This is an optimistic interview. You will not find sadness, sorrow or melancholy in it, but inspiration. before the conversation with Mica in the tooth I puzzled over what and how to ask her about her lover, the creator and singer Yigal Bashanwho ended his life almost four years ago, at the age of 68, leaving Mika and their children Uri and Eleanor heartbroken, as are many in the general public.
But Mika, optimistic and full of power, made it clear to me from the beginning, and I couldn’t help but agree with her, that this conversation should be optimistic. “After Yigal’s death, schools and kindergartens began to play his songs, and his works were integrated into the education system,” she says. About the Land of Israel and the love of the land. Something about Yigal’s closeness to children and the way in which he knew how to tell stories and be loved by children – he did it thanks to his personality and managed to get into the hearts of the children. It started with the parents and passed to the children, he looked at each and every child at eye level. The love for Legal and his songs, which cross the generations, led me to the decision to focus exclusively on this. After his death, people and organizations approached me to help with the whole matter of treating depression (Bashen suffered from depression that lasted for years – DP) but I chose, out of respect and appreciation, not to. I chose that my vocation would be to stick to Yigal’s music, because that is the only and main thing I want people to remember about him, and nothing else.”
As part of her work after his death, she coordinated the publication of “I have a small bird in my heart”, a new manga book for children, published in collaboration with the publishing house Garsa Dinkota. The book contains six of Bashan’s well-known poems: “Sivan”, “Tan Li”, “Lord Rush The City”, “Hope Hi”, “Sky” and “I have a little bird in my heart”. Its cover and contents are accompanied by spectacular illustrations by the painter and artist Michel Kishka and woven into it is a summary of stations in his life, as written by Mika herself. Contrary to the custom in books of this type, which give a short taste of each song, all six songs are played in full and performed by Yigal Bashan in their original versions.
“It all started about a year and a half ago, when two dear people – Dov Zigelman and his daughter Tsil Gutman, the owners of the Girsa Dinkota book publishing house – told me that they wanted to publish a children’s book consisting of Yigal’s poems,” Bashan says. “They made a similar book of the poems of Uzi Hitman Z “To. I immediately picked up the glove, because it is important to me that such a book should be in every home, and that Yigal’s music should be accessible to children as well, so that they would grow up listening to his songs. The book does not only include children’s songs, but songs that were familiar and that I know the parents grew up with, songs that Gael loved and songs that I love. After Dov and Chalil agreed to go with me according to the path I choose – I gave my consent.”
Her first step was to contact the illustrator Michel Kischke. “Michel is an illustrator with a supreme grace, and to my delight he gave his consent to create six illustrations according to the six poems in the book, with each illustration having humor and a statement,” she says. I was in the clouds from these meetings, and each illustration was smarter than the previous one. I sent several books to people I know, and the pampering and hugs they wrapped me in were wonderful and moving. Amazing people like Assi Ezer, Rotem Sela, Edva Dadon and Ofira Essig shared the book in their Instagram stories to their millions of followers . I am happy and excited that the book is now included in Stimatsky’s bestseller list in the children’s category.”
we had love
Without planning, we have the conversation on September 4, the date on which they swore allegiance to each other under the canopy exactly 50 years ago, in 1972. The first acquaintance between them was in 1970, at a sports day in Wingate for the members of the military bands. Mika, who at that time bore the last name Maridor, served in the Central Command Group together with colleagues such as Shlomit Aharon, Shlomo Baraba, Nitza Shaul and Shem Tov Levi. He was then the big star of the Northern Command band, which had already maintained a successful four-year career and was considered one of the most famous singers in the country. “Yigal and I used to meet at all kinds of military band events, but on that sports day at Wingate we talked for the very first time,” she recalls. With my friend, who wrote for the newspaper ‘Lasha’. We were entertainment journalists in London. One day, when it was pouring rain outside, I hid under his dog’s canopy to take shelter, and suddenly I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. It was a redemption. That’s it. From that moment on, not We could say goodbye, and life took us.”
It is true that Mika had one song on her record that she recorded after her military service – a solo song called “The End of Every Butterfly”, written and composed by Yair Rosenblum – but she decided to give up her singing career and the limelight, and developed an impressive career as a fashion designer, marketing her designs, among other things, in a store she owns in the State Square in Tel Aviv. “I raised my hands in the field of music as soon as I met Yigal, because I realized that there was a star here. I decided that I would only be behind him,” she says candidly. “I helped with everything I could and I loved it the most in the world. I felt complicit. He shared everything with me, and I witnessed all the songs he wrote. It was fun to be a witness to all the creations, bands and projects he was a part of, to spend time in the rehearsal and recording studios and to be a part of his work.”
What kind of love was it?
“Yegal was my other half, and that’s how I feel to this day. He was and still is. It was and still is such a great love, that cannot be explained or described in words. I live at home and I have a huge picture of him in front of my face. I have a kind of hall made up of his pictures. That’s how I like it. I feel that even if he is not in his body, he is in his spirit, he is with me all the time.”
There was a long period when he was considered the girls’ idol, didn’t that bother you?
“not really no. It never bothered me. I was happy that he was loved, and I also knew that we had love, so she would take care of me and she would take care of him. And so it happened.”
Saber from the land of Saber
In the 1970s Bashan was at the height of his stardom: he appeared on the covers of magazines and newspapers, regularly participated in the country’s leading festivals, the radio broadcast the huge hits he created (“I have a little bird in my heart”, “Coffee at Berta’s”, “Let’s make us a holiday” , “Stars don’t lie”, “And David has beautiful eyes”, “Dizengoff 99” and more), a successful film starring him (“Sarit”) was released and he had successful performances in Israel and abroad. In his songs from that period, he was one of the first to combine East and West and create an authentic Israeli mix that laid the foundation stone for the advancement of pop in Israel. In the mid-1970s, his talent gave him a chance to succeed in a big way abroad as well: through the mediation of Avi Ofarim, who lived in Germany, he signed a recording contract with the German record company Ariola to record songs in German and English. On the covers of these albums he is called “Ben Bashan” and “Neil Bashan”, in an attempt to create a name on an international stage. “We lived there for about a year, but we gave up, because I couldn’t stand it,” says Mika. “We were with a small child, and living among Germans who speak a foreign language to us, especially in the 1970s, which was very scary after the Munich disaster, was not easy. The child He would go to kindergarten and they would guard him outside with weapons – that was not for us, so we returned to Israel.”
Yigal Bashan (Photo: Yaakov Sa’ar, L.A.M.)Later the couple moved to England. He recorded English versions of his well-known songs. For example, “I have a small bird in my heart” became “Sing It Like A Bird” and “Dudi Shev Hahome” became “Montilu”. In addition, original songs were written for him by well-known artists such as Elton John (“Smile That Smile”) and Bryan Adams (“Hiding From Love”, “I’m Ready” and “You Walked Away Again”). And there were also songs he wrote himself in English. One of them, “Suzanne”, which he created with Shmulik Chizik, later became More in his Hebrew version of the hit “Sivan”. The English episode lasted only a few months. “It was a great experience for Yigal, because he recorded at the Beatles’ Abbey Road studios and was very impressed,” says Mika. “He was also very moved by the song he received from Elton John, but he was not prepared for the price that the stay in Europe exacted from him. The distance from family and friends, the distance from football and backgammon. Yigal was a hoarder in all his limbs and was so Israeli in his soul, that it was difficult for him to be far from the country, so we returned.”
In 1981, after his final return to Israel, he joined the band Rosh and recorded his album “Sion”. Besides the successful theme song, the album also included the hit “Tan Li”, which he performed in the pre-Eurovision contest that year.
No one is transparent
Throughout the 1980s, alongside the songs he wrote for adults, Bashan participated in the various festivals and began deepening his connection, as a creator and artist, to the children’s world as well, when among the songs he created in this decade for this target audience were “Hopa Hai”, “Yild Pala”, “Tsigla Bigla” Boom”, “Shy loves you” and “I love you, my beautiful”. Later, with his friends, Uzi Hitman and Yonatan Miller, he founded the band “Kem Tsiani” which produced many hits, including “Kim Tsiani”, “The Land of the Saber” and “We Stay in the Land” which won the title “Song of the Year” in 1985. A year later, the trio received an offer to star in a children’s television program named after the song Beshen created for Gidi Gov for the Children’s Song Festival 8 – “Hopa Hey”. Beshen was the only member of the trio who was in two incarnations: first with Hitman and Miller and later with Aharon Perera and Avi Dor. For 14 A year during which the program was broadcast on television and raised the children of Israel, alongside performances throughout the country, became one of the biggest children’s stars in the country. “Yigal loved the children’s circle very much,” says Mika. “In Hopa Hai he was totally into it, it was just great fun for him. He had great patience with people and children, both before and after the performance. Even if he was stopped on the street, he always made time for people. Yigal was a people person and looked at everyone at eye level. He would see people. There was not a single transparent person in his eyes.”
Yigal Bashan at Hopa High (Photo: Reuven Castro)Do you feel that in those years his success as a child star came at the expense of success in the adult world?
“There were times when yes, there were times when it was impossible to do both. He devoted many years of himself to the children’s world, and this surely came at the expense of the adult world. But still, he always made sure to write for adults as well and occasionally released songs. At some point he decided to take a little break from the children’s world and returned in a big way to perform mainly in front of a more mature audience.”
According to Mika, his most favorite album was recorded by Bashan in 2009. “An Endless Meeting” included 11 of his cover versions of Israeli classics from the 1960s and 1970s with new arrangements by the guitarist Doron Mizrahi, who also produced the album together with Bashan. Bigel was asked to do this project, and he decided that he wanted to give his interpretation to some of the most beautiful songs of the Land of Israel,” says Mika. “He sings songs like ‘Dress white’, ‘An endless meeting’, ‘Ein Gedi’, ‘Talk to me in flowers’. In his delivery it sounds different, sounds amazing. It was an album that was not commercial, but Yigal was proud of it more than anything he had done. It was the album he liked the most.”
How much did Yigal feel appreciated in the last decade of his life?
“He felt very, very appreciated. Recently, because he was weak and not feeling so well, he rarely appeared. He had one show a month at the various Zappa clubs. We made sure he showed up regularly, because that’s what he wanted. It really held him, he loved it and felt the love of the crowd. If he had powers, he would appear more. People showed him a lot of love. When we would take our early morning walks to strengthen him, people would call him in the street calls of love. The media always loved him too. Legal had no shred of ego, and even if his song was less popular, he would immediately think of the next thing. He never went into black bile from the music. It was Yigal. He had a great spring of creations and a wonderful sense of humor. He loved to laugh at himself and make his friends and relatives laugh.”
In the last five years of his life, he suffered from persistent severe pain in his tooth, and as a result, he developed depression. On the few occasions he appeared in public, such as at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s tribute evening in memory of his late friend Uzi Hitman at the Culture Hall in Tel Aviv, he was received with applause by the audience who stood and cheered him for many minutes. In April 2016, he won the Acomm Lifetime Achievement Award for his work for Israeli music. His last big hit, “Sky”, recorded in 2013, is still considered one of his most played songs. On December 9, 2018, at the age of 68, he ended his life.
The commemoration illuminates the heart
“I was a part of Miguel and he was a part of me, so if he experienced something – I was by his side the whole time. both in pain and in joy. Simply all the time,” says Mika and asks to be content with these things. “It’s hard for me to talk about it,” she adds. “His commemoration lights up my heart and helps me deal with the loss of Yigal,” she says. “In this commemoration, I feel that I am leaving Yigal with us, as present as possible. Whether it is through the radio, through the many tribute shows I hold in his memory and now through the magical book this”.
Mika Vigal in Shen (Photo: Noam Wind)Are there any new songs of his that you were exposed to after his death?
“A week after his death I was going through the materials and found an old song of his called ‘With You’, such a stunning song. That day, Friday evening, I called Shlomi Shabbat and told him I was sending it to him. That evening, at 12 midnight, Shlomi wrote to me: ‘I’m recording the song.’ Shlomi’s version is amazing. There is another song that Shigael sings together with Miki Gabrielov, a song written by Prime Minister Yair Lapid and composed by Kobi Ashrat for Naomi Shemer. In the middle of the recording Yigal did not feel so well and did not have time to finish it. After his death, we published the song. Later I discovered two more songs by Yigal that I didn’t know existed and I didn’t remember them. One of them is ‘Take love,’ an amazing song that can lead a bride and groom to the hupa and I want to publish it in Yigal’s voice.”
How do you deal with longing?
“Making and commemorating helps me, and also my great privilege is that I really stayed with so many materials of Yigal on YouTube, that when I feel the need, I go on YouTube and listen to any song I want or watch music videos. My friends Monica Yedlin and Asaf Cohen are responsible for Yigal’s archive and manage his social media pages. We met them as young fans of Yigal, we fell in love with them, and Yigal felt their strength and love and brought them into his close work circle. They remain part of the family to this day.”
Yigal Beshen’s coffin (Photo: Avshalom Sashoni)After years of being behind Yigal, how do you feel about moving to the front of the stage?
“You don’t understand how much the hugs I get from people help. Every day strangers come up to me and tell me how much they love Yigal. It strengthens me and gives me strength. It is so beautiful and so heartwarming, because Yigal touched everyone. That’s what I want them to remember from him.”