Achinoam Nini, NOA, is the best-known Israeli artist in existence. Born in Tel-Aviv in 1969, she lived in New York from the age of two until she returned to Israel on reaching the age of seventeen. NOA studied music at the Rimon School, where she met her music partner and friend Gil Dor. Together, they have written and produced four albums that have been enormously successful in Israel and another four international albums: "Noa", "Calling", "Blue Touches Blue" and "Now".

NOA’s main influences feature singer-songwriters from the sixties, such as Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.  NOA’s great musical and lyrical sensitivity, in combination with her Yemenite roots, and Gil Dor’s musical background in Jazz, classical music and the world of rock, have led NOA and Gil to create a unique sound.

NOA has performed hundreds of highly successful concerts worldwide, received with great critical acclaim. They have played on many different stages, which include the Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Olympia in Paris, the Zellerbach Auditorium in San Francisco, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Festival de Jazz de Montreaux and the Paleo Music in Switzerland, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland and the Water Festival en Stockholm.

She strongly upholds the use of dialogue for achieving peace at all times, demonstrated by her participation in different events as well as her proximity to other religions and cultures. She was the first Israeli artist officially invited on tour in Morocco and has performed several times in the Vatican. She has also sung on numerous occasions with Palestinian musicians, as well as musicians from other Arab countries, such as Argelino Khaled.

NOA’s work in promoting the role of artists in defence of peace was recognized with the "Crystal Award", which she received at the "World Economic Forum" in Davos, Switzerland. She has acted here on different occasions alongside Palestine artists at events associated with peace in the Middle East. She was also invited to sing in Oslo to mark the anniversary of the peace treaty signed in Oslo, during a concert that was attended by Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. In November 1995, she sung before an audience of fifty thousand people during a peace rally at Tel Aviv, only minutes before Yitchak Rabin was assassinated.

NOA and Gil have performed on different occasions with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, led by great directors, including Zubin Mehta.  She has toured with artists such as Sting, sung with Stevie Wonder and shared both the stage and microphone with other great musicians of international acclaim.

In 2001 she gave birth to her first child, a boy named Ayehli. During the same year, she completed her fourth international album with Gil Dor and Yohad Nevo, NOW (Universal Music) In 2003, the compilation album, NOA GOLD, was released. On August 12th 2004, NOA became a mother for the second time, to a baby daughter called Enéa.

Between 2003 and 2006, the trio, formed by NOA, Gil Dor and Zohar Fresco (an extraordinary percussionist, close friend and music partner for many years), performed at a concert with the Neapolitan group, Solis String Quartet. The fusion of instruments and styles in this performance highlighted NOA’s huge musical range, music that has captured audiences across Europe at sell-out concerts. 

In 2007, NOA released “Noa sings Jazz”, live, which features well-known jazz standards selected in homage to the artists that wrote them.

In 2008, the biggest surprise yet arrived: the new and original album by NOA, GENES & JEANS, released in March. Roots and jeans: tradition and modernity, past and present, the life and experience of NOA transformed into an album that is her most suggestive and emotional work to date.

As well as the album, NOA embarked upon her latest world tour GENES AND JEANS, which came to Spain in April 2008 and included a concert as part of the MUNDUA TOLOSAN, on April 11th.

GENES AND JEANS contains Yemeni ethnic and cultural influences that are NOA’s origins. It also reflects her experience in the United States as well as her current life in Israel. NOA sums up her artistic and personal experiences in an album that will go down in history. NOA uses her contemporary and original compositions to shape her own history in the form of her music.  We have the opportunity to listen to her in person.   

NOA

ALBUM Genes & Jeans

NOA – voice, percussion
GIL DOR – guitars, musical direction
GADI SERI - percussion
JEAN PAUL ZIMBRIS – drums
ANAT FIRESTONE - bass
GIL ZOHAR - synthesizers