Songwriter and singer Netta Barzilai, known for her glittering costumes, brilliant lyrics and visionary pop melodies, released “Big Love,” her first English-language song since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, on Thursday, featuring sound and a radically innovative tone for this former Eurovision winner.
“For me, these are words that were previously impossible to write,” Barzilai explains to Times of Israel. “My music is very vibrant, joyful and funny, it’s my universe. I have a kind of galactic energy, purple and silver, and I didn’t want the darkness to contaminate it. But when you experience grief like this, that’s what comes out. »
On October 7 last year, Barzilai was scheduled to open for 15-time Grammy Award winner Bruno Mars in his second sold-out Tel Aviv show at Yarkon Park.
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As the day progressed, as the scale of the Hamas terrorist attack became clear, Barzilai recalls gradually realizing that not only was the show canceled but that a disaster of unexpected magnitude was brewing. produce in southern Israel.
“Nothing prepared us for this disaster,” breathes Barzilai. “The next day, my father and I were in the car delivering sugar and flour to military bases. »
In the following weeks, along with many musicians, Barzilai performed at shelters and babysat children whose families were evacuated or whose parents were burying loved ones.
Her Instagram account became the bulletin board for the missing: she published photos of the missing and the numbers of people to contact.
His brand new track, “Big Love”, released on the S-Curve label, returns to pain and fear, his feelings of the last few months. It took her time to feel ready to face the world again and also to know what message she wanted to send.
We especially know Barzilai and his “Toy”, the title which won him the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 under the colors of Israel. She was about to release a new single and a new album, very different, with a sold-out tour of the United States to boot when the war broke out.
“I didn’t want to create anything this year, but I also don’t have the choice to hide or not what makes me shine during this period,” confides Barzilai.
She released an album in Hebrew this summer, “HaKol Alay”, her first album entirely in Hebrew after having mainly appeared on English-language titles in recent years.
“Big Love” was her first English-language song since the war began, based on a melody she had found before the war.
It was inspired by her stay in Malta, a few days before the attack on October 7, when she participated in the island’s very first Gay Pride. As she went on stage, dressed in a “big ball of glitter,” as she put it, Palestinian flags went up in the first rows of the audience.
She did not want to react, preferring to focus on the event and the pride celebration.
“I’m a singer who sings about love, so I said to myself: ‘I send them love’, I kept saying to myself inside ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’ love,’” Barzilai recalls. “It really helped me. Love is a survival mechanism that helps me immensely. »
Love also helped her, these last twelve months, as she mourned the death of all these victims, and in particular of Yotam Haim, heavy metal drummer and brother of Tuval Haim, the drummer who has accompanied Barzilai for a long time.
Yotam Haim was taken hostage on October 7 in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The first months of his captivity, Barzilai, Tuval Haim and other drummers recorded a version a capella from “My Boy Come Back to Me,” with a rhythm produced by the drummers tapping their feet on the floor.
“It’s one of the strongest and most powerless moments of this year at the same time,” she says. “Power and helplessness, these are the key emotions that have carried me through this year. »
On December 15, Yotam Haim and his co-hostages Alon Shamriz and Samer Talalka were accidentally shot and killed by IDF soldiers in Gaza after escaping their captors, waving a white flag and calling for help in Hebrew.
From left to right: Hostages Yotam Haïm, Samar Talalka and Alon Lulu Shamriz, killed by mistake by Israeli army soldiers, in Gaza, December 15, 2023. (Courtesy)
It was moments like that that sparked the lyrics for “Big Love,” Barzilai says.
“Those words defibrillated my heart,” says Barzilai, who has also sung at several funerals over the past twelve months. “When you’re in such grief, that’s what comes out. »
“If I had the moon and the stars, I would give them to you yes yes
If I could sing and stop the war I would do it for you yes yes
Defibrillate your heart and bring you back from the dead
I’ll go through your dreams and put them back in your head
You have no idea the power of those who fight for you, yeah, yeah”
There will be other songs besides “Big Love,” and Barzilai is excited about that.
“I just wanted to get that out,” she slips. “I wanted to put an end to it and find strength in it. »
Barzilai spoke with the Times of Israel Thursday morning, after saying goodbye to her new boyfriend, a reservist heading to the northern border to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon. He will be absent for 40 days and impossible to contact while he is in Lebanon.
“Israel places even more value and importance on human life as we feel closer to death,” she says. “We are here because we have no other choice. »
She says she is grateful to be surrounded by people who are so well-meaning and eager to help each other.
“Israel is a broken land, but full of good souls who really want to live in peace,” she concludes. “I am convinced of it. »
