Shahar Tavoch Is No Longer Just a Child Prodigy, He Is on His Way to Superstardom
Shahar Tavoch is one of the brightest talents to emerge here in recent years, both on screen and in pop. The praise he has received for roles in serious projects such as "Shooting Stars" and "Be Strong," and for reaching the semifinals on "Dancing with the Stars," stands alongside the ACUM award he won for "Nadi Badi," the coolest pop song released here since the breakout hits of Anna Zak and Noono, and his first-place finish in Festigal with Eden Golan and "Switch" (I voted for "History" by Idan Malka and Maya Key). Beyond that, Tavoch is also one of the nicest people in the local showbiz industry, which is usually full of cold, cynical and tough types. From series to series, from single to single, the sweet child prodigy is already 27, married to his partner and also becoming more observant in religion. Now he has released one of the most elaborate pop projects seen here: his second album, "Taani Dachuf" (Answer Immediately), which includes 15 songs, most of them duets with female singers (Neta Barzilai, Roni Duani, Noam Kleinstein, Shir Zuares), produced by some of the country’s leading producers (Geordi, Li Biran, Yinon Yahel, Guy Dan, Yaakov Lamai), and seven skits, mini comic scenes that are unfiltered and at times verge on cringe. It is an album that is very fun to listen to, delivering 48 minutes of enjoyment. If I were a 14-year-old girl or gay teenager, I probably would have worn it out obsessively, until I could sing and recite it by heart.
There is a tendency to dismiss pop, to treat it as light and unimportant, but in the end, pop, whether Mediterranean, Ashkenazi, Korean or American, is the bread and butter of the music industry, the genre that over time sells the most and keeps the machine moving. Tavoch’s album, on a superficial listen, also sounds featherlight, with songs that are mostly charming and sweet. But when you go deeper, you discover that not everything is rosy, and that Tavoch sings with fun and a lot of style about serious topics that make up his personality and his life. "Toda Hashem" with Shir Zuares is a fully religious song, with lyrics based on Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and shows how Tavoch’s return to observance is a real thing for him. It is followed by "Litzan," a duet full of love and romance with Amir Aharon, Tavoch’s partner, who produced the song and other songs on the project ("Obsessita," "The Prince of Ramat Gan," with a Balkan Beat Box groove and elements of Omer Adam). In contrast to that romance, the skit "Break-up Call," which imitates a crisis phone conversation with a good friend, speaks about a relationship crisis with Amir.
More honesty, truth and power, from Walla: In one moment Ninet Tayeb moved me to tears with the full article. "Baguette" with Eden Daniel Gabay is a Pride duet full of humor about attraction, rejection and desire between men. It includes words in French and singing with a French accent, and it is preceded by the amusing skit "I’m Not Paying a Tip," in which Tavoch refuses to tip a courier who accidentally brought him a cold baguette. But despite the softening wrapper, and despite the fact that we are in 2026, it is not a given that such a song would appear on a mainstream family pop album. There is also public service, like "Butterfly," a song about a relationship with a cheating man, and "Talk to Me" about identifying a toxic relationship.
The humor also fits when Tavoch touches on the things that move him most. "Mama" is a kitschy anthem dedicated to the mother who sacrificed for him and supported his artistic tendencies when the other kids at school laughed at him. It is immediately followed by a skit in which he talks about how hard his mother finds his return to observance, and about how he manages to combine it with being in a relationship with a man and with pop’s lightness. The skit ends, of course, with a message from Margol Tzanani, who is not his mother, and leads into their duet, "Ammamia," which begins with Margol apparently mocking his "Nadi Badi" and takes him, in an arrangement by the legendary Yaakov Lamai, into neighborhood Middle Eastern music, and even that piece turns out to be upbeat Mediterranean pop.
"Taani Dachuf" is a good pop album, one that nicely reflects Shahar Tavoch’s complex character without weighing it down. As such, it offers a model for how to make pop that is both catchy and entertaining, and also meaningful. It opens with a song called "Superstar," a title already used by Roni Duani, Aviv Geffen, Ninet Tayeb, Subliminal and The Shadow, and even Ofra Haza. Tavoch uses it to pay tribute to his partner. It seems that at concerts, the fans singing the lyrics will be thinking about him. Shahar Tavoch, superstar? Maybe that too will happen in the future.
