Concert with Neta Elkayam

Saturday 2nd September at 4.30 p.m

Neta Elkayam (vocals)

Amit Hai Cohen (Keyboards, Guitar)

Neta Elkayam is an Israeli artist who conveys music with roots from Morocco. She sings in a language that was spoken by the Jews of Morocco and North Africa.

Neta Elkayam is an Israeli artist and musician who has gained worldwide recognition as a performer of North African music.

She is inspired by the music of the Jews from Morocco and North Africa and connects their musical roots to modern world music. Neta’s creative approach is a mix of music from Andalusia, Mediterranean music as well as rock, pop and jazz.

Neta has played at many festivals and venues around the world, including Essaouira Music Festival and Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco, GWMF Gibraltar, Krakow Jewish Festival, IMA – Institute for the Arab World in Paris, and more. Among other things, Neta has been awarded the Moroccan “Salam Contemporary Arts Forum” prize in 2021 and in 2022 was awarded the Moroccan TMM trophy for spreading the Moroccan Jewish voice around the world.

Morocco had approximately 250,000 Jews in 1946. They had lived there for many hundreds of years after their ancestors had fled the Spanish Inquisition around 1492. They began to leave their homeland in 1948 and within about 20 years almost all had left, mainly to France, Canada, Spain, the United States and Israel. A few remained. Most came from the areas around Casablanca. Today there are almost 800,000 Israelis with roots from Morocco, of a population of almost nine million they make up a large proportion. In Israel there are communities of exile who cultivate the Moroccan musical traditions, food traditions, they go on pilgrimages to Morocco, and cultivate a dual culture. Many of them maintain a very vibrant legacy. And Neta Elkayam is one of them.

Neta’s parents immigrated to Israel, where she was born in 1980 in the town of Netivot, which today has a large population of Jews of Moroccan origin: “in fact, I grew up in Israel, but in the heart of Moroccan culture”, says Neta. “All the inhabitants of Netivot were Moroccan Jewish immigrants who had left the country in the 1950s. Here we lived in two worlds, one on the outside, and another with my grandmothers who only lived in the memories of Morocco. Netivot in the 80s and 90s, had a completely Moroccan culture. We spoke an Arabic dialect on the streets, we ate Moroccan food and we celebrated the holidays from there.” (Pam African newspaper).

https://www.netaelkayam.com/clips

Where: The synagogue

Ticket price: NOK NOK 350/ NOK 100 (student) / NOK 300 (honours)