Big thanks to my wife Merav for helping me put this piece together! And thanks to Jonathan M for the idea. Most of the song links below have English subtitles. For newcomers - please note that there are three paywalled pieces a month: the final article of the month, a bonus essay, and a monthly recommendations email. If you fancy getting a premium subscription, that’s great; if not, the rest of the month’s content is free.
If there’s such thing as a “national pulse,” then one of the best places to find it is in popular music. Post-October 7 Israel is no different, as we’ve been barraged by songs by the country’s music icons aimed at giving voice to people’s feelings. The biggest post-October 7 song, though, was actually written beforehand. Yagel Oshri wrote ‘Getting Over Depression’ about, well, getting over depression, before the words and melody captured the post-October 7 mood: “Even in the darkest hours of the night, there will always be a small star that will shine for you, for yourself and the way home. It’s always darkest before sunrise.”
“The song’s optimistic,” Oshri says. “It’s not a sad song. The opposite. It explains how to get out of depression. It’s davka this cautious optimism that unites us all.” The song has gone viral on social media, with soldiers recording their own covers and reservists using it as the soundtrack for their triumphant return home, making their entrance when the words “good days will come” kick in. Even more poignantly, Oshri’s brother’s girlfriend was murdered at the Nova party; Oshri sang the song to her before she was killed.
A similar mood was captured by another song that was written before the war, ‘The Pain of Fighters’ by Fauda star Idan Amedi. A song about dealing with PTSD, Amedi became a national hero after he was seriously injured fighting in Gaza, before giving a stirring press conference upon his release, in which he said:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Love of the Land to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.