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IDAN RAICHEL Biography Brief Idan Raichel – producer, keyboardist, lyricist, composer and performer. During a career spanning a mere 17 years, Idan has become not only one of the most successful artists in Israel but also one of Israel’s leading music ambassadors abroad, with tours which included performances at some of the leading festivals as well as shows in the most prestigious venues, such as New York's Central Park Summer Stage, Apollo Theater, Town Hall and Radio City Music Hall, Los Angeles’s Kodak Theater, the Sydney Opera House, Zenith in Paris, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein Concert Hall. audiences from a variety of cultures across Europe, in South & Central America, in Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Ghana, and Japan – and the list goes on. In addition, Idan has entered into exciting collaborations with many great artists, including American pop stars India.Arie and Alicia Keys, and artists who are household names in their own countries, such as Portugal's Ana Moura, Celentano, the Iranian singer Golazin, and Mali's Vieux Farka Touré. Over the years, Idan has become an ambassador representing a world of hope in which artistic collaboration breaks down barriers between people of different backgrounds and beliefs. In the albums he has produced to-date with The Project, as well as in the other artistic ventures with combined with lyrics in a variety of languages including Arabic, German, Spanish, Amharic, French and Hebrew, which worked its way into being part of the Israeli mainstream as well as into the hearts of the general public in Israel and overseas. With The Idan Raichel Project, Idan has released four studio albums and a 3-CD set (which contains live concert recordings, songs that were not included in other albums and rare recordings of Raichel in the studio). Idan has also teamed up with Vieux Farka Touré, releasing two albums by the Touré-Raichel Collective, in addition to releasing three solo albums – one in December 2015, a 2-CD package of mostly “in concert” tracks in September 2017, and the third in January 2019. All the albums have been released worldwide. In Israel, total album sales are approaching 700,000 units; there have been in excess of 2 million digital downloads, and tens of millions of paid-for streaming events. The number of “hits” on YouTube is around the 262 million mark as of June 2020. Biography Idan Raichel was born in 1977, in Kfar Saba, Israel, to a family with Eastern European roots, and although music was an important part of his upbringing, his parents did not place much emphasis on performing music from their particular cultural background. “I think the fact that I didn’t have strong family musical roots is what made me so open to music from around the world,” says Idan. Idan started playing the accordion (which he likes to call “the uncoolest instrument ever”) when he was 9 years old, and even at this young age was attracted to the exotic sounds of Gypsy music and tango. As a teenager, Idan moved to keyboards, and studied jazz in high school, which honed his skills at improvisation and working with other musicians. After completion of his military service, Idan soon 1 established himself as a successful backup musician and recording session player and worked with such major Israeli artists as Riki Gal, Ivri Lider and Mickey Kam. Whilst accumulating experience working with other musicians, and having come to the conclusion that it was time to pursue a project that reflected his musical vision as a writer, composer and producer, Idan began working on a demo recording in a small studio he set up in the basement of his parent’s home. He thought it would be a good idea to invite a number of different singers and musicians to participate, in order to better demonstrate his distinct style and the way in which he worked with a variety of artists. Some 30 different singers took part in the recordings, most of them coming from an Ethiopian background. His love for the ever-developing technology, and his extensive curiosity about musical roots and authentic instruments, led Idan down various experimental paths not generally followed in Israel. Idan showed his “musical portfolio” to the people at Helicon Music, who decided to release the recordings as an album. November 2002 saw the release of “Bo’ee” {“Come With Me”}, the first single from the album “The Idan Raichel Project”. The song, sung by Yair Ziv and Shiran Cohen in Hebrew and Amharic, was an entrancing blend of Ethiopian voices and introduced a fresh concept of “world music” that Idan subsequently carried through to the album. “Bo’ee” was an instant hit, taking Israeli radio by storm and catapulting Idan from obscurity to fame. In December, after that one hit, Helicon released the full album – which shot to the top of the sales charts and stayed at #1 for months on end - giving birth to a top-selling band and a symbol of the power of music to bring people together The hit singles "Medabrim Be'sheket" ("Speaking Softly") "Im Telech” ("If You Go") and "Hinach Yafah” ("You Are Beautiful”) followed, and the audiences grew ever larger both in Israel and overseas. Sales of the album have reached almost Quadruple Platinum status in Israel, selling over 000,111 units. In February 2003, the album “The Idan Raichel Project” was nominated ACUM's "Album of the Year", and in September 2003 Idan was named "Man of the Year in Music" at the "People of the Year" ceremony which was broadcast on national commercial television. In October 2003 The Project was named as both “Discovery of the Year” and “Band of the Year”, and the song “Im Telech” was “Song of the Year” on the charts of Reshet Gimmel and Galgalatz, the two most important music stations in Israel, with three other songs from the album featuring in the Top Ten. ACUM’s figures for 2003 showed that “Im Telech” was the "most performed song of the year on radio and television. As interest in the recordings grew, the demand for live shows increased. Given the number of musicians who participated in the recordings, it would have been impossible to have them all appear on stage, so Idan decided to pick a core group of performers, who were versatile and yet strong individual artists in their own right, to work and perform with him. From the beginning, Idan saw the project as a collaboration between artists, each bringing their own musical culture and talents to the stage. The live show became symbolic of the album, as it brought 2 together a group of people of different backgrounds – yet each being equal to the others. To-date, over 95 different singers from dozens of different countries and cultural backgrounds, spanning the ages 16 to 91, have participated in The Project’s recordings and performances. Parallel to Raichel's work on the second album, The Project went on their first tour - more than 100 performances up and down Israel. In December 2004, “Mi'Ma'amakim” ("Out Of The Depths"), the first single and the title track of The Project’s second album, was released. “Mi’Ma’amakim”, performed by Raichel and Avi Vesa Vograss , repeated the success of “Bo’ee” topping the singles charts for a number of weeks. About a month later, the album “Mi'Ma'amakim” was released. For this album Raichel got his inspiration from various ethnic sources, creating an album that embodies the essence of Israeliness – a diverse Israeli-Arab grouping of exiles. The album included two moving ballads sung by Shoshana Damari, Israel Prize Laureate and one of Israeli’s legendary singers, which, as it turned out, were the last songs she recorded before her death in February 2006. After the release of the album, the singles "Yesh Bi Od Co'ach" ("There's Still Strength In Me") performed by Din Din Aviv, "Millim Yaffot Me'Eleh" ("Nicer Words Than These") performed by Cabra Casay and Liora Isaac, "Mi'Kol Ha'a'havot" ("Of All the Loves") performed by Maya Avraham and "Shuvi El Beyti" ("Come Back To My Home") by Ilan Damti, The Project’s lighting engineer, were released to the media. The album was a huge commercial success, and in excess of 20,000 copies were sold over the first two days. As of the end of 2019, more than 146,000 albums have been sold in Israel alone. Immediately after the release of the album, Raichel and the members of The Project embarked on a new tour which opened with 16 performances across the US. In February 2005, "Out Of The Depths" was named ACUM’s "Album of the Year" with the title song being voted "Song of the Year". In April 2005, The Project kicked off the "Mi’Ma’amakim" tour in Israel. With songs taken from both albums, there was great demand for the show both in Israel and overseas and 2005-2006 saw The Project appearing throughout the United States and Europe as well as at many of the major world music festivals, including “WOMAD” in England and Singapore, and “Cervantino” in Mexico. In September, The Project was chosen as the "Band of the Year" on a number of radio stations including Reshet Gimel and Galgalatz (the IDF’s radio station). In January 2006, The Project was invited to perform in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The visit was an exciting and touching journey for two of The Project's members, Avi Vesa Vograss and Cabra Casay, both of whom are of Ethiopian origin.