IM NIN'ALU
Created on 28/03/2007Latest update on 15/03/2024
Artist: Igal Bashan
Author: Mori Shalom Shabazi
Label: Hed-Arzi
Year: 1975
With Ofra Haza on backing vocals on lp I've Got A Little Bird In My Heart. Full title: Im Nin'alu Daltei Nedivim.
Covers:
- 1976:
David Dor [Yemenite singer from L.A. on Lyron Records]
- 1978:
Ofra Haza with Shechunat Hatikva Workshop Theatre [with the band she recorded her four first albums with; version four years older than her first recording and eight years older than her international breakthrough]
- 1984:
Ofra Haza [on album Shirey Teyman (Yemenite Songs) on Israëli Hed-Arzi label, three years later remixed by Izhar Ashdot and that's when it became the well-known international hit]
- 2003:
Touriya [as In The Name Of Love (Im Nin' alu)]
Im Nin'alu is a Hebrew 17th century poem; music followed later. First line means: "If the gates of the rich will be closed, the gates of heaven will not be closed". Mori Shalom Shabazi was co-founder of the Yemeni Humayni Poetry School and wasl regarded as a spiritual heavyweight among the Jewish Yemenite community, even if only a fraction of his writings survived harsh Yemenite repression and the blunt lack of freedom of speech. Madonna used words of this same poem in her song Isaac from album Confessions On A Dancefloor ('05). Ofra Haza's voice was also used in Temple Of Love (with Sisters Of Mercy), My Love Is For Real (with Paula Abdul), also with Iggy Pop, Erik B & Rakim (Paid In Full), M/A/R/R/S (Pump Up The Volume) and Black Dog (Babylon). She died of AIDS in 2000.
