In this column, I sometimes like to interview young musicians who are starting their journey in the field, but I also like to talk with the big names in the industry – the big stars of Jewish music.
How do I determine if a musician I’m going to interview is already a rock star? I have a very simple test: I call in my older son, who is finishing third grade, and tell him who I’m talking to. The size of the smile on his face and his excitement tell me exactly how the musicians rate. So, when I had scheduled a call with Itzik Dadya, I told my son who I’d be talking to. Honestly, I wasn’t sure he would know who Dadya is. After all, the Israeli singer only became popular in the U.S. recently, especially with his cover of “Tamid Ohev Oti” which has already gotten six million views on YouTube. But my kid suddenly had a big smile on his face and asked: “Really?! You’re really going to speak with Itzik Dadya?” At that point I knew: He’s a rock star.
But things did not always go easily for Dadya. We spoke about his life and how he became a singer.
Since he was three years old, he’s known how to do harmonies. One of his brothers discovered a brilliant trick: By putting a paper inside a cassette tape, you can record your own voice without overwriting the recording and technically add your voice as another layer on top of the original sound. (I never knew about this trick, and I had many cassettes and also liked to record a lot. Apparently, it’s true – if you google it, you’ll see how to do it…) Dadya started to play with music this way and sing together with the singers on his tapes, giving them his own back-up vocals. After recording the harmonies, he would listen to himself, and that’s how he started to learn his own voice.
Dadya used to listen to Avraham Fried, Mordechai Ben David, Udi Ullmann, Haim Israel, Yehuda Dim, Dudu Fisher, Shloime Cohen, and the CD series of Mona Rosenblum (he started with Mona 3, a classic with hits such “Yesh Emunah,” “We Won’t Be Left Alone,” and “Hayotzer,” which would later become big hits).
At his parents’ home, everyone sang – not professionally, but they all loved to sing. He has bli ayin hara 11 siblings, so you can just imagine their Shabbat table when they were growing up. Not only did everyone sing, but every sibling wanted to be the lead singer.
When Dadya speaks about his family, he mentions that with 12 kids, the family struggled financially, and he thinks that from their financial struggles, success emerged. Today, Baruch Hashem, he and his siblings are each successful in their own fields.
He tells me that his childhood heavily influenced his singing. He mentions that many of the greatest singers and artists came from tough backgrounds – poverty and other challenges. And it impacts their singing. You can hear the emotion in their voices. The cry. The fragility. The pain.
While Dadya’s family struggled financially, it was a very warm and happy family. But because of their financial situation, he especially wanted to succeed. To make it big.
Dadya grew up in a charedi family. His father was a teacher in the school he went to and was also the head of the school’s orchestra. His father really believed in him as a singer. So, he put him in the orchestra as a lead singer. Dadya had another sibling in the orchestra who today works as an engineer.
At the end-of-year show in fourth grade, suddenly the audience stood up and gave Dadya an ovation. They wanted an encore. He kept singing, and they wanted more. This was the moment when it finally clicked and he knew what he wanted to do in life: to become a singer. Over the years, there were more end-of-year shows in which he was the lead soloist. He began to compose and got more and more interested in music.
Fast forward to yeshiva. At 16, Dadya performed at a big event in the yeshiva where he was studying. In the audience, there was a cousin of a big producer in Israel and this person was very impressed by Dadya’s singing. So, he introduced him to his cousin, the big producer. That’s where he was discovered and signed, releasing his first album at the age of 17. The album is called Am Yisrael Chai. The song “B’Tefillah” was a hit. Following the release of the album, he began to perform in Israel and gathered popularity. A year later he released another album.
After the second album, he decided to join the IDF. Despite growing up in a charedi home, not only he but also some of his siblings joined the IDF, some as fighters. He wanted to fulfill his civic duty and do his part for Israeli society. He joined the IDF Rabbinate Band, where he was auditioned by Shai Abramson, Chief Cantor of the IDF. Ishay Ribo served with him for a period of time. During most of his service, Rabbi Rafi Peretz was the Chief Military Rabbi. Once, Dadya joined Rabbi Peretz on a trip to Los Angeles. The rabbi gave a sermon in English, and after everyone finished clapping, Dadya kept standing and clapping. And then he told Rabbi Peretz: “The sermon was amazing! But I didn’t understand even one single word.” (At that time, Dadya didn’t understand English yet.) Rabbi Peretz laughed.
Then there was the time Dadya mistakenly ate Bibi’s croissants. The band once performed in the International Bible Contest, which happens every year on Yom HaAtzma’ut and is considered one of the peak events of the day in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu makes sure to attend every year. Before getting on stage, Netanyahu had a private room where he stayed with his guards. When it was time to head to the stage, his guards left the room with him and accompanied him to the stage. In the meantime, Dadya and his friends from the IDF Rabbinate Band had finished singing, walked off the stage, and by chance, they walked into the room where Bibi had just been waiting. They didn’t know that, though.
When they entered the room, they couldn’t believe their eyes. They saw a beautifully set table with bourekas, croissants, pickles, and more. They thought, “Wow, look how they spoil the soldiers!” They couldn’t believe they were getting treated like this. Seeing a table full of goodies, like good soldiers they didn’t waste any time and started grabbing whatever they could get their hands on. Then, one of Bibi’s guards suddenly stepped into the room, saw the soldiers sitting and eating, and started screaming at them: “What are you doing?! You just ate the Prime Minister’s lunch!” He grabbed his radio and said to his fellow guards: “Lunch is canceled.” (The Prime Minister can’t touch food after someone has been left alone with it.) And just like that, Bibi left with his entourage and headed to his car – hungry but satisfied.
Another time, when Benny Gantz was IDF Chief of Staff, he came to speak at one of the ceremonies, and Dadya and his friends were backstage. Their microphones happened to be live, but they didn’t realize. So, while Gantz was speaking, they were talking and laughing among themselves, completely unaware that their mics were open. Gantz, who heard them while he was speaking, couldn’t figure out where the loud noise coming through the speakers was coming from. He thought they were actually yelling. After he finished speaking, he walked over to them and said: “You guys sing very well, but you talk too much…”
During one of their performances, the Chief Cantor of the IDF, the Chief Military Rabbi, and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz were all sitting in the audience. Now, among non-combat soldiers, there’s a whole black market for guard duty shifts, since everyone just wants to go home for Shabbat. So, the soldiers trade favors among themselves without their commanders knowing – because obviously, if their superiors found out, they’d be in big trouble.
That week, Dadya was scheduled to stay on base for guard duty over Shabbat. He had a solo part in the show, and suddenly, right in the middle of the performance – in front of all the VIPs and dignitaries – he did something he was absolutely not allowed to do. He stopped singing, turned directly to the audience, and said: “I’m supposed to stay on base this Shabbat for guard duty. If there’s any soldier here who’s interested in switching shifts with me, I’ll give you 200 shekels!”
In return, his commander gave him a three-week base confinement.
After his army service, Dadya began to work as a studio technician. It started when his producer asked him to assist with recording, and he had the opportunity to learn how to work in a studio. At some point, he missed being on stage and wanted to return to performing. So, he parted ways with the production company where he first started, and launched his independent career.
He thought things would go smoothly, but it was not easy.
With no income coming in, he was evicted from his apartment and was too ashamed to go back to his parents’ home. Since he still had a gym membership, he would shower at the gym and sleep in his car. During the day, he looked for ways to push his career forward as an artist, but it was a struggle. After two months, he moved back in with his parents – which wasn’t easy at his age, in his mid-twenties. He made a firm decision that he had to succeed and be able to move out of his parents’ house.
Once, he was booked to perform at a wedding in the United States. He was desperately in need of money. The sound engineer at the event offered to help him and started connecting him with local musicians, which led to him getting gigs in America – weddings, events, and so on. For a while, he was commuting back and forth between Israel and America, getting booked every few weeks for events and weddings in the U.S. Since he had started making money again, he rented an apartment in Netivot.
Meanwhile, at one of those events in America, Dadya met his wife. He continued to commute back and forth until, at a certain point, they decided to get married. Since most of his work was in America anyway, they decided to move here.
After the wedding, he self-produced and released his fourth album, Forever.
Dadya taught himself to play piano. He also composes, but hasn’t yet released his own original music. He doesn’t feel ready yet. However, Forever features some of his melodies.
He now performs almost every day, from New York to L.A. He did the HASC concert twice, and he won Artist of the Year and Album of the Year on 24Six for Forever. Two of his songs, “Yetzer Tov” and “Roked Li,” completely took off.
Today, Dadya is a happily married family man and is currently working on a new album set to be released in the coming year, b’ezrat Hashem.