The creator of major hits collapsed financially: "I lost everything. Living on half a pita a day"

Creator and composer Elia Rossilio, who is credited with some of the most successful hits in Israeli music, is getting back on his feet after a particularly complex period in which he lost all his assets and deteriorated to the point of being homeless. Today, he is back in the recording studio and working on producing a new album for singer Maor Edri — an album he wrote part of while staying in an abandoned apartment.

For many long years, from 2002 until 2018, Rossilio stood at the center of the local industry's stage, creating for the country's leading artists. Describing his experiences from those days, he said:

"It means that I am sitting with singers all day, and going out with them to outings and restaurants, you are close to something very, very big and shiny. I enjoyed crazy successes. For example, with a song like 'Shnei Meshuga'im' ('Both Crazy'). Suddenly you get a boom of 50,000 people who are singing to your face what you sat and wrote. In the end, it's a song that reached 70 million views, that's a lot. I don't know, it's like being responsible for a country, like, it's..."

The plot twist began in 2021, precisely during a period when he recorded many professional successes. Rossilio decided to make a change in his career path, stopped writing for well-known artists, and moved to managing singers at the beginning of their careers. He raised resources and invested a lot of money in the new venture, but these plans encountered severe difficulties and ended in a financial crash.

Following the business failure, the creator lost his home and was forced to find shelter in a completely empty apartment where only a single mattress was placed. In this situation, he had to deal with daily existential distress, as he defined it in an interview with the program 'HaTzinor':

"It means being on half a pita with mayonnaise."

Later, when he turned to receive legal aid, he initially encountered a lack of response, a matter that eventually led to a prolonged and substantive handling of his affairs.

Alongside the financial distress and living on the street, Rossilio experienced a deep personal and emotional crisis that included a deterioration in his mental state:

"The moment I started to fall and take psychiatric pills, Cipralex and Lorivan and all kinds of things like that, it was a stage where everyone really disappeared, even though I really did a lot for my friends, and for my colleagues, and in the end, no one wants... no one wants to see a person's fall."

He added that at these low points: "It's just talking to God at that moment."

Despite the complex conditions and the loneliness in the abandoned apartment, Rossilio chose to look at the process as an opportunity for growth and rebuilding. According to him: "But I am happy. It built a person I am very, very proud of." He further noted that: "Every day that I was there and then I got back on my feet and was grateful for everything there is, I saw a person I really, really love in the mirror."

Today, after he has recovered and returned to creating, he collaborates closely with singer Maor Edri. In a report broadcast on the program 'HaTzinor', Edri addressed the journey his creative partner went through: