The voice of Edna Lev, an Israeli singer and actress, is almost very hard not to recognize from the first second. The softness, which is most associated with her songs, made her over the years a milestone in Israeli music from its beginning, until today. It all started at the age of 16, when the composer Efi Netzer composed his first song ‘Red Beret’. In 1967, not long after, her debut CD bearing the name of her first song was released, which included, among others, ‘My soldier returned’, ‘Jerusalem of iron’ and of course ‘They exist’.
When she was drafted into the IDF and served in the Northern Command Band, Lev quickly became a soloist in the iconic songs ‘If You Return’, ‘Izati Lebed’, ‘Shab Bani’ and ‘Michael and Michael’ alongside Yigal Bashan, who spread the gospel of her voice. In 1970, she broke into an independent career, She even won first place at the Singer and Chorus Festival with ‘You and I were born in 1978’, and later also with ‘Yidid Nefesh’ from the Hasidic Singer Festival in 1972, and ‘A song full of questions’ from the Children’s Song Festival.
In the same year, Lev won the coveted title of singer of the year in the Gali IDF’s annual Hebrew hymn parade, and was chosen to record ‘I need to keep my home’, also with Yigal Bashan. ‘Don’t change me’, the first song she wrote herself, was released Haor was also released a few months ago, and was very successful. Her first album ‘Edna Lev’ was not long in coming, and with a wave of her hand her full name became the prominent hallmark of her songs. Two years later, during the Yom Kippur War, she recorded an album of war songs called ‘War and Peace’ ‘ Her version of the song by the singer and composer Noam Kaniel ‘I confess before you’, which was also colored by her special voice.
Her third album arrived in 1980, also bearing her name, in which ‘A little tired’, ‘Otherwise’, ‘They don’t understand what it is without sunshine’, ‘Less painful past’ which were very successful. Almost a decade later, Edna released her fourth album, then the fifth and two exciting compilation albums – all of them seem to continue her very special path. Even in the last decades Lev continues to create and build more surprising and musical collaborations, and still maintains the special mix between Kol Zach and good music.
As part of the ‘Artists Editing Shabbat Hebrew’ project, Lev chose some of her favorite Israeli singers and ensembles over the years, from the North Command band, Laviv Gefen, Avi Toledano, Rivka Zohar, Arik Einstein and of course Yigal Bashan. Pleasant listening!
The list of songs:
- Here – Orna and Moshe Detz
- Love is a flower – Northern Command Band
- On the way back – my father was born
- Between us – Yigal Bashan
- Your freedom – Chava Elberstein
- Autumn wind – Eric Einstein
- The North Star – The Northern Command Band
- A beautiful son was born – Rivka Zohar
- The song of the Spanish lover – Rita
- How He Sings – Danny Robbs
- On the rooftops of Tel Aviv – Alona Daniel
- Go with her – Ilana Rubina
- Most of the time my wife – Shlomo Artzi
- If you still love me – Boaz Sharabi
- See far, see clearly – Shmulik Krauss
- Winter 73 – Special Education Band
- To cry to you – Aviv Gefen
- Take care of the world – David Daor
- The road to the village – Rivka Zohar
- With one song one song – Israeli artists