"I do not represent Israel": Asaf Avidan returns to the stage and stirs a storm
Four years after moving to France, the successful singer returns to Israel for a concert tour. He speaks candidly about detaching from national identity, his new life on a farm, and why he avoids the boycotts facing other artists abroad.
Four years after moving the center of his life to France, Asaf Avidan returns to perform in Israel with an electric band show. While many Israeli artists have been dealing in recent years with waves of cancellations, protests, and boycotts worldwide, Avidan presents a completely different reality, one that stirs quite a bit of debate.
According to the singer, despite performing before hundreds of thousands of people in recent years as part of international tours and major festivals, he has not encountered manifestations of hostility.
"In all the last three years, I haven't had even one incident with a hint of antisemitism," he shares. "I know it's related to how I express myself and represent myself throughout two decades of an international career."
The root of Avidan's perception is the clear separation he makes between the geography in which he grew up and his artistic and political identity. From his perspective, the attempt to categorize him under a national label does a disservice to the essence of his work.
"I don't think I am an Israeli artist, but an artist from Israel, and I see a big difference in that," he explains. "I do not represent Israel; I do not dwell on superficial identities, not in music and not in my political conduct," he shared in an interview with Israel Hayom.
This position has already cost him in the past. Following an interview he gave to the French media that reached Israel, he suffered a wave of backlash and threats. However, Avidan insists that his goal in art is to transcend the boundaries of identity. He does not deny the existence of anti-Israeli trends or the difficulties experienced by his colleagues, but he holds a critical view regarding how these issues are reflected in the local media.
Alongside his musical activity and a new album, Avidan currently dedicates a significant part of his time to an animal rescue project on a farm he established in France together with his partner, Katerina. Now, as he arrives for a short series of performances in Israel, the audience has an opportunity to meet an artist who has refused to fit into familiar boxes and continues to stick to his independent path.
