed to in Corona and zoom.
"In the mornings I read 'Let's Give Our Part', a booklet sent once a month with chapters for daily study of Halacha, Gemara and Mishnah. Then study more Halachas - then you can start the day. I also fast on Yom Kippur, it is very important to me."
What do you think about the blossoming of singers like Yishai Ribo, Hanan Ben Ari and more?
"I love them on a personal level and very connected to their content. They are part of the group I studied with every week. All this growth is a long process that started a long time ago, and in recent years gets more focus. At the same time, I feel a stream in the audience. The heart.
"There is something beautiful in the Jewish tradition, and I kind of feel with myself a sense of who I am that I will interrupt the chain that started thousands of years ago. I want this chain to continue for thousands of generations to come."
To continue the chain you know what you need to do.
"Yes, yes, everyone wants to marry me. It's not that I do not want. I really like weddings. In August I was at two friends' weddings and also sang at them, as a gift, and of course I show up all the time at weddings.
"Most of my environment is either in a relationship, or in very advanced stages before marriage or already married, and I'm still in the stage of being recognized. For a small portion of these matchmaking I agree, and then we talk on the phone and if there is interest then turn around, let's meet."
Have you been in a serious relationship?
"I had three long relationships, and at certain times in those relationships I was sure they were going to get married. Right now I'm not in a serious relationship, but I'm open-minded and still looking for one."
• • •
By the time one arrives, Yaniv is focusing on professional collaborations, having previously worked with Dana International, Pablo Rosenberg, Lee Byrne and others.
"I'm dying for collaborations. This year I did a cover for Alon Adar's 'My Woman', for example, that he and I come from different worlds, and I'm dying for that.
"I happened to see a video where Alon was playing guitar in the desert sands. I got excited about it, went through a lot of his songs, and as soon as I found 'My Wife' - I sat down at the piano. Alon was surprised and complimented me, he really liked the cover and praised him.
"In recent years, something has opened up in me. I discover and gather around me a lot of artists I have not worked with before. To the credit of the artists I meet on this journey, like Liron Amram and Adi Rotem, who co-create the song 'Little Fire', they help me get what I want. Maybe alone is harder for me.
"In the song 'Little Fire' I had at the head of the sentence 'How much noise did the silences make to you' - which describes the silence in a quarrel of spouses between whom the war is on a psychological level. I never had the confidence to write such a sentence."
shirz@israelhayom.co.il
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