I’m not going to lie — there’s nothing I adore more than listening to music in Hebrew, my native tongue.
Give me the Mizrahi music from Osher Cohen and Eden Ben Zaken, indie hits from Jane Bordeaux and Aya Zehavi Feiglin, sensitive singer-songwriters like Alma Gov and Noam Kleinstein, and the infectious Hebrew raps of Jimbo J and Teddy Neguse, who all remind me how beautiful the language I grew up speaking truly is.
Yet I also get pretty excited when Israeli stars create excellent English-language music, especially when it catches on with audiences outside of Israel. As they say in Yiddish — what’s better than schepping naches?
Here are six Israeli artists who’ve managed to create hits that resonate outside their home country.
Noga Erez
Israeli singer Noga Erez recently made history as the first Israeli female artist to take the Coachella stage, along with her toddler daughter (and a perhaps fake nosebleed). At the festival, she played two new songs from a yet unnamed album.
In the meantime, you can listen to her excellent 2024 “The Vandalist,” which features a duet with British star Robbie Williams, her 2021 album “KIDS,” which features the excellent “VIEWS,” and her breakout album “Off the Record,” with the song “Toy” that first got her noticed by the New York Times. You really can’t go wrong.
Temper City
Temper City, an alternative rock band from three Israeli music veterans, currently only has one single out — but what a history-making single it is. Thanks to “Self Aware,” a viral sensation on Instagram and TikTok, they became the first Israeli band to make it onto the American Billboard 100. Listen to this song at your own risk, because it is impossibly infectious.
Mergui
Artist Jonathan Mergui, who goes by the stage name Mergui, was very close to making it to the Eurovision stage — in the fifth season of “Rising Star to the Eurovision,” he earned second place behind Netta Barzilai, who would go on to be Israel’s fourth Eurovision winner in history. He also dated Noa Kirel, who represented Israel in the European song competition in 2023.
While both those awesome ladies are worth listening to, Mergui, too, has some pretty delightful English-language singles. In 2024, he performed on the “Today” show wearing a yellow ribbon for the hostages. The singer rubbed elbows with Elton John and incorporated his “Yellow Brick Road” into his song “Cry.” Last year, he released a great duet called “LIVING ROOM” with singer maryjo. And if you know someone going through a bad breakup (and who is OK with some explicit language, of course), be sure to send them his 2022 hit “Sucks To Know You (FU).”
Tair Haim
English is not enough for Tair Haim — the songs from her excellent 2025 album, “Maktub,” feature Yemenite, Hebrew and English. Haim first made waves around the world with her band A-WA, in which she and her two sisters made music influenced by their family’s Yemenite roots. Their songs became hits all over the world, even making waves in Yemen itself. In “Maktub,” Haim explores womanhood, motherhood and roots through an intimate and insanely catchy lens. Her single “YemeNight” remains one of my favorite songs of 2025.
Adam Ten and Asulin
Adam Ten, the Israeli DJ behind electronic music label Maccabi House, and Rotem Alajem Asulin, also known as J.Lamotta or simply Asulin, recently released an electropop remix of Asulin’s 2024 hit (a Japanese version of her Hebrew song “Ala’Lashon”). “Warawara” is almost fully in Japanese but has the Hebrew words like “stom ta’peh” — shut up.
Apple has already purchased its rights for some international ad campaigns, which, according to Mako, will air in over 100 countries this year.
Asulin has a long and storied musical career (even if she is just 35). The musician with Jewish Morrocan roots was born in Holon, studied briefly in New York and made her musical mark in Berlin, where she surprisingly formed a special connection with Japanese audiences, taking on the Japanese moniker Suzume and rapping in the language, while still releasing many excellent Hebrew singles.
And speaking of the Eurovision, I can’t help but mention how much I love her song “Dana International,” an ode to the Israeli diva who won the competition in 1998.
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