Ok, yeah, Yael Naïm is the one singing on the new MacBook Air commercial for Apple. They sure know how to pick ‘em, eh? But that’s only half how I discovered her. I remember seeing the commercial on YouTube and wondering about the song, and noting that it was by someone called Yael Naïm in the comments, and filing the info away for later. Then two weeks later my friend sent me the link to Yael’s video for New Soul and I was quickly on to watching her other videos. While New Soul is a gem, there’s something about Yael’s voice and her innocent joy of expression that made me download her whole album within a few minutes of watching her videos:

Feed and email readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

Born in Paris to Tunisian parents, Yael spent a large part of her childhood in Tel Aviv, and her charming songs are written in Hebrew, French and English, and sometimes even a mix of the three!

Described as a “collection of ballads that meander through folk and pop” Yael Naïm’s self-titled album was recorded in her flat in Paris. The record probably would not have happened if not for David Donatien. A multi-instrumentalist as well as arranger and director, David’s support helped Yael discover her sound and shape her songs to the point that they actually like to present themselves as a group.

So everyone is going to discover Yael through the commercial, but one of my other favorites by her is Far far because it speaks to accepting the “beautiful mess inside” and giving birth to it – the songs and music she heard in her head as a little girl:

In the almost 5 days since I started this post I’ve gotten 3 more tips about Yael from various people. She’s on fire!

Check her out:
http://www.yaelweb.com/
http://www.myspace.com/yaelnaim

Get Yael Naïm the album
on iTunes
or
on Amazon

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Filed under: Mac, Macbook Air, New Soul, Yael Naim, commerical, music, musicians, singer-songwriter, women