Shoshana Damari

Biography

In 1945, “Kalaniyot”, a song with music by Moshe Wilensky, was first heard from the stage of the Li-La-Lo theatre. It was written as a song about nature, but listeners at the time also heard in it a protest against the British authorities: paratroopers of the British army wore red berets and were nicknamed “anemones”. The song stayed with its performer for the rest of her life.

Shoshana Damari was born on 31 March 1923, on the eve of Passover, in the town of Bashar in Yemen, and was given the name Shodia. She was the youngest of five children of Lihya-Zachariah and Gazal-Ayla Damari. The family walked to the port of Aden, travelled from there to Palestine by way of Egypt, and on 15 June 1924, when the girl was just over a year old, crossed El Qantara by train. They settled in Rishon LeZion.

From childhood she sang and played the drum, accompanying her mother, who performed at family celebrations and gatherings of the Yemenite community. At fourteen her songs were broadcast on the radio for the first time; in August 1938 she appeared on the radio as a soloist, singing Yemenite songs by the poet Shalom Shabazi, accompanied by oud and drums. In 1939 she gave her first solo concert, with Nahum Nardi accompanying her on the piano. She studied singing and acting at the Shulamit Studio in Tel Aviv, run by Shlomo Bosmi; in February 1940 they married, and he became her artistic agent. In January 1943 their only daughter, Nava, was born.

From 1945 Damari performed in Li-La-Lo, a revue theatre founded by the impresario Moshe Wallin: light entertainment and satire, a counterweight to the serious theatre of the time. She was remembered for her low, husky voice and Yemenite pronunciation.

Wilensky became her main composer for many years.

During the War of Independence she performed songs that became most closely associated with that war: “The Last Battle”, “Bat Sheva” and “Hayu Zmanim” (“There Were Times”), to words by Haim Hefer. Her performances for the soldiers made a great impression. On the eve of the founding of the state she gave concerts with Wilensky in the internment camps on Cyprus. There she sang “The Home” and a Yiddish song, “Raisins and Almonds”; she said afterwards that, because of the tears and emotion of the audience, she was never able to sing it to the end. At about the same time she took up “The Van Is Driving” and “You Have to Ring Twice”, and both songs were soon regarded as hers. Her first record came out in 1948.

Later, in the 1950s, she was a guest on Wilensky’s radio programmes on Kol Israel and recorded songs previously performed by the Nahal Band (“Hora Mamtera”, “Mul Har Sinai”, “Ballad on a Spring and Sea”). They became more firmly attached to her than to their first performers. She appeared in the films “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer” (1955) and “Be’Ein Moledet” (1956). She toured the United States, France, England, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Canada, Scandinavia and Japan. She lived in the United States for about eleven years, performing only occasionally for the Jewish community. In an interview she recalled that at her farewell concert the audience wept, and that a millionaire offered her a villa with a swimming pool if only she would stay.

In the mid-1980s a duet with Boaz Sharabi brought her back into the public eye. In 1988 Damari received the Israel Prize for Hebrew song. After that she recorded the album “Or” (“Light”) with arrangements by Matti Caspi; the title song was written by Naomi Shemer and became a popular folk dance. In 1995 the singer received the ACUM lifetime achievement award. In 1996 she sang “When We Were Children” on a duets album by Yaffa Yarkoni. The song had been written during the Yom Kippur War, and each of the two singers was said to have wanted to be the first to perform it. It is said that their rivalry was invented by the newspapers and that they collaborated more than once.

Her last notable work was two tracks for Idan Raichel’s album “Mimaamakim”, recorded in 2005; she also took part in some of his concerts. She lived in Tel Aviv for thirty years and died there on 14 February 2006. According to one account, her family and friends were singing “Kalaniyot” as she died. She is buried in the Trumpeldor Cemetery.