Ten years ago, Ivri Lider was a gangly newbie with rock ’n’roll dreams.
Today, he’s one of Israel’s biggest stars, huge in a way that’s very difficult to achieve in such a tiny place. He performs duets with reigning doyens and rising stars, fills the biggest halls and enjoys a generation-spanning popularity most American performers can’t imagine. His music moves through various genres, and at any given moment, Israeli radio is playing one of his oddly rocking electronica tracks, or a ballad he’s penned, or a tune from a movie he’s scored.
And he’s gay. Really, really gay. And out. One might say he’s the Dumbledore of Hebrew radio.
But is he ready to cross the ocean and find a place in America?
Leading gay monthly Out magazine thinks so, and has named Lider one of 2007’s “Out 100,” the magazine’s annual list of movers and shakers.
This is in response to Lider’s song “Jesse,” on a compilation produced by Sony’s LGBT label, Music With a Twist. In an atmospheric track lamenting love wasted on a boy who “doesn’t love me back,” Lider touches on universal romantic hopelessness: “He’ll change his world for me/If he just knew my name.” It’s the only selection by a non-American, and Lider is understandably proud of his inclusion and of his place on the Out list.
He’s working on his first English-language album, but America is a niche-driven place, and having traveled its byways on a small tour last year, Lider understands that, at least initially, he will be performing mostly for gays and Jews. Or gay Jews.
“That doesn’t bother me at all,” he told The Shmooze, “in the hope that it’ll [ultimately] go beyond that niche, too.”
Not one to deal directly with Jewish or Zionist themes, Lider nonetheless says that one of his reasons for coming to America is to show Israel “as a cool, fun, liberal place.” “I don’t always agree with everything going on here,” he said, speaking from Tel Aviv, “but I love my county.”
“I want to show people its other side.”
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Good luck Ivri! I hope that you find the Jews in the USA less homophobic then our Israeli Society! Best wishes for a huge success!
Good luck from Hungary too:)
hi there, more power to you...
welcome you to china,there have a lot of your fans. best wishes for your success!
u gotta come to venezuela... ;) i luv ur music
Ivri i hope you could come soon to USA, I would live to enoy your concert. Am Mexican and i really enjoy your music. Looking forward for your album in english. Good Luck!!!
Wish best of luck, he deserves to be known in America. Excellent music and wonderful lirics with outstanding messages. The world would be a better place if we all take the time to embrace someone with Mr. Liders talent. May God Bless and love, health and success in future endeavors.
good luck to you Ivri. I love your music.
Boa sorte, Ivri. Nós brasileiros amamos você. Good luck, Ivri. Brazilian love you.
i just heard your song "Jesse" for first time. i really hope to see your album come here in the US i love that you are gay and are not afraid to back down from showing your sexuality or faith. i only wish others could do the same i wish the best luck to you i am also gay and christian and i will most defiantly buy your CD. i am happy that i found your song. your just awesome.
I came to "discover" Ivri Lider after the perfect sound track for the Israeli movie "Yossi & Jagger". Both music and movie were to me surprisingly wonderful, just wonderful. My tears rolled down with story, acting and sound & voice, that voice... somehow hoarse, soft, deep and warm hearted moaning. All for a common cause of love, gay and human sensibility. Congratulations also for Eytan Fox a memorable masterpiece. Unfortunatelly Israeli movies and singers aren't known in Brazil with, maybe the exception of the Jewish community, mainly in São Paulo (the second largest community in Latin America) but I confess that even at the TV programs for the Jewish community, eg. "Mosaico", we hardly hear about Israeli pop singers & movies. It seems that the Jewish community wants only to keep the good & old tradition alive. Ivri has to spread out his work not only in America but in Europe and South America, mostly in Argentina & Brazil, and yet, he should do it in Hebrew, not only for the peculiar sonority of the language as well as a great form to honour his country and culture.
I'm disheartened by your placement of "Yes on 8" ads on the same page as an article about a Gay performer.
I have been astounded by your music and performance both in Hebrew, which I especially love, and English. I first came across "Your Soul" in Yossi and Jagger, then found "The Man I Love" followed later by "Jesse". Your collaborations have been brilliant. While you may not yet loom large on the scene here in the states, you certainly have the talent to do so. Much luck to you. I hope sometime to be able to see you in the states and to be able to buy your work in any language.
WE love you more in ISrael :)
I LOVE YOUR MUSIC, I FOUND IT OUT BECAUSE OF YOUR SONG "BO" IN THE FILM JOSSIE AND JAGGER. LOTS OF LOVE FROM SPAIN, I WISH YOU CAME TO BILBAO. CONGRATULATIONS AND THE BEST OF LUCK!