"I choose to keep my soul. It's no less important to me than to be more famous."
The graduate of "School of Music" and "The Next Star" has been waiting for success for many years, but is sure that she arrived just in time for where she should be.
In an interview with Walla!
Culture tells about the deep and special connection with Keren Peles, the reluctance from the world of celebrities, and what in her eyes should be the next stage in the "Mi-To" revolution
Sagi Ben Nun
08/07/2022
Friday, 08 July 2022, 00:00
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"I was not so much a girl."
Shai Hambar (Photo: Yuval Daniel)
"I wanted a lot of things in my life. I wanted and I did not achieve. I wanted and almost achieved," Shai Hambar announces in a press release accompanying her release of her new and charming single, "I wanted everything" his name, which she wrote and composed, and Adi Rotem produced and arranged.
Shay, what things did you want once - but today you're glad you did not achieve?
"After 'Music School' I really wanted a very big success that would carry me with both hands to the glory districts. In retrospect, I think it was very, very true that it did not happen, that I went a very long way after the program of gathering and writing songs. When the program ended I realized that Want to succeed, I'm a singer who wants to write her songs. And the fact that things did not happen immediately allowed me to get better and better at it. That's what I did all those years, and I also released an album at 18 and was on the move. It's hard for me to say 'success has come', it's hard for me to use that term, because there's always a way in this thing. But I think I got to where I need to be while I need to be. It happened on time. "
The new single comes a few months after Hamber has already released a double single, with new studio versions of two original songs she created and performed on the "Next Star" show - "Once Upon a Night" and "I Got Me Into the City", which sparked interest on radio stations.
In addition, she held a tour that filled halls (her next performance will be on August 18 at Zappa Tel Aviv as part of the month of Tu B'Av)
. Should you lose your childhood at least for that reason?
"The fact that I was involved in music but I was not very up front kept me going. First, and I got very good feedback.But the fact that it did not explode allowed me to develop, and in retrospect I know it gave me space to study every day at school, sit and write songs, for first love, ride buses for the first friend in Jerusalem, and gain a girl's experiences. "To be honest
,
my childhood in some ways passed before 'Music School' was a much more significant turning point.
My family moved from Mitzpe Ramon to Netanya and there was already a turning point that for me there I no longer felt so much like a girl in the world.
"Over time, I felt more connected to my biological age, but when I was a child, the gap was very large, and I was not so much a girl."
"I would not feel comfortable collaborating with Eyal Golan."
Shai Hambar (Photo: Tom Reichert)
The girl who burst into consciousness in the "School of Music" program at the age of 13 and reached the finals, is already 24. About four years later the same program released a debut album bearing her name.
She served in a military band and last year once again competed in the reality of Rainbow - "The Next Star", where she came in fourth place.
A particularly moving moment on the show was when she performed the song "Once Upon a Night," which she wrote following a recent traumatic sexual assault incident.
"This is a song that is very close to my heart. It has been a very complex two years since I moved to Tel Aviv," Hambar told the show with courage.
"I was assaulted, following which I am today in a kind of post-trauma, and I needed a song to heal me. Unfortunately, a lot of women are being sexually assaulted and I wrote a song that I would just have such comfort."
This week the Indingev Festival canceled performances by singer Atar Meiner and the White Screen Band, following a network protest against their participation after allegations of harassment and abuse.
What do you think about the culture of cancellation?
Should or should not be given a stage and consume works by people whose names have been linked to sexual assault?
Got into the beam thickness of this thing and I do not want to look at it superficially.
"There is a place for people who have hurt to say we have sinned, we have committed a crime, to come to the person they have hurt, to ask for his forgiveness, and perhaps to move on."
More on Walla!
After the cancellation of performances in Zappa: Zvika Pick cancels his performances in Gray as well
To the full article
"As for the culture of cancellation, I was not so aware of it until my little sister who is more into tic tac, told me - cancel Billy Aylish because she said so. Cancel someone else because he said so. I do not have so much position in it. The MeToo is that people who have been hurt will take responsibility for their actions, and ask the men and women they have hurt to forgive. "With those who hurt them, they ask for a smooth white page. It can do good to those who hurt them as well. For me, it could have done very well, if those who hurt me had known about it."
Your artistic director, Keren Peles, who also artistically accompanied Raviv Fiddler, objected to his duet with Eyal Golan.
"I told Reviv that I did not think it was convenient for me to cooperate with him," Peles said.
Would you feel comfortable collaborating with Eyal Golan, given his involvement in the minors' affair?
"I would not feel comfortable collaborating with Eyal Golan. Such collaboration is out of the question. When I was a child we heard a lot of his albums at home, he has amazing songs, and there is always the conflict over whether to separate the artist from his actions. I have friends who listen to Michael C. "
Peles, who serves as its artistic director, is a significant figure for Hambar.
In addition to sounding similar, their paths often crossed: in Hambar's childhood, when she participated in the "School of Music" program in which Peles was on the teachers' panel;
Last year when she starred in the eighth season of "The Next Star," in which Peles serves as a judge;
And the year she entered the role of Mickey in the musical of the national theater that adapted the film "The Band", the same role that Peles played in an earlier version of the musical that appeared 16 years ago on stage.
"I said Keren believed in me even before I believed in myself, and I'm behind this sentence," says Hamber, "there is something cosmic about us. We are constantly discovering things that seem illogical. It is for real. For example, if I am not mistaken, my great-grandmother Of a burial fund next to each other in Yavneel. It's pretty crazy. Besides we both had Pisces. We were born on a nearby date. Raised my grandmother's brother's son. It feels to me that we were meant to work together, that the connection between us was directed at us. Beyond her musicality, and I really adore this woman, I have a very strong emotional connection to her. She really feels like someone who could be incarnate "It could be that we were sisters or a mother and a daughter. When I was a child I would listen to Keren, and the fact that I work with her today is amazing. I appreciate and adore her."
So there are a lot of similarities between you and Keren.
And how are you different?
"We differ in that Keren is bossy, she is very assertive, she is very sharp, she knows how to say things, she has a very good strategic head. But it is already less of a difference between us today, because over the years I also become more assertive and today know more to navigate. My way in the world as a woman and as a musician who needs to know how to stand on her own. Here's something where we are very different: she has a very strong analytical side and I do not have it so. Before she came to Pomegranate she studied 5 maths and 5 computers "I'm not there by any means. I'm just giving myself words and carbs."
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A post shared by Shay Hamber Shay Hamber (@shayhamber)
Earlier this year, as mentioned, Hambar entered one of the lead roles in the new stage adaptation of the National Theater and in a French side direction for the film "The Band" by Avi Nesher - the character of Mickey, who originally played Liron Nirgad.
"This is an iconic film we grew up on. Mickey is a great character, she leads the rebellion against the director, played by our perfect Dov Navon, who behaves very harshly towards everyone, of course towards her. I feel like I have a lot of Mickey, and Mickey has a lot of me "Fragility alongside assertiveness, and this place that wants to make its voice heard. It's a stunning role that I really enjoy playing."
Before playing in the musical "The Band", you served in a military band.
How was the service experience in the band for you, and what do you think is the chance that the military bands will return to their great days?
"I do not think this is something that should happen today. Their goal today is not to go back to the glory days of then, but simply to rejoice and take care of the content for the soldiers. Once upon a time there was only one channel, and it was like 'Star Born'. Today there are so many platforms I'm not sure it will go back to normal. My experience in a military band was meeting amazing musicians who still work with me and to this day are my best friends. It's a place that brings together quite a few talented people who later discover that they can and will make music together, "It has power."
More on Walla!
Boom: Keren Peles torpedoed a duet by Eyal Golan and Raviv Kinner
To the full article
Earlier this year, while Hamber was ill in Corona and had to be in solitary confinement, her grandfather passed away and she could not go to the funeral.
"I fell ill in the corona about five months ago. My grandfather's health condition was a bit complicated, but Tekel's got rid of the corona. He arrived at the corona ward at Rambam Hospital, was resuscitated, and his condition deteriorated overnight.
I was in isolation and the next day I was told he was ill and died.
It was hard for my whole family to be there, and I was in isolation.
I suddenly realized what people were going through, perhaps even more powerfully, at the height of the corona, when it was impossible to get to hospitals and it was impossible to get to funerals.
Until a certain age your parents for you are just a father and mother, and then at a certain age your parents become human in your eyes as well.
When my grandfather died, my mother was suddenly left without parents and I could not be there for her at that moment, and it was very difficult.
Nor did I feel good because I was sick in Corona, and it's hard that I was a person overnight - and we are not, and I could not be at the funeral.
It's tough.
"Chooses to keep my soul."
Hambar (Photo: Ilanit Cohen)
It is said of you that in today's reality you may be "too high quality", and not particularly play the celebrity game.
For example, you are not seen much in the gossip columns.
"That's the biggest compliment I've gotten. It doesn 't bother me whether I'm in gossip columns or not. I'm not working on it. I'm mostly preoccupied for myself, which is to make music, write songs and reach an audience. That's part of my life, but I have no desire for our relationship to be talked about on all sorts of sites, I will not work on it. This is my private life. There's a very challenging thing in writing songs and singing them, because it's very exposed. "There is more room to choose. And I choose to keep my soul, and that's no less important to me than being a little more famous."
After "Music School" you said you would no longer participate in musical reality - but in the end you did and participated in "The Next Star".
And now say again that you will not participate in a musical reality show, or that this time you will be more careful?
"Look, on the one hand I do not think I will do any more reality. On the other hand, I will say I will do. I turned out to say I will not do - and I did. .
Where do you see yourself at 50?
"I hope to be after a good amount of albums and collaborations. I hope to continue to do what I do now and just grow, get more in and get more out, more people and more audiences. And have a family, and I hope children. There are endless dreams to fulfill all. "I'm mostly curious to know what the future will bring me, and what I will bring to it."
And finally, an opposite question from the opening question: What things did you really not want once - and today are you glad you have?
"What I never wanted to do and now I'm interested in doing is a big trip in the world. Three months after I was released, I moved to Tel Aviv, and this is my big trip so far. I have not had a big trip in the world. My summit was two weeks in Europe alone. My trip was inside And not outside. "
culture
Music
Israeli music
Tags
Shay Hamber
Keren Peles
Eyal Golan
Sexual harassment
METOO
The band
The culture of cancellation
