Yasmin Levy | |
|---|---|
 Yasmin Levy in 2023 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 23, 1975 |
| Origin |  Israel  Turkey |
| Genres | Sephardic music, world, flamenco |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Website | yasminlevyworld |
Jasmin Levy, born on December 23 (1975),is world music singer and song writer of Judeo-Spanish music.
Yasmin Levy was born on December 23, 1975. She is of Sephardic Jewish descent. Her parents were immigrants from Turkey. [1]
Her father, Yitzhak Isaac Levy (1919–1977), [2] was a composer and hazzan (cantor), as well as a pioneer researcher into the history of the Ladino music and culture of Spanish Jewry and its diaspora, being the editor of the Ladino language magazine Aki Yerushalayim. [3] He died when Levy was just one year old, but she names him as one of her greatest musical influences. [4]
She is a mother of two children Michael Amir and Manuela Amir.
With her distinctive and emotive style, Levy has brought a new interpretation to the medieval Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) song by incorporating more "modern" sounds of Andalusian flamenco and traditional Turkish music [5] as well as combining instruments like the darbuka, oud, violin, cello, and piano.[ citation needed ]
Her debut album was Romance & Yasmin in 2000, which earned her a nomination as Best Newcomer for the fRoots / BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards 2005, followed in 2005 with her second album La Judería (Spanish: The Jewish Quarter). In 2006, she was nominated again, then in the category Culture Crossing.
On her second album, La Judería, she also covered the popular songs "Gracias a la Vida" by Violeta Parra and "Nací en Álamo" from the film Vengo , directed by Tony Gatlif, which in its original version won the 2001 César Award for Best Music Written for a Film (itself being a cover [6] of "The Song of the Gypsies" (Greek : "Το Τραγούδι των Γύφτων"), written by Greek songwriter Dionysis Tsaknis in 1990).[ citation needed ].
In her own words in 2007: [7]
"I am proud to combine the two cultures of Ladino and flamenco, while mixing in Middle Eastern influences. I am embarking on a 500-year-old musical journey, taking Ladino to Andalusia and mixing it with flamenco, the style that still bears the musical memories of the old Moorish and Jewish-Spanish world with the sound of the Arab world. In a way it is a ‘musical reconciliation’ of history."
In her own words in 2023: [8]
“If there were no religions, music would be the religion of humanity. As a person, I believe that each of us is a different color of God, and each color has its own beauty and God sent his colors to this world through us. We are just the conduits. If we understood this, we wouldn’t hate and fight each other, if we understood, that each of us is a part of God, if we connected and loved God’s colors, our world would be beautiful and without wars. Thank God for letting me bridge people and cultures through music.“
— Yasmin Levy
In her career, Yasmin Levi has given a great number of concerts all over the globe. She has already performed in Spain, Iran, Turkey, USA, the UK, Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland and many other countries. She has also entered into a variety of music collaborations during her career, such as with Egyptian singer Natacha Atlas, Turkish singer Ibrahim Tatlises and Spanish singer Buika.
In 2008, she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Children of Peace, a UK-based charity fighting to alleviate the plight of all children caught up in the Middle East crisis.
In 2006, Levy was nominated in the "Culture Crossing" category for the fRoots / BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards. [9]
In 2006, Levy's work earned her the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation Award for promoting cross-cultural dialogue between musicians from three cultures. [10]
Levy’s original composition, “Me Voy,” won the 2008 USA Songwriting Competition for the best world music song.
She has been nominated for the BBC World Music Award and Holland’s Edison Award (2008).
The Sunday Times named Sentir as one of the Top 100 albums of 2009, and placed it in their Top 10 World Music releases of the year. [11]
Yasmin received the “Pomegranate Award for Music” from the American Sephardi Federation(2023).
Natacha Atlas is an Egyptian-Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and Western music, particularly hip-hop. She once termed her music "cha'abi moderne". Her music has been influenced by many styles including Maghrebain, hip hop, drum and bass and reggae.
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Yitzhak Isaac Levy ; May 15, 1919, Manisa, Turkey – July 21, 1977, Jerusalem, Israel) was an Israeli singer-songwriter, musicologist and composer in Judaeo-Spanish. He also worked as director of a radio program and was an author of various works on musicology.
Kokhava Levy, born 1946 in Jerusalem, is an Israeli singer-songwriter, composer and poet in the Judeo-Spanish language, as was her husband Yitzhak Isaac Levy and daughter Yasmin Levy.
Judith Rita Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist, music educator, and performer. Her research interests include Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) songs; medieval and traditional music from the Balkans, Portugal, French Canada, and Yiddish; pan-European balladry; and songs from Crypto-Jewish regions in Portugal. She has received numerous research and travel grants to do fieldwork in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Israel, Turkey, Greece, France, Belgium, Canada, and the United States, and has published many journal articles, papers, and book chapters. She plays a variety of medieval musical instruments, and sings and performs as part of her lectures and in concerts and solo recitals. She is also the editor of the Alan Lomax Spanish collection maintained by the Association for Cultural Equity.
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Karen Gerşon Şarhon is a scholar of Judaeo-Spanish and the coordinator of the Ottoman-Turkish Sephardic Research Center.
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