Yishai Levi's Final Bow, from Addiction to Redemption

Yishai Levi’s life ended as it had been lived, in conflict, talent, pain, and eventual grace. A week after his funeral, the article looks back at the 63 years of a singer who rose from the margins of the old Tel Aviv Central Bus Station to the center of Israeli mainstream music, while battling a long and destructive drug addiction that damaged those around him, including his family. His story, the piece says, is not only about hits like “Rikdi,” “Teladim Shchorot,” and “Rikud Romanti,” but about apology, forgiveness, and reinvention.

Levi was born and raised in a strict religious Yemenite family in Rosh HaAyin in the 1960s and 1970s. His father was a sofer stam, and Levi absorbed the musical traditions of the synagogue, where text, pronunciation, and vocal delivery mattered deeply. In that community, where instruments were historically avoided in mourning, singing and rhythm had to come from the voice and from improvisation, including drumming on tins. He was influenced by Aharon Amram, Dekelon, and Rami Danok, but he was also rebellious, leaving home at 13 and choosing performance over the path his parents wanted for him.

His breakthrough came after he met Ben Mosh, who recognized his ability and produced a 1984 cassette of mostly cover versions in Yemenite style. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Tel Aviv’s old Central Bus Station and made Levi a star, bringing him money, attention, and women, but also fear. He later admitted in a 1996 Channel 1 interview, “I was recording to get money and turning around with it to use drugs, exactly to finance them.” The addiction deepened, his son Shir was raised for years by Levi’s parents in Rosh HaAyin, and Levi’s relationship with Zohar Argov, another addict, ended in tragedy in 1987 after Argov was arrested following a complaint by Levi’s partner Iris and later took his own life.

Even in his worst years, Levi kept working. In 1989 he had the hit “Rikdi,” but he skipped shows, arrived late to weddings, and was eventually fired by Ben Mosh, who told him, “You were like a son to me, but I can no longer decide anything for you.” Levi fell into theft, weighed only 40 kilograms, and went through prison and rehabilitation centers, while also committing violence against Iris and trying to set their home on fire. Yet Iris stayed by him, organized a comeback show while he was in prison, and introduced him with the words, “I am singing for you, Iris.”

Levi later crossed genre boundaries, performed at the 1995 peace rally, covered Shlomo Artzi and Rita, and said his favorite singer was Arik Einstein. In 2008, at over 40, “Rikud Romanti,” a pop and bossa nova song with a Cuban feel, turned him into a new kind of star after it reached the Galgalatz playlist meetings and won over young editors. “Aisha Ne’emana,” written by Z’ev Nehama, followed, and Levi became an admired artist across audiences while still living modestly in southern Tel Aviv, married to Iris and father of four. He suffered severe lung disease from years of smoking and drugs, but continued performing until his strength failed. He never claimed to be clean, only saying, “Today I did not use. Tomorrow I pray I will not use,” and, “Maybe you are right if you do not forgive me, but I want to keep singing.”