"Natati la khayay" (Hebrew script: נתתי לה חיי; translation: "I Gave Her My Life”, however the translation used by the band is “She looked me in the eye”) is an Israeli song performed in Hebrew by band Kaveret, conveying both romantic and political message. The song is Israel's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 which was recorded in several other languages, including a cover by internationally known Joe Dassin.
A musical featuring Kaveret's songs, which ran at Israel's national theatre Habima, is titled after the song. A cover version by one of Israel's most popular singers Sarit Hadad resulted in controversy over music styles and ethnicity, involving one of the band members, other artists and Israeli parliament figures. The original version topped Israel's national Hebrew chart in 1974 as the song of the year.
Lyrics and political context
Typically for the band, the lyrics are full of unusual imagery. With humour and irony, the song deals, at least in part, with the power of love and its failure, as in lines such as "if she refused / there's no hope", and “Someone says that his sky is ending/When there’s enough air for a nation or two”. It has been first suggested, and since confirmed by band member Danny Sanderson, that the song also contained a veiled political protest against the reign of then-prime minister Golda Meir, and in favour of the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.[1]
A double-track record containing the song with English lyrics under the title "She Looked Me in the Eye", and another very successful song of the band in an English cover, was released to the European market. Internationally known French singer Joe Dassin recorded and performed a French version entitled "Le service militaire" which deals with the experience of Army service.[2]
Eurovision Song Contest
The members of "Kaveret", the Hebrew-meaning for "beehive", performed under the name Poogy for the occasion as well as on their other performances abroad, after their nickname to band drummer, Meir Fenigstein. As Kaveret included seven members while the rules of the competition allowed a maximum of six performers on the stage, the band's keyboard player Yoni Rechter served as the orchestra conductor.
Sarit Hadad, one of Israel's most popular singers and also the country's representative, at the 2002 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, covered the song in 2018 in a different music style, which resulted in feuds between one of the band members and other artists and Israeli parliament figures who spoke against him.
Hadad was approached with the idea to renew an Israeli classic, and thought it needs to be something from Kaveret's repertoire.[3] A Caucasus Jew, Hadad focuses her performance and recording in Mizrahi-eastern styles, including her cover version for the song, which incorporates instrumentation of clapping and goblet drumming with vocal of trill timbre, focusing on oriental dissonant arrangement compared to the Kaveret's original.[4]
The cover received both positive and negative views. Kaveret member Efraim Shamir opined by comparing it to the militant Sunni Islamist group, saying: "Disgusting, Isil with a song", added that she "ruined the song" and mocked that the medical situation of another Kaveret member, Yitzhak Klepter "may have deteriorated after hearing this atrocity". Following previous remarks of Shamir dismissing Israeli eastern styles, his reaction to Hadad's version caused uproar across the Israeli music scene.[5]
Soon after the publication of his views, many Israelis went out to Hadad's defense, as well as Minister of Culture and Sports, Miri Regev who claimed that Shamir is "racist and embarrassing" while adding that Hadad's interpretation is "perfect". Shamir replied to Regev: "You are an uncivilized, loudmouth, liar and a proud vulgar". On the other hand, Kaveret's other Member, Danny Sanderson opined that "the interpretation of Hadad is neat. Respect".[6]
Chart positions
"Natati la khayay" was voted the most popular song in Israel in 1974, as it topped the official Israeli annual Hebrew song chart, on the radio channel Reshet Gimmel which was operated by Kol Yisrael.
"Natati La Khayay"
