ISRAELI SINGER DUETS TO RINGIN THE CHINESE NEW YEAR IN BEIJING
ISRAELI SINGER DUETS TO RINGIN THE CHINESE NEW YEAR IN BEIJING
To celebrate and usher in the Chinese New Year of the Snake, Israeli singer Miri Mesika has been chosen to sing a duet with a famous Chinese singer Hu Sileng, during the Beijing Television (BTV) prestigious gala.
Israel’s Embassy in China shared an idea with friends at BTV in August 2012 which has now turned into reality.
Relations between Israel and China have been very strong with many events taking place across China during 2012 to celebrate 20 years of diplomatic relations.
The song will be broadcast on New Year’s Eve and is expected to be seen by well over 100 million people across China. This year the Chinese New Year will start from 11 February through to 13 February, three official public holidays.
The gala is the most popular televised event on New Year’s Eve, viewed in China and around the world, on the Internet and on various international satellite channels.
“We shared an idea with our friends from BTV to find a famous Israeli singer to sing at the BTV annual gala. We sent some tapes of Israeli artists and singers that we thought could be appropriate. They picked Miri Mesika whose voice performance and style they find suitable to the Chinese audience’s taste,” commented Ran Peleg, spokesman, Embassy of Israel in Beijing.
“Mesika agreed instantly to this adventure and the next step was to find a Chinese artist to match with her and sing a duet. Finally we decided upon thesinger Hu Sileng to sing with her the famous Chinese song Hongyan (in English Swan),” said Peleg.
“Mesika learnt the song in Chinese which was surprisingly not very difficult for her. She will also be singing a song in Hebrew,” Peleg added.
Mesika, is both a well-known singer and actress in Israel. She has won several Israeli Female Singer of the Year awards and has sold more than 100,000 copies of her albums. She grew up in Herzliya and as a child studied music, and played the guitar and the recorder at the city music school.
Her acting career took off in 2005 when she took part in the Habima Theatre production of the musical King Solomon and Shalmai the Shoemaker. The musical was widely praised and won the Musical of the Year award at the 2005 Israeli Theatre Awards. In November 2006 she was in the drama film Shalosh Imahot(Three Mothers).
In 2007 she also took part in Amos Gitai’s film The Dybbukin Haifa and in the Festigal festival of children’s songs. In 2008 Mesika played the narrator in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat staged by Habima Theatre. In 2012, Messika was a judge on Kokhav Nolad, the Israeli version of American Idol.
Israel’s embassy also managed to produce a short video about the history and culture of Israel to accompany the song, which will offer huge exposure to the eyes and ears of millions of Chinese.
Mesika has already performed the duet in front of a live audience of 1000. Everyone in the theatre was impressed with her performance. Now the rest of China can watch her in the gala with their families on New Year’s Eve.
Jewish Times Asia
(Issue February 2013)