Just a moment ago, an apology.
When 10 ultra-Orthodox people asked me for the five songs that made the year, I replied that I work in the Jewish music profession, and that it wasn't that interesting to ask me that question. Because, no matter what I write, someone will say: "But you make a living off these people.".
It wouldn't be a lie, although not the entire list is here.
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The Creator has done me a great favor by sending me to make a living doing the work I love, with people I love. The most creative and successful artists.
And yes, it just so happens that some of them are on this list.
So those are my five. I have at least five more songs that excited me this year, but we'll stop with those.
Happy New Year.
It is customary to give every wonderful song a title. Some will exaggerate with the title 'duet of the year' and tie crowns of impossible height and depth. That is not the story of "Nefshi" - the duet that brings together two musical giants in two different genres in one performance.
Moti Steinmetz, the artist of emotion, the one who shakes every heart with his bell-like voice, is a friend of Yishai Ribo, who is a master in his Israeli field, a man who has playlists like Galgalatz, but also Kol Chai Music, dirt at his feet - to a thrilling and moving result. My soul.
The richly toned harmony that emanates from the loudspeaker is greater than the sum of its parts. How fortunate that Naomi Bennett, Robbie's wife, insisted on realizing the crazy idea that crossed her mind, and which on paper sounds strange indeed.
They said he was bold and too modern.
This happened when the music video for "I'm a Jew" was released. The guy, as befits a Chabadnik, focused on promoting a well-known Chabad term, "Gaon Yaakov" - which basically means that we as Jews should be proud and enhance our identity as such.
Friedman, who studies at the Boker kollel, consulted with his rabbis and made a decision that was risky in those days: to include a woman in his music video.
In retrospect, it turned out that the public and the generation had already been trained for this, but this is Benny Friedman, a true Chabad follower, who makes no compromises to halacha and Hasidism, and courageously decides to do everything that speaks to the youth, and especially to those who are swaying towards foreign, gentile music.
''Avri Anoch' has become a widely circulated anthem with an unreasonable number of views on YouTube for a bilingual Jewish song, cover versions and remixes, a special dance and what not.
This song, for all it represents, definitely elevates the genius of Yaakov in 2018.
He hasn't been the same guy for a long time.
Yeshiva students know all the lyrics to his songs (including one in French!) and sing them not only in the showers.
Yishai Ribo is a broad-ranging phenomenon, not limited to a sector, who is not ashamed of his black dome and his endless love of Torah and literature.
The song that made him stand out this year is 'Once and for All' from the platinum album 'Gray Space.' Ribo's lyrics are bold, direct, and unabashed.
With my own eyes, I saw non-observant Israelis singing together these impossible words: "This moment again, here I am, detailing myself before you to the last penny, talking high and mighty, but doing very little. And I returned to Syria, and I was wrong in saying that I will not sin again and return, I will not sin and return, and somehow you have provided for me again...".
This year, Shweki reinvented himself.
The man who had been bound for many years to an American Mizrahi Hasidic formula decided on a change of strategy. He met with renowned Israeli writers, contemporary arrangers from the field of Israeli music, and heard dozens of melodies and lyrics, until he accumulated enough good songs for 'Music' - his last album for now.
I got to broadcast a daily program in the summer on Kol Hai Radio, and like many of my colleagues, I needed a list of summery rhythmic hits designed to get me through the 'between times.' Shweki's album was a starter and sometimes a main course on every menu. If I had to mark the hit that turned me on the most (literally), I would mark 'Ash.'.
And the truth is that it's not surprising: This is a formula song that is built to succeed. With the lyrics by the excellent Miriam Israeli, and the melody by Itzi Waldner - there's no chance of missing out.
In my profession, when an artist or their manager calls and asks for a meeting, in some cases it takes place because I don't like to refuse; in some cases because I feel obligated to help newcomers gain a foothold and take a position on the next generation's field; and rarely do you feel that the next generation star is sitting timidly waiting for his turn.
And when that is the case – alongside the great responsibility, there is great respect for the young man sitting across from me.
Such is Zevulun Netanov, a young Chabadnik (another young Chabadnik) who writes amazing and unconventional Jewish music, who pays attention to every note and brings to expression an exceptional voice and singing.
This year, for the first time in his life, he offered the Israeli public two singles, both excellent, special and different from anything we are used to hearing here.
The messenger, who in his free time works to bring Jews closer to the neighboring moshav, arrives as a skilled and regular rapper and turns all of us on.
