Recently I happened to watch Usha Uthup's interview in television; what an amazing lady! In a period of classics, she broke all convetional music forms and emerged as a 'pop queen' having sung in all 15 Indian languages and 12 foreign languages. Neither she has a mellifluous voice nor has a professional training in music; yet she managed to twinkle in the world of music through her ever cheerful attitude and a magical smile that brings joy to the listener! However this post is not about her but the song she sang in the interview.
Hava Nagila- the Hebrewian song of joy! If you have seen Tamil movie 'Mozhi', you would have come across the song.Abraham Zvi Idelsohn is believed to have penned the song at the close of World War I to celebrate the British victory over the Turks. The song remained popular only in the Zionist cirles in United States and Europe .Lateron the American musicians who explored new avenues of music, turned to Hava Nagila for folk. Mambo legend Machito was one among them who brought Hava Nagila to American music. But one of the legends who made the world nod their head for Hava Nagila was Harry Belafonte! Following the success of the song in 1950s, he used to sing Hava Nagila always as the closing number for all his concerts and appealed the audience thorughly. However his performance at the Carnegie Hall in 1959 was the best selling record.The song then travelled through various decades, got remixed into all forms like reggae,punk rock, techno all across the globe among the Latinos, Africa, Macedonia...But still the original folk version remains the embodiment of Jewish song of celebration and joy!
So let us all rejoice along with Hava Nagila!
To Listen/Download: Hava Nagila- Harry Belafonte
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