A-WA

The Haim sisters grew up in the community settlement of Shaharut, a village of about thirty families in the Arava Valley desert of southern Israel, to a father of Yemenite Jewish origin and a mother of mixed Ukrainian and Moroccan Jewish heritage.{{Cite web |date=6 August 2015 |title=A-Wa's Unlikely Journey from Rural Israel to Global Fame |url=https://forward.com/culture/music/318147/a-wa-a-yemenite-israeli-pop-trio-gains-popularity-around-the-world/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=The Forward}} Their paternal grandparents are originally from Sana'a and were brought to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet.

The Haim sisters spent most of their holidays with their paternal grandparents, singing piyyutim,{{Cite web |last=Steinberg |first=Jessica |title=The hip-hop groove of the Yemenite tune |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-hip-hop-groove-of-the-yemenite-tune/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=www.timesofisrael.com}} traditional liturgical poems in Hebrew and Aramaic, as well as traditional Yemenite songs in Arabic sung by women. Their parents also played a variety of music genres in their house, with their father playing guitar, bouzouki, and darbuka.{{Cite web |last=Paltrowitz |first=Darren |date=17 June 2019 |title=A-WA's Liron Haim, Tagel Haim and Tair Haim on Making Music that's Diverse |url=https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/blogs/300009/a-was-liron-haim-tagel-haim-and-tair-haim-on-making-music-thats-diverse/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Jewish Journal}} At school, the sister took voice, piano, theater, and dance lessons.{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=Barry |date=6 September 2015 |title=Digging them roots |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/digging-them-roots-415413 |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com }}

Tair has a BA in music from Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv, while Liron is an architect, and Tagel is a graphic designer and illustrator. They also have two younger sisters, Shir and Tzlil, and a brother, Evyatar, who is a sound technician and was involved in the production of the album Habib Galbi.{{Cite news |last=Arad |first=Dafna |date=3 April 2015 |title=The Other Haim Song-sisters Are Yemenite – and Just as Viral |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/2015-04-03/ty-article/.premium/the-other-haim-song-sisters-are-just-as-viral/0000017f-da83-d938-a17f-feab9d960000 |access-date=29 April 2023}}

A-WA first formed in 2011, after the trio finished college,{{Cite web |date=14 September 2016 |title=Touring Tel Aviv with the Feminist and Fashionable A-WA Sisters |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/a-wa-tel-aviv-tour |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Vogue }} and they began uploading music to YouTube.{{Cite web |last=Press |first=Viva Sarah |date=30 March 2015 |title=Israel's Haim sisters conquer Arab music world |url=https://www.israel21c.org/israels-haim-sisters-conquer-arab-music-world/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=ISRAEL21c}}

Image:A-Wa 00930 Musiques d'ici et d'ailleurs.jpg

The trio was discovered by Tomer Yosef, the lead singer of Balkan Beat Box, to whom they sent a demo of "Habib Galbi", a traditional Yemenite melody sung in the Yemenite dialect of Judeo-Arabic. He showed the demo to a few elder Yemenite women, who mistook the sisters for actual singers from Yemen. The music video, released in early March, went viral in the Muslim world,{{Cite news |last=Artsy |first=Avishay |date=5 June 2015 |title=Israel says A-WA — "Yes!" — to singing Yemeni sisters |work=The World |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2015-06-04/israel-says-wa-yes-singing-yemeni-sisters |access-date=29 April 2023}} especially in Yemen.{{Cite news |title=These singing sisters are wildly popular in Yemen. And they're Israeli Jews. |work=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/these-singing-sisters-are-wildly-popular-in-yemen-and-theyre-israeli-jews/2015/12/30/88f66dfa-a419-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588_story.html |access-date=29 April 2023 |issn=0190-8286}}{{Cite news |last=Ferla |first=Ruth La |date=1 July 2016 |title=Sister Act: Shopping with A-Wa |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/fashion/a-wa-israel-new-york-day-out-music.html |access-date=29 April 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} The three officially released the single in April 2015, and it became the first song in Arabic to hit number 1 on the Israeli pop charts.{{Cite web |last=Dwek |first=Joel |date=18 July 2020 |title=Israel: Habib Galbi – A-WA |url=https://www.200worldalbums.com/post/israel-habib-galbi-a-wa |access-date=15 October 2023 |website=200worldalbums.com}}{{Cite web |title=Meet A-WA, the Israeli Sister Trio Merging Yemenite Folk Songs and Electronic Beats |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-a-wa-the-israeli-sister-trio-merging-yemenite-folk-songs-and-electronic-beats/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Vice.com}} They toured in Europe after the single's release. The trio debuted the other songs from their debut album during performances in September 2015. The record itself was released in 2016.

A-WA's second studio album, Bayti Fi Rasi, was released in 2019. It is inspired by their great-grandmother Rachel's experiences when immigrating to Israel from Yemen as a single mother and subsequent life in a transition camp.{{Cite web |last=Burack |first=Emily |date=29 May 2019 |title=A-WA, a Band of Yemenite Jewish Sisters, Wants You to Feel at Home – Hey Alma |url=https://www.heyalma.com/a-wa-a-band-of-yemenite-jewish-sisters-want-you-to-feel-at-home/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=www.heyalma.com}}{{Cite web |last=Ahronheim |first=Anna |date=18 July 2019 |title=The sounds of Yemen: 3 years after first album, the Haim girls are back |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/the-sounds-of-yemen-3-years-after-first-album-the-haim-girls-are-back-596077 |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com}}{{Cite news |last=Shapiro |first=Ari |last2=Lonsdorf |first2=Kat |date=3 September 2019 |title=The Sisters of A-WA 'Want to Bring Something New' to Yemen's Musical Traditions |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/757205275/the-sisters-of-a-wa-want-to-bring-something-new-to-yemen-s-musical-traditions |access-date=29 April 2023}} The trio directed a music video for one of the album's songs, "Hana Mash Hu Al Yaman". That same year, the group was invited to perform at the torch-lighting ceremony on Israel's independence day. In September 2019, A-WA was invited to play a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C.{{Cite web |last=Boilen |first=Bob |date=3 September 2015 |title=A-WA: Tiny Desk Concert |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/755586833/a-wa-tiny-desk-concert |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=NPR}} Throughout the end of the year, they toured in Europe and the United States.

In early 2020, Tair released a solo single, titled "Mitbashelet Leat".{{Cite web |last=Goldman |first=Hannah Aliza |date=21 May 2020 |title=Tair Haim's New Single Is a Powerful Ode to Mizrahi Women |url=https://www.heyalma.com/tair-haims-new-single-is-a-powerful-ode-to-mizarhi-women/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Hey Alma}}

During their childhood, the three sisters listened to many different kinds of music, including Greek, jazz, R&B, hip hop, reggae, and progressive rock, but their major source of inspiration has been the traditional Yemenite songs heard at their paternal grandparents' home.{{Cite web |date=19 March 2016 |title=A-WA's desert groove goes down a storm at South by Southwest festival |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2016/03/19/a-was-desert-groove-goes-down-a-storm-at-south-by-southwest-festival.html |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=thestar.com}} Their music follows the same trend as did Ofra Haza, their main inspiration,{{Cite web |last=Gehr |first=Richard |date=7 July 2016 |title=A-Wa: The Israeli Trio Making Yemenite Tradition Global |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/a-wa-the-israeli-trio-turning-yemenite-tradition-into-a-global-groove-193320/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Rolling Stone}} decades ago, mixing in this case traditional Yemenite folk music with electronic tunes, reggae, and hip hop, which they call "yemenite folk n' beat".{{Cite web |date=26 June 2015 |title=A-Wa : trois soeurs entre folk yéménite et rythmes électroniques |url=https://www.konbini.com/popculture/a-wa-habib-galbi-entretien/ |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Konbini – Musique, cinéma, sport, food, news : le meilleur de la pop culture |language=fr}}

The trio also cites psychedelic rock, including Deep Purple and Pink Floyd, as influential in their music.

• Habib Galbi (2016)
• Bayti Fi Rasi (2019)

• Music of Israel

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|a-wamusic.com}}
• [https://www.npr.org/2016/06/16/480603312/first-listen-a-wa-habib-galbi Review of Habib Galbi] at NPR
• {{YouTube|channel=UCDrpKl9yVKjXO92pDIcPfwQ}}

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Category:21st-century Israeli musicians

Category:21st-century Israeli singers

Category:21st-century Israeli women singers

Category:21st-century Yemeni women singers

Category:Israeli all-female bands

Category:Israeli electronic musicians

Category:Israeli musical trios

Category:Musical groups established in 2011

Category:Sibling musical trios

Category:Yemenite Jews