World Music Wednesday is a weekly segment on The North 103.3 FM. Every Wednesday at 4pm on Northland Afternoon, we will feature a brand-new release or a significantly important past work from our vast library of music from around the world.
Support for World Music Wednesday comes from Simply Ballroom in Duluth's Craft District.
Today’s World Music Wednesday spotlights Yael Naim. Naim was born in Paris, France in 1978 to Tunisian Jewish immigrants, and she and her family moved to Israel when she was four years old. When she entered her time in the Israeli military’s mandatory service, Yael became a soloist in the Israeli Air Force Orchestra. In 2001, she recorded her first solo album, In a Man’s Womb, and her other early work included music for the film Harrison’s Flowers and recorded a version of Britney Spear’s Toxic that received critical praise.
Her music fluctuates between the French, Hebrew, and English languages and travels through folk and jazz with an effortless, light touch. First off, we have Walk Walk from her 2015 album Older.
In 2008, her song New Soul was featured by Apple in their first commercial promoting the MacBook Air with Steve Jobs personally selecting the track off of Naim’s self titled album. This caused the song to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 9 with it eventually reaching No. 7., making it Naim's first major hit in the United States. The song also found its way into the movie soundtracks of The House Bunny and Wild Target.
In both 2011 and 2016, Naim won the Female Artist of the Year from the Victoires de la Musique, otherwise known as the French Grammys. The entirety of her work includes five albums: In a Man's Womb from 2001, Yeal Naim (self-titled) from 2008, She was a Boy from 2010, Older from 2015, and Nightsongs from 2020. Nowadays, she is married to longtime bandmate David Donatien, and they've got a couple of kids.
