New York, NY (Top40 Charts) After an incredible run of form throughout 2022, which has included the release of singles 'Show Me Love', 'Scared', and 'Lolita', alongside her most recent smash 'Better', which was supported by BBC
Radio 1's Mollie King on her
Future Pop show as well as landing on countless New
Music Daily playlists and every major pop playlist around the world on Apple Music, fast-rising Israeli artist Gali Givon brings back some serious heat on her latest offering 'Some Things Don't Matter'.
While her previous efforts have seen her dabble in the alt-rock agenda, 'Some Things Don't Matter' cracks out the killer riffs to deliver her most explosive track to date. Teaming up with Arab-Druse rapper Tapash for the release, her newest offering is a bold and thunderous mix of heavy rock and hip-hop aesthetics, brimming with anthemic energy from start to finish.
Adding about her new release, Gali said, "The song was written about the shittiest feeling that comes with growing from teen to adulthood - this constant sensation that we haven't accomplished enough for the age we're in. And the hook tries to be a liberating mantra for those of us who felt it."
Since her last single, Gali has been signed to international live music agency UTA, and has already been booked for events and festivals around the world - the next one being a Live Nation showcase tonight (Nov 24th) at London's The Old Blue Last.
One of the first acts signed to the newly established Universal Israel, this Tel Aviv-based musician is living proof of why you should never judge from appearances alone. At first glance, Gali is the perfect pop star: a young woman carving out radio-ready jams that could easily sit alongside hits by Billie Eilish,
Olivia Rodrigo and co. But dig a little deeper and you'll discover a different side to Gali, whose early releases channel the quintessential heroes of rock'n'roll, from
Led Zeppelin and
Pink Floyd to
Audioslave and Pantera.
Born to a surgeon mother and father who worked as a CEO in the film industry, Gali herself admits that her chosen path might be surprising to some. But both her parents are classic rock fans, and she was raised on a diet of Bowie,
Queen and Pink Floyd. Later, she realised she gravitated towards heavier rock - grunge and metal, particularly - as a means of coping with her father's health issues.
"My dad used to go in and out of hospital, so I'd spend a lot of time at home, alone," she says. "I remember the silence being so loud… I had to fill it up with something louder. I needed something to fall into, and rock music was what caught me." She picked up the guitar, aged 10 and began composing her own songs around the same time ("I really thought I was Axl Rose", she laughs). Other children her age attended after-school groups; she stayed at home and let her feelings pour out.
"It was almost painful, this inclination to write… it came from somewhere within," she says. "I don't think I was born a musician. I feel like this path chose me."
She made her debut with 'Show Me Love', a fascinating blend of industrial rock with traditional Middle Eastern melodies, the roots of which can be traced back through the centuries. This emerges in the instrumentation - the heady inflections of the electric guitar - and Gali's own mesmerising vocal delivery.
Follow up single, 'Scared', one of Gali's heavier tracks, bursts onto the scene like a prize fighter entering the ring, as she lays down the gauntlet. The track is instantly catchy, delivered over a chugging guitar hook and hisses of percussion that drip venom. "It's not my fault/ That I'm not playing fair," Gali sings, in a manner that recalls Lana Del Rey's dangerous croon, before demanding to know on the chorus: "Why do you get scared?" She does a superb cover of Korn's 1999 single 'Freak on a Leash', channeling the silky, dangerous energy of the original.
Meanwhile, 'Lolita', Gali's collaboration with renowned Israeli singer-songwriter Noga Erez, reclaims the twisted narrative so many male artists have spun from Vladimir Nabokov's classic 1955 novel. She calls out a former partner for his controlling behaviour, rejoicing in her newfound liberation. "I'm such a free bird, and it's mad that I spent a long time in that relationship," she says. "There were times when I felt out of control, and other times where I tried to break free, which seemed to hurt me more, and I stepped back into the cage."
She applies that same free spirit to her most recent single 'Better', across dark bass mutterings, casting off those who dare to doubt her. "I have this strong inclination that I do know what's best for me, and my voice is the one I should be listening to," she says. There's no doubt that many more will be listening to Gali's enrapturing voice very soon.
