“There is no other place in Jerusalem that looks like this, that is described like this, that is told of like this. It shocks you; it moves you,” says singer and creator/producer Benaia Barabi about his new music video – “Voices” – which was filmed entirely on the sites of the City of David. The moving song, performed with his great talent, manages to move and touch everyone who listens to it, and in less than a day it has already received tens of thousands of views on YouTube.
“We are now standing in the City of David; my connection to it started thousands of years ago,” says Barabi excitedly about the connection to the place that inspired him to write the song, and where the music video was shot. A few years ago, the singer participated in a Selihot performance at the Sultan’s Pool. During his stay in Jerusalem, he took the opportunity of visiting the City of David with his family, after many years in which he had not visited the area of the Old City and ancient Jerusalem. That visit made a strong impression on Barabi.
“Besides the fact that it brought us together as a family, it just makes my body tremble. I cried endlessly, tears of such romance. It was as if history told me, “Come here, I was here”. I heard the ground and saw the voices. History was falling on me,” he says, and his eyes light up.
Barabi, as a creator, decided to translate the deep connection to the history and glory of Jerusalem of ancient times, into a song. For this purpose, he turned to the songwriter Avi Ohion and the singer-songwriter Dudi Bar David, and together they wrote the lyrics to “Voices”. The moving song exceptionally expresses the gap and contrast between different situations in the life of the nation in general and in the life of each person in particular.
“We went down to Pilgrim road, and there was a sense of longing and the joy of Beit HaShoeva: you know that they walked here and were happy, and there was noise and rejoicing, and they celebrated holidays to the highest levels. On the other hand, you know that there was also a destruction,” explains Barabi, adding: “This song specifically has something in it that fluctuates between optimism and pessimism, such that you make this journey between the pain, the joy and Jewish pride you feel”.
Barabi speaks more about the inspiration he received from the visit to the City of David, and says: “On every tour of the City of David, we discovered more sites, more historical places. You could start at the Siloam Tunnel, then the Siloam Pool, and then you discover another pit, and another place, and caves and historical sites, and you get the feeling that you were actually there.” .
The entire clip was filmed, as mentioned, at the sites of the City of David: the Siloam Tunnel and the Byzantine pool, the agricultural farm in the Valley of Hinnom, Zechariah’s tomb in the Kidron Valley and the main entrance plaza to the City of David – these are just some of the spectacular locations chosen for filming of the clip.
“In the Bible there is a verse like this – “It happened here”. This verse is in the Bible – It happened here. You are simply astounded, because there is no other place in Jerusalem that looks like this, is described like this, is told of like this. It shocks you; it moves you.”
The successful artist, who is very successful in the music world in Israel, explains more about the essence of the song and says: “We could finish… make an impressive, happy and optimistic chorus, but there’s something, something about the world falling asleep – this is the exile, this is what happened here, and we are not here. In the end we are on the Pilgrims’ road; after 2,000 years of searching for this street.
“As far as I’m concerned, my path in music is something that can connect, and Jerusalem is a “city that is connected together”, and King David connected the 12 tribes here; so, there is a kind of feeling that you can connect, and it’s a kind of magic that can connect us,” he concludes.
Music in general, and songs in particular, have a special power that allows you to touch the deepest places of the soul. There are things that come across correctly in the song, that cannot be described and expressed more accurately in any other way. And this is what Barbi does very successfully in the new music video.
