Yael Naim (FR)

About

Also known as: Yaël Naim, Yaël Naïm, יעל נעים

Yael Naim landed her biggest break when Apple picked her song "New Soul" for the launch of the MacBook Air in January 2008, a choice made personally by Steve Jobs. The track shot to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first Israeli solo artist to crack the US top ten. The song itself came from her self titled second album, recorded over two years in a studio inside her Paris apartment alongside percussionist David Donatien, blending French, English, and Hebrew lyrics in a style that mixes folk and jazz with a deliberately husky vocal delivery. Her cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic" drew serious attention early on, and she has since built a reputation as a consistently inventive singer songwriter. She has won the Female Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique twice, in 2011 and 2016. She also voiced a character in The Simpsons and contributed to the memorial concert for the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks. More recently, she released the track "Shine" in 2020.