The first song written by Keren Pels after two years is called “Hurricane”. This is the song that represented Israel at Eurovision: it was written about October 7, but it can also be read as a song about heartbreak, private and national. During the writing of the song she went to Barry, to see her friends’ houses: “After I got back from there I finished the song, they called it ‘October Rain’ – ‘Promise me never again, I’m still wet from this October rain’. It gave us the chills, Even now, and the song was chosen.” The words have indeed changed – but in the performances she sings the original words, the ones that gave her chills.
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“I myself as a foundation haven’t yet… It’s been a very difficult six months to go through something personal, because we’re not ourselves a little bit now. You know we broke up, you heard about it,” she grins, “I think that change is something that can be painful and difficult and necessary Giving him this place is not an easy thing for anyone, and on the other hand, I am more in control of myself and I am there for the children. They are amazing, and I love them the most – take all the songs and throw them away You will make me cry.”
Last December, after 12 years of a photogenic relationship, Keren Pels and Noam Tor announced their separation.
I will ask you the question that I ask almost every person after 7.10 – where were you on October 7?
“On October 6, I was right here, with Noam and the children. We came here and told them we were breaking up. We were right here in this apartment and told them about the breakup and what it was going to look like – we are very good friends and a very close-knit family. This is not a breakup either, but a phase change – Some people break up and disconnect and there are people like us who are constantly in touch even after what you call a breakup, I think it’s a different connection – reconnection. Even if it’s hard and painful, things move and you have to move with them, sometimes you have to make some kind of change .
They parted ways after 12 years. Keren and Noam Tor Photo: from Keren Pels’s Instagram
“This rumor sounds like a joke to me”
I don’t know if you are up to date, but there are all kinds of rumors about this night, and about “the time you spent with a very senior person related to the 7.10 event”. Do you know the rumors?
“My publicist told me about it and I laughed. The make-up artist also said ‘a lot of people told me’ and the production manager said ‘everyone is talking about it’. Then I realize that they are really talking about it, it sounds like a joke to me.”
Do you know how it turned out?
“I don’t know, I’ve never met the man in my life, I’ve never met him. I hate to say it because it makes me ignorant, but I don’t know how to say his name. At first I thought it was funny, but now it’s not funny. There is a wound here A very big one related to this day and it’s not funny.”
And if you need an alibi, you can talk to Noam and the children
“You can look at my story that I was breaking ice in the freezer that same day. Every rumor about me until today had some basis, it really has nothing to do with anything.”
“I would not prevent Israel from being there”
Keren Pels now has more important things to deal with. Next week she will join the Israeli delegation to Eurovision in Malmö, after writing “Hurricane” with Avi Ohion and Stav Begar. She did not imagine that the European Union would reject the song on the grounds that it contained political messages about October 7.
Keren decided not to give up on Eurovision and rewrote the song: “It was very clear to me that I would change every word.”
Because the art above all?
“No, art is not above everything. I didn’t give up – I spent years solving logic puzzles and I used these skills, which I never understood why I needed, to solve the matter of words. The fact that the Israeli flag will be flown there feels more important to me, even if I do Something that damages the song in my eyes – because you can’t beat the original words – you can still hear the pain. We know what we went through and everyone knows what we went through, so I wouldn’t prevent Israel from being there because it’s also a precedent.”
You fly alone, not with the delegation
“I bought a ticket at my own expense. And there is one of us crazy people traveling.”
You are traveling in the most complicated time possible from Israel to one of the most anti-Semitic cities in Europe.
“It was exotic to me at first to go to Sweden, and I didn’t read the map correctly – we don’t leave the room, we don’t move, I won’t see Sweden. I’m going there just to walk around with the yellow sign for the return of the POWs, that’s the goal.”
Keren Pels travels to Malmö despite the warnings: “I am stronger than this” | Photo: JOHAN NILSSON, AFP
scares you?
“No!”
Did they try to warn you, dissuade you from going there?
“Yes, everyone – there is no one that I think I should go there, even people who understand safely told me not to do it.”
Is it stronger than you?
“No, I’m stronger than that.”
“Imagine the flags of Palestine in front of you”
Aden has a very heavy responsibility on his shoulders this year. Did you talk about it?
“Yes, and she does it with spectacular composure and deals with it in an inspiring way.”
Did you feel you had to encourage her? Was she expecting a different experience?
“I told her when we were recording – imagine everyone waving the flags of Palestine in front of you and now sing. I prepared her for the worst and it brought out the…”.
the hurricane
“Yes, and the Zionism she has is very, very strong and she will bring it.”
In a video call with Aden Golan, she tells her: “You’re something, unbelievable, you’re really caught in a situation. This is the most psychotic year to represent Israel ever.” And Golan answers: “Yes, but the most significant. I’m very happy that I’m in this year and with a song like this, wow what a song – I enjoy performing it so much and I see the reactions of the people and it’s amazing.” About the rehearsals she says: “I was excited, happy that the vision came out and everything looks good. There are still a lot of repairs but the beginning is amazing. I’m excited to see you, it will be fun here.”
The song is about the ex and the painful meaning
The hurricane passes not only over both of them, but over all of us – with songs that have taken on a sadder and more painful meaning. “The family of the abductee Itai Sabirsky asked me to record the song and every time there is the word ‘Iti’, I will not sing it because it is missing. Just a few days after I filmed it and uploaded it, they announced that he was murdered in captivity.”
In another case she sang the song in front of a company of reservists: “There was someone there named Noam, a stunning guy, and I sat on him for a while and laughed and then he called his wife so that I could calm her down and we laughed and drank coffee.” Shortly after that performance, Noam Ashram was killed. “Suddenly seeing that I’m singing it with the person and making fun and then he’s gone – so the story is no longer just with me and my ex, we have other types of me in our hearts.”
Thanks to her good friend from Kibbutz Bari, Carmit Debori, Keren personally knows quite a few of the people who were murdered and kidnapped to Gaza. Yonat Or who was murdered on October 7 was her good friend and so was her husband Dror. Throughout the past months, she accompanied their children Alma and Noam who were kidnapped and released from captivity, and was active in the fight for Dror’s release: last night it was learned that Dror was also murdered on that terrible Shabbat and his body was kidnapped to Gaza.
Keren’s deep friendship with Carmit, dating back to her studies in Ramon, made Keren a member of the house at Kibbutz Bari. “There is no such good place, the children run free. Before there were children I ran free,” she recalls. And Carmit says: “She is part of the community. We were at the farm holiday and Keren was sitting on my balcony right on the stage and then she went up to sing with her son Uri.”
Keren Pels and Yuval Sharabi in “The Next Eurovision Star” | Photo: From “The Next Eurovision Star”, Keshet 12
At the same event, she also sang with 10-year-old Yuval Sharabi from Bari: “I remember being there on stage and not looking at Keren because it embarrasses me, it was really… a 10-year-old girl standing next to a crazy singer, what’s the matter,” recalls Yuval . The musical connection between them was renewed under the most difficult circumstances, after her father Yossi, her brother Eli and her partner Ofir were kidnapped on October 7. Yossi, Yuval’s father, was killed in captivity. Ophir was released after 54 days. Aunt Eli is still a prisoner in Gaza.
“We sang and spoke for her father to be brought back, and today we unfortunately know that it is already too late,” says Peles. “I will speak on our behalf – all the other abductees, all those who are still there alive and those who are not alive, they must be returned. This is the most important, as then today too we have no more important mission.” And Ofir emphasizes: “It’s like an hourglass that simply runs out of time every day that passes.”
“Where else in the world will you find a pair of high school students like that – what they went through never happened in their life, that during a visit he came to her, he was kidnapped with her father. Think about it – she was present there and then he returned and all their struggle for the father and uncle, where else in the world will you find high school students Going through something like this? They’re going through the hardest and craziest thing possible, and look at their nobility,” says Peles.
“The protest singer has arrived and she doesn’t hesitate”
Fells was one of the first singers who mobilized for the Sabbath of the abducted. It was clear to her that there was no other place in the world where she should be but next to the families of the abductees. And she blames: “Oh, woe is us that the president of the United States is taking a picture with little Abigail who returned from captivity and our prime minister is not, oh, woe is us that it is not obvious that we are all standing as one front to bring our family home, oh, woe is us that there are people who are there managing this thing and they are doing It’s something else to not deal with it now.”
Like every Israeli, Keren Pels is not the same as it was before October 7. The need to voice her opinions clearly was formed during the demonstrations against the legal coup, when she sang in protest at Kaplan, but has become even more acute since the war: “This protest singer they wanted, this loud figure, has arrived. She started walking there before me, but she has now taken the last step Hers and she stands on stage and doesn’t hesitate like before.”
“It’s not a breakup, it’s a reconnection” | Photo: News 12
This decision placed Peles exactly one year ago at the center of an unexpected political storm, when the Netanyahu family was outraged at the choice of Peles to sing at the official ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem. The Netanyahu family then denied that they had any involvement in the ceremony: “I am not a partner in organizing ceremonies, there is no basis for all the sentences that after that I scolded someone or something,” said Sara Netanyahu.
Peles, for her part, is now telling her version of the event for the first time: “Hina, I’m thinking now whether to say something or not, and it doesn’t happen to me much. I’ll just say it – officials came and gave me a hearing in Yad Vashem, a serious hearing and it’s a crazy gag. If you Can’t sing about hope, no matter what kind of demonstration – why do they have to come and get me out of the room? How did I become this character, because I write songs about her exes and I have an opinion in a democratic country And I express it properly.”
“They came to me and told me, ‘Shut your mouth,’ in one way or another, because basically, if it wasn’t already closed to sing here today, you wouldn’t be singing here today.” That is, next year you won’t sing as long as we’re in the government. And that’s dangerous – no For me and my livelihood, but for us as a democratic country. Will someone be afraid to say what he thinks because tomorrow they won’t take him to appear? I’m waiting to see if they will take me to appear.”
“The fire is not on each other, you have to remember,” she declares. “Orthodox, religious people, who were angry about the protest and people who led the protest are fighting on one side and falling and holding each other in battle, this is happening now. We are together, we must not give divisive discourse a place, it is not allowed – this is a trick not of people but of politicians.”
“Officials came and gave me a hearing at Yad Vashem” | Photo: News 12
“The dream that will not come true – to be calm”
If there’s anything we’ve learned about Keren Ples after all these years, it’s that nothing will make her shut up. The one who has signed some of the biggest hits of Israeli music does not intend to stop now. Next month she will fulfill one of her biggest dreams and perform at the Culture Hall with the Philharmonic Orchestra and perform her greatest songs with them. “For many years I’ve been walking around with the idea of doing a show like this. This time has come, it’s not related to chronological age but to the surrounding reality.”
Almost 20 years have passed since the hacking of Keren Pels. It’s hard to imagine what the Israeli playlist would look like without her songs and those she wrote for others. Last month she celebrated her 45th birthday and published an emotional post in which she wished herself to accomplish what she has not yet accomplished to date.
What are the things you still want to accomplish and dream about?
(taking a long breath) “I have a dream that will not come true, that I will be calm. You see me like this, but inside I am Aliza’s rabbit in Wonderland, to simply produce life – that it will happen this way and that way and it will be good.”
“not perfect but complete”
She may not succeed in being calm, but in feeling comfortable in front of the mirror and liking what she sees, she already excels. “I was anorexic in high school, because I had no self-confidence and I thought that the attention I would get from being the thinnest. It was a very bad education of that generation. I have no photos since then, I tore everything later. Over time I had affairs In terms of weight, I’m not that aware of it now except when I have to wear something and show my daughter my stomach.”
“I expanded, I took the summer clothes out of the closet and there are two that fit me,” she admits. “It’s a fact on the ground, and we’ll love it. I buy XXL, I don’t buy large because it shrinks even more in the wash. I want to feel comfortable in my clothes, I don’t want to wear a tonic – it’s just not comfortable, we’re not in the Middle Ages. There’s also a lack of A little like that, they’re all thin – you should always have that too.”
“I have a daughter who is exactly like me. I don’t want to teach her that being ‘obese’ is healthy or worthwhile, my goal is not to destroy myself. I also reserve the right to lose weight. Simply everything should come from a place where we love ourselves – we We never go on a diet because we don’t like ourselves.”
Does that mean you are standing in front of the mirror and frowning?
“I’m not perfect but I’m whole. Feel my muscle in your hand – I don’t exercise, it’s just scrolling on the phone.
“I was anorexic in high school.” Level | Photo: News 12
In one of the most complicated periods in Israel but also in her private life, Peles does not let herself sink. If this is life – yes, even now – be sure she will live it to the fullest.
Is new love something on the agenda?
“A new love? I think there is a right time even in something like this to understand the move and complete it, come to terms with it, check it out. There is a year like this when we are in the middle of it, we don’t do things hastily in something like this, because these are my children that I cry when I talk For our children and our future, we need to make it good here, because they are worth everything, everything,” she concludes with a tear on her cheek.
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