Aya Korem
Encyclopedia
Aya Korem is an Israel
i pop
/rock
singer and songwriter
. She was the runner-up for two Female Singer of the Year awards in 2006.
's Armored Corps.
Since childhood Korem has been singing and performing, playing the guitar and the piano. Between 2001 and 2004 she studied Songwriting, Composition
and Performance
at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Ramat HaSharon
, a school that gave birth to many Israeli singers such as Noa
and Aviv Geffen
. She was part of the "magic class", studying together with Miri Mesika
, Keren Peles
, Ohad Hitman and Eric Berman that went on to be popular singers. She enrolled in the music college just to "pass some time" until she decided what she really wanted to study, but ended up having a successful music career. She dreamed of being an architect, and one of her temporary jobs was cake baking at a bakery.
Nowadays Aya lives in Tel Aviv. She has a public profile on Facebook
and a page on MySpace
.
in April 2005. Only after receiving compliments for her voice did she decide to also become a singer and started working on her own album.
In 2006 Korem released her debut album, Aya Korem. It was produced by Ori Zakh, a close friend and Miri Mesika's husband, a Rimon graduate who also produced both Miri Mesika's albums and Ohad Hitman's first album. The work on the album's songs began already during Aya's studies. In February 2006 the first single was released, Kayitz (קיץ, "Summer")—a song of hope for a lover that would come one day "like summer". The second single from the album, Shir Ahava Pashut (שיר אהבה פשוט, "Simple Love Song") was released in March 2006, reached #1 on the Reshet Gimel chart and came 4th in the Song of the Year competition. Later came Klipa (קליפה, "Peel"), Yonatan Shapira (יונתן שפירא), BeSof HaLayla (בסוף הלילה, "In the end of the night"), Ata Zorem Etzli BaDam (אתה זורם אצלי בדם, "You Are Flowing in My Blood") and HaShir shel Itay (השיר של איתי, "Itay's Song"). The album features mostly songs written by Korem herself, with the exception of Milim (Eric Berman), HaShir shel Itay (Itay Perl) and Pgisha (Aya Korem and Meron Agar).
Aya Korem is part of "the parliament"—a group of Rimon graduates regularly meeting for songwriting sessions. "The parliament" also consists of Eric Berman, Itay Perl, Yonatan Gotfeld, Yael Nahshon and Ohad Levy. Four songs in the album were written for "parliament" meetings, including "Yonatan Shapira", which Korem wrote as an assignment to write a song about a job announcement. "Yonatan Shapira" is a humorous love song for a pilot Aya met during her studies in Rimon, one of the signers of the pilots' letter. According to Aya Korem, Yonatan Shapira was not pleased with the song, but living abroad, did not suffer much from the consequences.
Korem received the Golden Album award, which was handed over to her on her 27th birthday party. The album sold about 30,000 copies. Korem came second in the female Singer of the Year competition both on Reshet Gimel and on Galgalatz
. Her album was criticized for being too mainstream and for the fact that all its songs are about love and relationships. Korem recorded videos for some of the songs and went on a 1.5-year performance tour. At the beginning she performed with a band, but after taking part in a piano festival in the end of 2006, she switched to more intimate gigs, performing with a piano
and a cello
only.
Aya Korem wrote the song Tmuna (תמונה, "Image") for Miri Mesika's second album, which was released in 2007. In the same year Hila Zaytun released a single of Aya's song Rak Lihyot Ito (רק להיות איתו, Only to Be with Him").
, cabaret
and country
influences. The lyrics deal with a wider range of subjects than those of the first album. The first single, HaSof shel HaSipur (הסוף של הסיפור, "The End of the Story"), is a sad love song co-written by Aya Korem and Eric Berman. The single was released in December 2007. In February 2008 Al Ta'amini (אל תאמיני, "Do Not Believe") was released. The lyrics of Al Ta'amini talk about the fleeting condition of a celebrity in the popular culture. "And then somebody will say: 'your time is over, and now let someone else take the stage'", wrote Korem. The song was inspired by Janis Ian
's song Stars, which is even credited in the liner notes
of the album. Two more songs from this album have been released as singles: Otobiografia (אוטוביוגרפיה, "Autobiography") and Akhshav Kazot (עכשיו כזאת, "Now like This").
The lyrics of Zahav Shahor (זהב שחור, "Black Gold") are a female answer to the classic song Atur Mitzkhekh written by Yoni Rechter
. Korem's producer Ori Zakh sent Aya's lyrics to Rechter, and Rechter agreed to write music for the song. In 2009 Aya Korem also recorded the original song Atur Mitzkhekh for the 70th birthday of its original singer, Arik Einstein
. The song Tania (טניה) is inspired by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
's novel Journey to the End of the Night
. Most of the songs are written by Korem herself also in her second album. The exceptions are Ruhot HaMa'arav (רוחות המערב, "Western Winds") by Yonatan Gotfeld, Akhshav Kazot with music by Ilay Botner, "HaSof shel HaSipur" and "Zahav Shahor".
Both albums were recorded with the Anana label of the Hed Arzi Music corporation.
In 2008 Korem recorded a cover for Eran Tzur's song Erev Bet Kislev (ערב ב' כסלו, "The 2nd of Kislev
Eve") for the Hebrew Labor 2 collection of cover versions dedicated to the 60th anniversary of independence. Korem also musically produced the song. She also performed three of her songs for the Pizmon Hozer project, dedicated to the birthday of Gilad Shalit
, a captured Israeli soldier, and organized by the NRG website operated by Ma'ariv
.
Korem kept performing at small venues after the release of Safa Zara. At the performances she introduced the audience to a new political protest song, Ha'Isha im HaSakit (האישה עם השקית, "The Woman with the Bag"), with a fast rock rhythm.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
singer and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. She was the runner-up for two Female Singer of the Year awards in 2006.
Background
Aya Korem was born on January 7, 1980 in Nazareth Ilit and spent her childhood there. She served as an instructor at the IDFIsrael Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
's Armored Corps.
Since childhood Korem has been singing and performing, playing the guitar and the piano. Between 2001 and 2004 she studied Songwriting, Composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
and Performance
Musical performance
Musical performance may refer to:* Concert* Performance* Recital* Audition: a performance in front of a panel of judges* Concerto: a virtuoso solo work * Musical technique...
at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Ramat HaSharon
Ramat Hasharon
Ramat HaSharon is a city located on Israel's central coastal strip in the south of the Sharon region, bordering Tel Aviv to the south and Herzliya and Kibbutz Glil Yam to the north. It is part of the Tel Aviv District, within Gush Dan metropolitan area...
, a school that gave birth to many Israeli singers such as Noa
Achinoam Nini
Achinoam Nini , also known by her professional name, Noa, is a leading Israeli international concert and recording artist.-Career:...
and Aviv Geffen
Aviv Geffen
Aviv Geffen is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, keyboardist and guitarist. He is the son of writer and poet Yehonatan Geffen and Nurit Makover, brother of actress Shira Geffen, and an alumnus of Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.Geffen was and is extremely popular...
. She was part of the "magic class", studying together with Miri Mesika
Miri Mesika
Miriam "Miri" Mesika is an Israeli singer and actress. She won several Israeli Female Singer of the Year awards. She has sold more than 100,000 copies of her albums in Israel.-Background:...
, Keren Peles
Keren Peles
-Music career:Peles graduated from the Rimon music school. In 2005 she became famous for her songwiriting for Miri Mesika and Shiri Maimon.Her debut album, If This Is Life was released in July 2006 and was certified gold after selling 20,000 copies. Peles wrote all of the songs on the album...
, Ohad Hitman and Eric Berman that went on to be popular singers. She enrolled in the music college just to "pass some time" until she decided what she really wanted to study, but ended up having a successful music career. She dreamed of being an architect, and one of her temporary jobs was cake baking at a bakery.
Nowadays Aya lives in Tel Aviv. She has a public profile on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and a page on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
.
2005–2007: Breakthrough
Aya Korem started her music career as a songwriter during her studies. Aya's first public exposure was the song Ata af Pa'am (אתה אף פעם, "You Will Never"), released in the first album of Miri MesikaMiri Mesika
Miriam "Miri" Mesika is an Israeli singer and actress. She won several Israeli Female Singer of the Year awards. She has sold more than 100,000 copies of her albums in Israel.-Background:...
in April 2005. Only after receiving compliments for her voice did she decide to also become a singer and started working on her own album.
In 2006 Korem released her debut album, Aya Korem. It was produced by Ori Zakh, a close friend and Miri Mesika's husband, a Rimon graduate who also produced both Miri Mesika's albums and Ohad Hitman's first album. The work on the album's songs began already during Aya's studies. In February 2006 the first single was released, Kayitz (קיץ, "Summer")—a song of hope for a lover that would come one day "like summer". The second single from the album, Shir Ahava Pashut (שיר אהבה פשוט, "Simple Love Song") was released in March 2006, reached #1 on the Reshet Gimel chart and came 4th in the Song of the Year competition. Later came Klipa (קליפה, "Peel"), Yonatan Shapira (יונתן שפירא), BeSof HaLayla (בסוף הלילה, "In the end of the night"), Ata Zorem Etzli BaDam (אתה זורם אצלי בדם, "You Are Flowing in My Blood") and HaShir shel Itay (השיר של איתי, "Itay's Song"). The album features mostly songs written by Korem herself, with the exception of Milim (Eric Berman), HaShir shel Itay (Itay Perl) and Pgisha (Aya Korem and Meron Agar).
Aya Korem is part of "the parliament"—a group of Rimon graduates regularly meeting for songwriting sessions. "The parliament" also consists of Eric Berman, Itay Perl, Yonatan Gotfeld, Yael Nahshon and Ohad Levy. Four songs in the album were written for "parliament" meetings, including "Yonatan Shapira", which Korem wrote as an assignment to write a song about a job announcement. "Yonatan Shapira" is a humorous love song for a pilot Aya met during her studies in Rimon, one of the signers of the pilots' letter. According to Aya Korem, Yonatan Shapira was not pleased with the song, but living abroad, did not suffer much from the consequences.
Korem received the Golden Album award, which was handed over to her on her 27th birthday party. The album sold about 30,000 copies. Korem came second in the female Singer of the Year competition both on Reshet Gimel and on Galgalatz
Galgalatz
Galgalatz is a popular Israeli radio station operated by Israel Defense Forces Radio. This is the second of two Israel Defense Forces-operated stations, while the first one is Israel Defense Forces Radio/Galatz. The station was established in 1993 and broadcasts primarily nonstop pop music and...
. Her album was criticized for being too mainstream and for the fact that all its songs are about love and relationships. Korem recorded videos for some of the songs and went on a 1.5-year performance tour. At the beginning she performed with a band, but after taking part in a piano festival in the end of 2006, she switched to more intimate gigs, performing with a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and a cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
only.
Aya Korem wrote the song Tmuna (תמונה, "Image") for Miri Mesika's second album, which was released in 2007. In the same year Hila Zaytun released a single of Aya's song Rak Lihyot Ito (רק להיות איתו, Only to Be with Him").
2008: Safa Zara
Having yet about 70 songs unpublished, Aya Korem released her second album, Safa Zara (שפה זרה, "Foreign Language"), on February 28, 2008. The album includes songs she wrote at the age of 26-27 and has jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
influences. The lyrics deal with a wider range of subjects than those of the first album. The first single, HaSof shel HaSipur (הסוף של הסיפור, "The End of the Story"), is a sad love song co-written by Aya Korem and Eric Berman. The single was released in December 2007. In February 2008 Al Ta'amini (אל תאמיני, "Do Not Believe") was released. The lyrics of Al Ta'amini talk about the fleeting condition of a celebrity in the popular culture. "And then somebody will say: 'your time is over, and now let someone else take the stage'", wrote Korem. The song was inspired by Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
's song Stars, which is even credited in the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
of the album. Two more songs from this album have been released as singles: Otobiografia (אוטוביוגרפיה, "Autobiography") and Akhshav Kazot (עכשיו כזאת, "Now like This").
The lyrics of Zahav Shahor (זהב שחור, "Black Gold") are a female answer to the classic song Atur Mitzkhekh written by Yoni Rechter
Yoni Rechter
Yoni Rechter is an Israeli musician, composer, pianist, arranger and singer.-Biography:Yonatan Rechter was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was the son of Israeli architect Ya'akov Rechter and stepson of Israeli actress Hanna Meron. He attended Tichon Hadash high school...
. Korem's producer Ori Zakh sent Aya's lyrics to Rechter, and Rechter agreed to write music for the song. In 2009 Aya Korem also recorded the original song Atur Mitzkhekh for the 70th birthday of its original singer, Arik Einstein
Arik Einstein
Arik Einstein is an Israeli singer-songwriter.Einstein was a vocalist for Batzal Yarok , Shleeshiyat Gesher Hayarkon and Hahalonot Hagvohim . His collaboration with Shalom Hanoch and the Churchills planted the seeds for the first Israeli rock albums...
. The song Tania (טניה) is inspired by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...
's novel Journey to the End of the Night
Journey to the End of the Night
Journey to the End of Night is the first novel of Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work describes antihero Ferdinand Bardamu....
. Most of the songs are written by Korem herself also in her second album. The exceptions are Ruhot HaMa'arav (רוחות המערב, "Western Winds") by Yonatan Gotfeld, Akhshav Kazot with music by Ilay Botner, "HaSof shel HaSipur" and "Zahav Shahor".
Both albums were recorded with the Anana label of the Hed Arzi Music corporation.
In 2008 Korem recorded a cover for Eran Tzur's song Erev Bet Kislev (ערב ב' כסלו, "The 2nd of Kislev
Kislev
Kislev Kislev Tiberian ; also Chislev is the third month of the civil year and the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar....
Eve") for the Hebrew Labor 2 collection of cover versions dedicated to the 60th anniversary of independence. Korem also musically produced the song. She also performed three of her songs for the Pizmon Hozer project, dedicated to the birthday of Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit is an Israeli – French citizen and Israel Defense Forces soldier. On 25 June 2006, he was captured inside Israel by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid via underground tunnels near the border with Gaza. The Hamas militants held him for over five years, until he was released on...
, a captured Israeli soldier, and organized by the NRG website operated by Ma'ariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
.
Korem kept performing at small venues after the release of Safa Zara. At the performances she introduced the audience to a new political protest song, Ha'Isha im HaSakit (האישה עם השקית, "The Woman with the Bag"), with a fast rock rhythm.