"Because of my voice, I was abused as a child, thrown in the trash, beaten. For years I did not take a rudder."

The harassment he experienced as a child ("I was lonely. I was beaten all the time"), the change in his religious mother's attitude to coming out of the closet ("For years she did not get it") and the work in the supermarket ("I did not find work in the industry"): Michael Ben David, one of the prominent contenders In The X Factor, he speaks in a special interview

Sagi Ben Nun

02/01/2022

Sunday, 02 January 2022, 00:00 Updated: 00:04

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Michael Ben David (Photo: Ohad Keb)

When Michael Ben-David's mother - one of the most talented and promising contestants on Network 13's X Factor '- took the stage and hugged him while he sang a cover of Miri Mesika's song' Mother ', he finally realized she understood him. "I felt she saw the way I went, that she understood I needed that approval. She came to audition with my partner, they sat together in the same room. For her, as a religious woman, it's her coming out of the closet."

The cover version of the song "Mother" flooded Ben-David with his great pain due to the fact that his mother had difficulty accepting for many years that he was gay even before she repented, and of course even after that. "As a child with a sexual orientation that is different, you expect to be understood, expect to be treated as normal, until you understand that your environment treats you as abnormal," he says. "My mother is a young woman, and 20 years ago she was 30. They did not talk about these things, it was not a topic of conversation like today. She was also not knowledgeable and terribly frightened. She did not want me to be different, so that I would not suffer. And I felt "As much as she tried to give to me and do for me - she was afraid of it. She wanted me to be normative."

Singer and actor Michael Ben-David was born 25 years ago, the son of a Russian-Ukrainian mother and a Georgian father.

He grew up most of his childhood in Ashkelon, in his youth his family moved to Petah Tikva and two months ago he moved with his friend to Ramat Gan.

He has a sister who is older than him and four other brothers who are younger than him.

From a young age he had a loud voice, which led other children to abuse him.

"Already in third grade I was very theatrical, I had a very loud voice and I was different. I talked to the teacher, and the children would laugh. They waited for me outside the school to beat me, threw me in the trash. They would not leave me until I stunk of stench. "I will not shut up, it will not end. For years in school I did not take out a wheel. I was lonely and had a hard time."

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Michael Ben David in "The X Factor for the Eurovision" (Photo: Ohad Keb)

Michael Ben David in "The X Factor for the Eurovision" (Photo: Ohad Keb)

Did you share with your family the harassment you experienced?

"As soon as the teacher shared with my mother that I was being abused in school I saw that it broke her heart. When I saw her broken, I decided I did not share or tell her anything, because I want my mother to be the happiest. For years and years I told her everything was fine. As a child I did not want to talk to her about my sexual orientation because I did not want to hurt her. But I saw that it was something that was on her mind. In sixth grade I moved to the Green Village boarding school. When I got home I took on the role of responsible adult, With her on sexual orientation. "

"At about 16. I told her, 'I feel a thing or two white.' "

"True. I took her repentance very hard. I said to myself, wow, that's just what I're missing now. Because as much as my sexual orientation was a sensitive issue even before, it became even more difficult in front of her after she repented. So after she repented not I talked to her about this issue. "

Ben-David served in the Ministry of Defense in a classified unit and after his release he studied acting at Beit Zvi for three years. "While studying acting, I met my first partner, and it was a little difficult for my mother to accept it. Years have passed, now I am big and mature, and she asks - what about a wife and children? I say to my mother, 'My beautiful, I love men.' Her dream is shattered. Her dream shattered. She did not understand how could I, the most successful, containing and understanding child of hers, be gay? She honestly thought about not having children. This difficulty of hers has not changed over the years. My understanding is that I need to stop putting my foot on the gas and that I need to put a pool of gas, and tell her - I have a partner, I want you to know him and accept him.It's after all these years I put her feelings first and lost myself.I decided not to give up. She was not angry - but her heart ached. I remember her look, after I told her 'Mom, I have a partner, he is the love of my life and I will marry him',And you see her pain in her eyes. "

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And yet something happened, she came with your partner to "The X Factor", and you sang in front of her "and maybe you'm not guilty, and maybe this world is fucked up, but at the end of the day, just want to find a hug".

"As soon as I heard this song when it came out I felt it fit me like a glove. When I sang this song I sang my pain. It was a crazy closing circle. She hears it and understands. That's why she also took the stage and hugged me. At the beginning of the audition I called her to come up "On stage and she did not agree because she is a lady. And when I sang this song she just got up and came to me."

Michael's participation in "The X Factor for the Eurovision" (which airs on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday on Network 13) is a piece of roller coaster for him. "It's just a crazy experience, I never believed in my life that I would even go through the first stage of the show, standing in front of judges and in front of an audience was a hallucination, like a dream. I worked very hard on every audition I did and only in retrospect do you sit and say, wow, what happened now? "An indescribable hallucination and privilege, to give my voice and myself in front of judges at a very high level. I was very pressured to sing in front of Miri, because I really like her, and performing her song was even more stressful."

"It did not offend me, because Aviv Geffen represents most of the things I've heard all my life. He represents the population who have never believed me, who have always called me cynical, who do not believe me that my theatrical character is something I created to defend myself. The things Aviv said were not New to me. There are things he is right about, like an identity crisis. All my life it's an identity crisis. He represents those who do not understand where it comes from, those who see in my character and my theatrical character a forgery and something that is not real. I am very dramatic, extreme and I eat my head. But it's me, what to do? "Some people think that way about me. Not everything is rosy. It was important for me to show him my truth through my performance. Hope I succeeded. Aviv demanded that I work less, be simpler, not make an effort, not play but just be me and that's enough."

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Michael Ben David (Photo: Courtesy of the photographers, Ohad Keb)

Michael Ben David (Photo: Courtesy of the photographers, Ohad Keb)

You are in a tough competition against Sapir Saban, who is considered to have a high chance of winning, and beyond her talent, there is also Roberto's support behind her.

She also made a big appearance in Reading on February 3 near the end of the show, which can be interpreted as her confidence in winning.

"Listen, I really, really like music. I really, really appreciate Sapir Saban, even before I even went to The X Factor. When I heard I was competing against her, my knees shook. Everyone has their load. I really like it. "In front of her. I will also be behind her if I can. She helped me so much in the program, in moments when I had insecurity, she picked me up. She is charming and one of the best singers in the country."

"Everything we see in the Eurovision Song Contest is exactly what we experience in life. Either you get up with a sense of celebrating life and rejoicing or you get up vulnerable. There are performances like Portugal that were very exposed, and sometimes we really like that identification, look at Adele's success. Neta I would not read a gimmick, and it is true that there was a strong connection in the text to Mi Tu. It had to happen in light of the indescribable treatment of women. She was a crazy mission. Difficulty, pain and vulnerability in my childhood. "

By the way, Mi Tu, there have been recent investigations and publications claiming harassment and sexual assault by prominent figures in the gay community, and some have called it "the community's Mi Tu." How do you feel about that?

"I very much hope and wish that there will not be one person who feels exploited. My job, apart from singing, is to show especially to the people in our community that you can be what you want, how you want, without shame. If there are people in the community who are hurt, who have experienced such harassment "Or else, let them not be silent, rehabilitate and talk. Our psyche is the only thing we have in life that really belongs to us. So it is important that people get up and talk. Otherwise we will stay with ourselves and it will be very difficult. It is important not to be afraid, not to be silent.

"Buy in the place closest to home! I had a hard time finding a job in this profession, playing, and it's only gotten harder since Corona. I have to make sure I have food in the fridge. How much fun I had super in front of the house. My experience in super was one of the most entertaining experiences. And the most land I have ever had in my life. Because I worked with women who were experiencing severe economic hardship. I worked with an Arab who experienced daily racism in the supermarket, with Russia who has small children and she must bring food home. You live real life and this place showed me what really matters in life. "Dreams are dreams, but people have to make a living. Some people have nothing to eat. And as long as you do not work on the road, every job honors its owner."

"He would probably say 'you're crazy, but there's something to work with."

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