Six of Yishai Levi's songs surge onto Israel's weekly airplay chart after his death

Radio stations and listeners in Israel continued mourning singer Yishai Levi, one of the country’s biggest voices in recent decades, after he died early last week. In a striking posthumous tribute, Media Forest data, which tracks airplay across broadcast outlets, shows that six of Levi’s songs made it into the weekly top 20, a chart usually dominated by new releases.

Levi’s highest-ranking song was “Ha’aheret Sheli” at No. 3, played 87 times, tying with Noam Beitan’s “Michelle” and Eden Hason’s “Eikh SheHi Rokedet,” by Hason, Ofek Adank and Agam Buhbut. The other Levi songs on the list were “Ra’aya” at No. 9, “Rikdi” at No. 12, “Isha Ne’emana” at No. 13, “Ananim” at No. 15 and “Rikud Romanti” at No. 18.

Levi rose to prominence in the 1980s as one of the voices that helped move Mizrahi music from wedding halls and clubs into the mainstream. His career included major commercial success, periods of crisis that involved drug addiction and prison sentences, and later returns to performing and recording. Even in his later years, he kept recording, touring and collaborating with artists from different generations.

Over his career, Levi recorded many major hits, including “Yeldonet,” “Tzelil Inbalim,” “Taltalim Shchorim,” “Mivtach,” “At” and “Tamid Tishari.” He is survived in the music world by family members who are also singers, including his son Shir Levi and his brother Nati Levi.