"Hava Nagila" (Template:Lang-he-n, Havah Nagilah, "Let us rejoice") is an Israelifolk song traditionally sung at Jewish celebrations. It is perhaps the first modern Israeli folk song in the Hebrew language that has become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and bar/bat mitzvah celebrations. The melody is based on a HassidicNigun[1] and it was composed in 1915 in Ottoman Palestine, when Hebrew was being revived as a spoken language for the first time in almost 2,000 years (since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE). For the first time, Jews were being encouraged to speak Hebrew as a common language, instead of Yiddish, Arabic, Ladino, or other regional Jewish languages.
Origin
Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1882–1938), a professor at Hebrew University, began cataloging all known Jewish music and teaching classes in musical composition; one of his students was a promising cantorial student, Moshe Nathanson,[2] who (with the rest of his class) was presented by the professor with a 19th-century, slow, melodious, chant (niggun or nigun) and assigned to add rhythm and words to fashion a modern Hebrew song.[citation needed] There are competing claims regarding Hava Nagila's composer, with both Idelsohn and Nathanson being suggested.[3][4]
In 1918, the song was one of the first songs designed to unite the early Yishuv [Jewish enterprise] that arose after the British victory in Palestine during World War I and the Balfour Declaration, declaring a national Jewish homeland in the lands newly removed from Turkey's control by the Allies and entrusted to Britain under the Treaty of Versailles.[citation needed] Although Psalm 118 (verse 24) of the Hebrew Bible may have been a source for the text of "Hava Nagila",[citation needed] the expression of the song and its accompanying hora ("circle") dance was entirely secular in its outlook.[citation needed]
"Hava Naquila" is the second single of the Party Animals from their debut album Good Vibrations. The song was released in 1996 and is a happy hardcore version of the classic folk song "Hava Nagila" set in a gabber beat. The single was certified Gold.[7]
The fourth track of the single, "Die Nazi Scum", was intended to show that not all gabbers were racists. The song spent 12 weeks in the Dutch Top 40, of which three were spent on the number one position for. The song was number 14 on the end of the year list of 1996. A strange anomaly is that "Hava Naquila" took the number one position from "Captain Jack" by Captain Jack, but was replaced by another release from Captain Jack, "Drill Instructor".
Track listing
#
Title
Length
1.
"Hava Naquila (Flamman & Abraxas radio mix)"
3:46
2.
"Wapperdewap"
1:37
3.
"Hakkefest"
5:55
4.
"Die Nazi Scum" featuring Rob Gee
5:00
5.
"Hava Naquila (Tekno Mafia mix)"
5:05
Notable performers
Idelsohn produced the first commercial recording in 1922, on the Polyphon record label, as part of a series which recorded 39 Hebrew folk songs.[8][full citation needed]
Singer Harry Belafonte is known for his version of the song, which was recorded for his album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall in 1959.[9] He rarely gave a concert without singing it, and stated that the two “stand out” songs from his professional career were “The Banana Boat Song,” and “Hava Nagila”.[3][10] Belafonte noted and claimed, "Life is not worthwhile without it. Most Jews in America learned that song from me."[11]
Neil Diamond, performed Hava Nagila in his 1994 Live In America concert,[17] incorporated it into The Jazz Singer, in which he acted out a cantor with popular-music ambitions.
Anthrax used a heavy metal arrangement of "Hava Nagila"'s main melody in their song I'm the Man.
Finnishpower metal band Sonata Arctica usually ends its shows performing a humorous song, usually referred to as The Vodka Song, played on the tune of Hava Nagila.[19]
Supporters of the Dutch association football club AFC Ajax, although not an official Jewish club, commonly use Jewish imagery. A central part of Ajax fans' culture, the song Hava Nagila can often be heard sung in the Stadium by the teams supporters, and at one point ringtones of "Hava Nagila" could even be downloaded from the club's official website.[21][22][23]
Tottenham Hotspur
Supporters of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur commonly refer to themselves as Yids and are strongly associated with Jewish symbolism and culture. The song "Hava Nagila" has been adopted as an anthem of sorts by the club, and is one of the most frequently sung songs at White Hart Lane.[24][25]
^Nathanson, who later worked in New York, most famously composed the nearly-universal melody that is sung with the Birkat Hamazon ("Grace After Meals").[citation needed]
^ abcRoberta Grossman, Director/Producer; Sophie Sartain, Writer/Producer (2012). Hava Nagila (The Movie)(NTSC B&W and color, widescreen, closed-captioned). Los Angeles, CA, USA: Katahdin Productions, More Horses Productions. OCLC859211976. Retrieved 3 September 2015. The song you thought you knew. The story you won't believe.((cite AV media)): External link in |ref= (help)
^NPR staff, 2013, "Film Hoists 'Hava Nagila' Up Onto A Chair, In Celebration Of Song And Dance." NPR (online), February 28, 2013, see [1], accessed 3 September 2015.
^Yudelson, Larry. "Who wrote Havah Nagilah?". RadioHazak. Larry Yudelson. Archived from the original on 2008-07-29. Retrieved 2007-11-08. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^In an appearance on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs on 28 October 2007, Idelsohn's grandson Joel Joffe referred to his grandfather as the author of "Hava Nagila", but in the programme notes it says "Composer: Bashir Am Israelim", meaning that either this is an alias for Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, to whom Joffe was clearly referring in the programme, or (more plausibly) the programme notes contain a mistranscription of "Shir Am Yisraeli", meaning "Israeli folksong".
^NVPI.nl Dutch certification database Accessed November 4, 2006