October 7 reverberates at Israeli music awards

Israel’s music industry marked a year of art in wartime at the 68th annual ACUM awards held on Sunday night.

The awards recognized outstanding works from veteran musicians along with new voices.

This year, award winners and speakers repeatedly brought up the October 7 attacks, soldiers on the front lines, and hostages who remain in Gaza.

“There will be no joy and no celebration until all 101 abductees return and all the soldiers return home,” said master of ceremonies Zvika Hadar. “Bringing home the hostages… is part of our DNA and longing as a nation.”

Hadar noted that some musicians, like Idan Amedi and Raviv Kaner, hadn’t been creating because they were too busy fighting in the reserves, while other artists had performed repeatedly for IDF units over the long months of war.

Rapper pair Ness Ve Stilla (Nessya Levi and Dor Soroker) were named Discovery of the Year for their wartime song, “Harbu Darbu” (War and Pain), with an Arabic name taken from a Syrian war cry that has crossed over into Hebrew slang.

Levi told the audience that a year ago she was a waitress at the Jaffa flea market, saving money for recording sessions, before her life changed dramatically with the rap song that reached number one on Israeli streaming platforms last November.

The lyrics of the rap express support for the war against Hamas and call for the deaths of the leaders of the terror group following the October 7 terrorist attack.

There was also an award for “Get Out of Depression,” performed by Yagel Oshri (lyrics and music by Oshri and Ofir Cohen and arrangement by Cohen and Shimon Yihye), which took Song of the Year and was performed by Oshri and Cohen on Sunday night.

Ziv Berman and Gali Berman, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, are part of the music event production company Sincopa, located in Kfar Aza. Members of the Berman family were present at the ceremony.

Five of Sincopa’s employees were murdered on October 7, and the Berman brothers remain in Gaza captivity.

Yardena Arazi, who performed Yair Klinger’s “Home” as he won the Naomi Shemer Lifetime Achievement Award for a Composer, noted that the Berman twins, now 27, had had their first Sincopa job at age 18 at one of her shows.

“As soon as the war broke out, I received a picture of both of them, so young, smiling from ear to ear, with boxes in hand backstage at one of our shows,” said Arazi. “This image has been with me for over a year. And every time I sing your melody, Yair, to the song ‘Home,’ they stand before my eyes and I mean every word. All of you [must return] now. Home.”

Composer Klinger was awarded a lifetime achievement award for 60 years of work, having composed many of Israel’s best-loved songs.

Mizrahi songwriter Yossi Gispan was also awarded a lifetime achievement award for songwriting, with some 1,100 songs to his name.

Singer-songwriter Dani Litani, now 81, was honored for his contributions to Israeli music by ACUM’s board of directors and given a standing ovation by the audience.

Singer Hanan Ben Ari was awarded for his song “There’s More Here Than That.” He said his song wasn’t written out of creative joy but poured out of him as a form of cleanse.

“It feels strange in such a year to receive an award that isn’t for battle, survival and heroism,” said Ben Ari.

“I saw this year how music helped soldiers going into a battle they might not return from. I saw how music helped heal them when they left the battle zone, and when they got married on army bases. I saw what music does for the heroic survivors of the Nova [festival] and sadly at funerals and memorials. Music was always there, enveloping them, offering its message and not judging.”