Since November 4, 1995, the singer Gabi Berlin makes it a point to come with his partner Dina Levin-Feller every Friday at noon to the meeting held by the Peace and Democracy Guards organization near the memorial to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “Even if my time is tight or I have a performance, I jump even for half an hour,” he says. “We sing songs, talk about the week’s events and make sure to keep the embers of democracy alive.” Berlin also made sure to attend the demonstrations in Balfour against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They would ask me to sing one or two songs,” he says. “Very few artisans came to the demonstrations.”
Well, most artists do not want to identify with one political camp or another.
“Yes, that’s understandable. It was important to me, for the sake of democracy. My political views are clear. At the concerts, I don’t deal with politics, only music. That’s what the protests and demonstrations are for.”
What grade do you give to the government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid?
“The government did important things. It tried to change things.”
Did she manage to change something about the state’s attitude towards veteran artists?
“There is a shift in this issue, and the Minister of Culture Hili Trooper is really giving a push and budgets to the municipalities, and there are municipalities that allow veteran artists to perform. On the other hand, many municipalities are looking to bring in the young artists to attract an audience, and still on Independence Day, for example, they pay a lot of money to young artists and neglect the veterans I think municipalities should be obliged that whenever they invite a young artist to perform, they will also give a veteran artist a performance.”
Berlin himself has already entered the category of veteran artists, as he celebrated his 80th birthday this week. From his appearance, it is impossible to guess his age. Even in concerts he moves lightly and sings the songs of the Land of Israel in the same deep voice. “I’ve been on stage for more than 60 years and I’m still as excited as I was at the beginning when I sing these beautiful songs,” he says.
We are talking a moment after his weekly meeting in a Tel Aviv cafe with his friends Sheika Levy the Gashesh, Yaakov Neve the singer and Moshe Lahav (the Big Tish). This time they celebrated their achievement. “Sheika was shocked that I was only two years younger than him,” he notes. “Well, I don’t feel my age and I don’t act like it.”
What is your secret to keeping the spirit of youth?
“I am constantly active. I am not one of those who sleep late and waste time. I get up early in the morning and do so many things in one day that sometimes I ask myself how it can be. I train regularly at a gym, meet artists and friends, help those who need it . I market myself on social media and with the help of Dina, my partner takes videos and photos for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. In addition, I am also my own producer. That is, I sell tickets, take care of my musicians, close concerts and travel around the country. Wherever I am invited, I will go. Long trips They don’t deter me. I like to go to settlements in the periphery, where they love the Hebrew singer in an unusual way.”
Berlin is considered one of the leading public singing priests in Israel, alongside names such as Efi Netzer, Sharlah Sharon and Yossi Lev. Poetry is an inseparable part of him, he explains. And as proof, you will find him singing not only at concerts but also on trips, at meetings with friends and in front of his followers on the networks. “It’s the fuel that gets me going every time,” he says.
Is there a young audience for public singing?
“My audience is mostly adults, but I meet quite a few young people who come to concerts thanks to the cassettes their parents used to play at home. They invite me to concerts on their parents’ birthdays. I try to introduce new songs into my repertoire. Just recently I performed ‘She Just Wants to Dance’ at a concert by Omer Adam and Moshe Peretz”.
Is there a future for public singing in Israel?
“Singing with an audience will always be there, because people like to sing songs they know with the artists. What’s more, according to studies, singing in public helps memory and prevent the deterioration of dementia. Today in Israel there is a group called ‘Bovismer,’ who sing in public and appeal to a young audience, and they are the continuation of our path “.
What is your relationship with your colleagues?
“We have a good relationship, there is no competition. Everyone has their niche. I have great respect for Efi Netzer, 88 years old, who continues to perform at his age, and sings his songs at concerts. Sarah’la Sharon also has her own uniqueness and it’s always nice to meet her.”
Disintegration during a recession
Berlin was born in the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood in Tel Aviv in 1942, the son of the singer Shmuel Berlin and the piano teacher Esther Berlin, who immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union. “In my childhood I used to sing at school ceremonies and I learned to play the violin,” he says. “When I turned 12, my mother read an ad in the newspaper looking for children to sing for a new play at the Chamber Theater – ‘As you like.’ , Arik Lavi and Shimon Israeli”.
What was it like as a child to play alongside such great actors?
“I got along with the old actors. I had a good relationship with Eric Lavi, for example. After one of the plays he offered to take me to see the movie ‘Giva 24 Ina Oona’, which he participated in. We watched the movie at the Ofir cinema and then he bought me an ice cream and returned me home. We stayed in good touch and when I started singing in public I hosted him at my concerts.”
Why didn’t you continue with the game?
“I didn’t want to be an actor. I preferred to engage in music. At the age of 15, I joined the Tel Aviv Gdanah orchestra and served as an announcer in the performance of ‘Peter and the Wolf.’ They even wrote a good review about my narration in the newspaper. A year later, I went abroad for the first time for the orchestra’s concert tour in Europe.”
At the age of 18, upon graduating from Tel Aviv City High School A, he tried his luck at the exams for the Gali IDF military radio station. “I wasn’t accepted,” he admits. “I enlisted in the artillery corps and did a communications course. At the battalion’s party, the Armored Sisters Band performed. My bosses, who knew I was musical, sent me to sing at a party. Shaul Bieber, an education officer of the Armored Corps and the founder of the band, was at the same party, heard me and decided to include me in the band’s next program.”
But Berlin was not reflected in the band’s next program “Treatment is Treatment”. Only later, in the show “Singer for Armor” (1962), which was joined by his classmate Nurit Hirsch and Shuki Forer, later the mayor of Rehovot, he was already a star and performed two first solos. “Once a year the Armored Corps would do Corps Day at the Culture Hall in Tel Aviv. Saul Bieber asked me to sing a song in the main show and that’s how I started getting the soloists in the band,” he says.
In 1963, upon his release, he began studying biology at the university. “My mother set a lot of things for me,” he admits. “In the beginning she wanted me to study music and then she wanted me to study at the university.” A year later, his wishes were also manifested. “Rafi Ben-Moshe told me that he was starting a quartet and offered me to join. At first we were in the quartet Hadva Amrani and David Tal from the duo ‘Hadva and David’ and the singer Aryeh Garnot. When Hadva and David left, Natzaya Har-Sagi from the Northern Command band and Oshik Levy from the Central Command band joined.” he rememberd.
The Promenade Quartet recorded two CDs and Erich Negan, which were released in 1965 and stood out thanks to the hits “The Night to the Promenade” and “Wadi Ara”. “It was quite a difficult period in terms of performances, because our competitors were the Roosters and the Gesher Yarkon Trio,” he says. The lineup broke up when Oshik Levy received an offer to join Popik Arnon and Hanan Goldblatt in the trio of twins.
The next band that Berlin joined in 1966 was called “The Seven Kinds”. “Dan Ben-Amotz and Haim Hefer, who ran the Hammam club in Jaffa, told me that they wanted to form a band in which all the members would play and sing folk songs translated into Hebrew,” he says. “Chaim Hefer wrote most of the choruses, Danny Litai was on the choreography, and the one who produced the shows and our album was Benny Amdorski. But because there was a recession, the band didn’t last long and broke up.”
Berlin graduated from university and became a biology and chemistry teacher. “It was a very hard job, to combine the singing career with the teaching,” he says. “In the morning I would go to teach and in the evening I would perform. At one point I went to take a voiceover course at Kol Israel, because it was a dream I wanted to fulfill. I passed the course and was offered a job at the radio studios in Jerusalem, but I couldn’t leave my workplace in Tel Aviv, so I gave up.”
Gabi Berlin 1968 (photo: Yona Photo Studio)Three hours, without a break
At the end of the 1960s, Berlin decided that he had had enough of the bands and asked to start a solo career. To do this he turned to two old friends. His old friend Norit Hirsch, who is also celebrating her 80th birthday this month, gave him two songs she composed: “A song for the unknown” and “A girl is a flower”. His friend Yovev Katz gave him his poem “We have not forgotten”. Berlin came to Kol Yisrael studios and recorded them for the first CD released by Hed Artzi.
“‘Song to the unknown’ reached the number one spot on the song charts and became a hit,” he says. “Then my students found out that their teacher is a star of carol parades and sent postcards to vote for me. In the newspapers they called me ‘the singing teacher’ and also ‘the best teacher among the singers and the best singer among the teachers.’ At the promoter Eitan Gafni’s. At the same time, he also found himself replacing Danny Litani in the musical “Ish Hasid Was”: “Danny was sick and Yankel’a Agmon, the director of the Bima Theater who knew me, asked me to fill his place until he returned. Almagor found out that his wife taught me the role and within 24 hours I was performing In the show, until Danny came back.”
Her exposure to Yahel happened when she was invited to perform at the first children’s song festival. He performed the song “Lil Ba”, which did not win, but became a big hit. “The festival was broadcast on television and the next day they recognized me and recognized me on the street,” he recalls. A short time later, still in 1970, Yoram Teharlev invited him to participate in the play “Dudo Hashemin” together with his uncle Dotan and his uncle Topaz. The role: teacher, just like in life. But despite the spot successes and radio records, Berlin did not release a complete record. “I divided the time between the performances and teaching,” Berlin explains the reason for this. “I taught until the end of the 1980s, mainly in high schools in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. I established a good relationship with the teachers and principals, who liked the fact that I was active in social education and I started singing groups in high schools.”
Don’t you feel like you missed out by not focusing on music at that time?
“No. I don’t have a feeling of missing out, because I really liked the teaching. In general, I don’t like to do just one thing and am always busy with several things at the same time.”
In the late 1970s, he reinvented himself as a singer of public singing. “I liked the idea of the audience singing with the singer,” he explains. “I saw that Effie Netzer and Saraha Sharon were doing well in the field, so I told myself that it could be suitable for me as well, and I started performing mainly in private houses.”
With the beginning of the 80s, singing in public became popular. Clubs dedicated to this musical genre were established in Tel Aviv, including “The Tavern”, “The Kumkom”, “The Slick” and “The Hut”. The first club that opened its doors to Berlin was “Mekom Vadas”, on the beach in Tel Baruch. Slowly more and more people began to gather, artists began to stay with him. “It caught on,” he says. “I sang for about three hours without a break, and I started building strings of hits according to themes: a Hasidic string, a string of translated Russian songs, a string of wine songs and more.”
Gabi Berlin 1989 (photo: Gerry Abramowitz)Known as Zohar Argov
The demand gave birth to the idea of recording his verses on cassettes: “I returned to the recording industry after 15 years of not recording. On the advice of my friend in the teachers’ room, the literature teacher Roni Somek, I collaborated with the arranger and musician Yair Sharaga. I recorded six verses and a new original song, ‘Kama Sims The singer strides'”.
He recorded the cassette in an independent production, and released it in 1987. “Within a month, the cassettes sold like hot cakes,” he says. “Singing with Gabi Berlin” reached the status of a “gold album”, with sales of more than 20 thousand copies. The second cassette, “Like Wine” (1989) and the third, “Miksuf Vesher” (1990) also sold well. Berlin received an offer to sell a video tape, which also sold well: “In the newspapers they called me ‘the king of cassettes’. They wrote that the only one who sells cassettes as fast as I do is Zohar Argov.”
Berlin continued to record cassettes throughout the 1990s and at the end of the decade he began to moderate the pace of the recordings. He continued to sing with the public, with one of his regular habits being to host veteran artists whose songs he regularly sings in his performances. “One day, when I was performing at the beach in Tel Aviv, a man came who introduced himself as Israel Yitzhak,” he recalled. “I knew he was one of the great singing stars of the 1950s, I knew his songs; but I did not know him personally. He said that he had just returned from Australia and asked to sing. I agreed. He sang and it excited the audience. A good friendship was formed between us, until his last days. It’s important to me to give a platform to the veteran artists.”
After a decade in which you were not a member of AMI, you returned to the organization this year and even ran for its presidency. What did you think of last month’s election of Yona Elian as the organization’s chairman?
“I was a member of the executive committee of AM, but I left because I didn’t like what was happening there. Now I decided to go back. It’s important to have an active chairman who knows how to move things along. Yona Elian is an excellent actress, but I don’t know her well and don’t know how she is in public activities, so I can’t express an opinion.”
These days Berlin is working on a new show of the songs of Benny Berman, his best friend. “Sometimes people meet me on the street and are sure it’s him, because I sang his songs in verses.” His joint show with Rami Danoch, the lead singer of Tzlili Ha’ud, continues to run and in general, Berlin is doing what he loves most: singing. “As long as I’m able to perform, I’m not going to stop.”