For nearly five years, composer and singer Shaul Tsirlin, who celebrated his 63rd birthday yesterday, hovered between life and death and with complete uncertainty about his future, when he was diagnosed with kidney failure. “They didn’t tell me that, I just arrived at the hospital after feeling a little unwell. The doctors told me: ‘Your kidneys are done, you need dialysis. If you had come in a week, it would have been in the closet,'” he recalls. “It left me in shock for a period of many months. Somehow I survived.”
Describe this period.
“There were people who wanted to come and donate a kidney to me, but they were not suitable. It was a terrible period of uncertainty, I went to bed not knowing if I would wake up in the morning. I felt on the verge of death.” Salvation came about a year and a half ago, when a donor was found for him. “My life was saved thanks to a 42-year-old angel named Or, who donated my kidney and saved my life. We became friends, like family”, he says. “The doctors told me that it takes about a year for the body to fully absorb the kidney, so I’m getting stronger day by day.”
likes to cook
Seven years after he was forced to stop performing, Tsirlin returns to the stage for the first time in a new show, “Or and Good”, a name he chose inspired by his kidney donor, in which he will present new songs alongside familiar hits: “This is the first show I’ve put on since I found out I was sick, I gathered four good musicians : Sivan Sher (piano), Gal Faran (bass), Ilya Magalnik (accordion) and Gal Zavikalski (percussion), and the guest singer Enav Efrat. It’s a big thrill and I hope I go through it well because I haven’t performed in several years. Half of the show will consist of new songs that I wrote and composed and half of it, of course, with the well-known songs like ‘Sugar’, ‘Life is wine’ and ‘Fishermen’.”
Tsirlin’s romance with music began in his youth in Kibbutz Osha near Kiryat Ata. “It is true that I already started writing songs at the age of 11, but the composition and playing joined a little before the army”, he says. “I wasn’t thinking about a career as a singer, just how to impress the kibbutz girls. As time went by, I realized that music occupies a more significant volume in me.”
Upon his release from the army, he began performing in pubs throughout the country and abroad with covers of songs by Elvis Presley and John Denver alongside original songs (“I made about $100 a night”), but his professional life took a turn in 1985 when he met the composer Nacha Heiman, who retired from him His patronage. “We performed a lot together and over time I realized that he really believed in me,” says Zirlin. “He was a very interesting type and we were good friends. When I recorded my first album, he told me that the whole country would talk about it – and he was right.”
In 1989, Tsirlin’s debut album, “Sugar”, was released, the theme song from which is considered one of the biggest hits of that time. “This song was written in 1986 and I performed with it on stages in joint shows with Nacha, who pressured me to release it,” he says.
How did you get the success?
“Every time I turned on the radio, I heard ‘Sugar’ playing. I received it with love and a lot of fun. I didn’t believe it would succeed with this intensity, but it was clear to me that it wouldn’t last forever.”
Until he fell ill, Zirlin made sure to combine his musical career with other sources of income. “I had all kinds of restaurants, more in the direction of gourmet restaurants, Italian and French food, and I also had hummus”, he says. “I really like the culinary world and I like cooking as much as singing and composing. Culinary is a very strong part of my life, and maybe I will try to return to it. It’s all a matter of how much energy I will have in my body and soul.”
Tsirlin, who never married, was in a relationship for most of his life, with one of his most famous and well-publicized relationships being with Miri Shilon, Dan Shilon’s ex-wife. The relationship between them caused a media storm when in a conversation between Shilon and her daughter, Adi, recorded in episode 12 of the reality show “Connected”, Shilon claimed that Tsirlin had attacked her. Shilon filed a complaint with the police and Tsirlin was finally convicted of assault and threatening and sentenced to three months of probation. Later the couple returned to live together, but separated again.
“We returned two months later, but in the end I left knowing that it could cost me my soul,” he says now. “I just think about it and remember with great sadness how petty and disgusting it can get.” After the kidney transplant, Tsirlin moved to Kfar Yona with his best friend, the photographer Herzliya Hoffman, and in two months he plans to move to the Galilee. “I live on social security today, and it doesn’t give me great options to choose where to live,” he explains. “I really like the Galilee and the abilities there are financially possible for me and I will feel both pleasant and good there, and in general, I don’t like to depend on anyone.”
What do you do for a living today?
“At the moment I am not working. This show and the ones after it are not really a living, but really to get myself back into business in the hope that I can strengthen myself. I adapt my life to what the National Insurance allows me. It’s not much, but I want to be satisfied with what there is.”
What do you wish for yourself?
“Being healthy enough to enjoy what I do. I have my little microphone on my cell phone, I record an idea and after a while write and develop it. I wish myself good health and continued enjoyment and ability as much as possible.”
The launch of Shaul Tsirlin’s new show will take place on February 9 at 20:30 at the Tel Aviv Creator House.