Riff Cohen ( he, ריף כהן; born on

March 23 Events Pre-1600 *1400 – The Trần dynasty of Vietnam is deposed, after one hundred and seventy-five years of rule, by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official. *1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last rel ...

, 1984) is an Israeli singer-songwriter, actress, and musician who performs songs in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, French and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

Biography

Riff Cohen was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, to a Tunisian-Jewish father and an Algerian-French-Jewish mother. She grew up in the Ramat Aviv Gimmel neighborhood. Her father's family is from the

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

n island of

Djerba Djerba (; ar, جربة, Jirba, ; it, Meninge, Girba), also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at , in the Gulf of Gabès, off the coast of Tunisia. It had a population of 139,544 ...

, and her maternal family is from

Tlemcen Tlemcen (; ar, تلمسان, translit=Tilimsān) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran, and capital of the Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the po ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

, although her mother was raised in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

.Entre Paris Et Tel Aviv

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...

She has two children. After finishing her high school studies she started to focus on her own career; She studied musicology at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

and performed as a singer in a

musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists ...

. In 2008 she moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

after winning an artistic scholarship.

Career

In 2012 she released her

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

"A Paris", whose video on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

has received over 4 million visits. The single is part of an album of the same name, which Cohen herself produced and launched later, and includes 14 tracks, four of which are in Hebrew, one in Nubian and the rest in French. In September 2012, she performed as the opening act for the Red Hot Chili Peppers'

I'm with You World Tour The I'm with You World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by American rock band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of the band's tenth studio album, '' I'm with You''. It marked the band's first tour in four years and first with guitarist Josh K ...

in Tel Aviv, Israel. In October of the same year, she signed to

AZ Records ''AZ'' is a French record label established in 2002 as an affiliate of Universal with a big list of artists signed or with distribution rights for their releases in France. Valéry Zeitoun The founder and first president of AZ record label, Val� ...

, a brand of

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

. That same year, appeared in the French-Canadian-Israeli film '' A Bottle in the Gaza Sea'', directed by Thierry Binisti and based on a novel by

Valérie Zenatti Valérie Zenatti (born 1 April 1970, in Nice) is a French writer, translator and screenwriter. Biography Her novel, ' enjoyed a critical and public success and - after being selected in the final prix Médicis and prix des libraires – was ...

. In 2013, Cohen received the "Breakthrough Artist of the Year" award from The Israel Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers of Musical Works (ACUM).ACUM honors Israel's finest
Jerusalem Post In 2014, she collaborated with the psychedelic rock band

Moodoïd Moodoïd is a French psychedelic rock band and a musical fusion project spearheaded by Pablo Padovani, the guitarist for Melody's Echo Chamber. The other members are Clémence on bass guitar, Lucie on keyboards and Lucie on drums. Moodoïd rel ...

for its album ''Le Monde Möö''. In 2016, she collaborated with

The Borochov Brothers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

for the Jerusalem

Piyyut A ''piyyut'' or ''piyut'' (plural piyyutim or piyutim, he, פִּיּוּטִים / פיוטים, פִּיּוּט / פיוט ; from Greek ποιητής ''poiētḗs'' "poet") is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, ch ...

Festival.

Music style and influences

Cohen defines her music as a mix of Middle Eastern

Urban Rock Rock Urbano (Spanish for Urban Rock) is a Hard Rock movement developed at late 1970s in Spain. Influenced by hard rock acts like Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple and early Punk Rock bands such as Ramones or The Clash, their lyrics deal about social and ...

, North-African folk and

Raï Raï (, ; ar, راي, Latn, ar, rāʾy, ), sometimes written rai, is a form of Algerian folk music that dates back to the 1920s. Singers of Raï are called ''cheb'' (Arabic: شاب) (or ''shabab,'' i.e. young) as opposed to ''sheikh'' (Ara ...

, considered representative of the Tzarfokai culture, a slang term in Hebrew used to refer to the

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the ...

Jews from the Maghreb. Her music has been influenced by

amazigh , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...

music, gnaoua and

raï Raï (, ; ar, راي, Latn, ar, rāʾy, ), sometimes written rai, is a form of Algerian folk music that dates back to the 1920s. Singers of Raï are called ''cheb'' (Arabic: شاب) (or ''shabab,'' i.e. young) as opposed to ''sheikh'' (Ara ...

, especially the Algerian singer Cheikha Rabia. Her songs are in Hebrew, French, or Arabic, with her mother Patricia writing the lyrics in French.A Tel-Aviv, le rock se puise dans le chaudron

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

Discography

Albums

*''À Paris '' (2013) *''A La Menthe'' (2015)

Singles

*''A Paris'' (2012) *''Six Heures'' (2012) *''J'aime'' (2012) *''Que du bonheur'' (2014) *''Dans Mon Quartier'' (2015) *''Hélas'' (2015) *''Marrakech'' (2015) *''Tomber De Haut'' (2019) *''Dis Moi'' (2019) *''Boi agale lach'' (2019) *''Quelle heure est-il'' (prod.

Tamir Muskat Tamir Muskat (in Hebrew תמיר מוסקט) is an Israeli musician/producer-sound engineer who was born and raised in Petach Tikva, Israel as son of a Romanian immigrant. His father was the manager of Anzeagi Conservatorion for music in Petach T ...

) (2020) *''Malach'' (2020) *''Elecha'' (2020)

Filmography

*''Yeladim'' (2008) *''The Golden Pomegranate'' (2010) - Miriam the Granddaughter (as Reef Cohen) *'' A Bottle in the Gaza Sea'' (2011) - Efrat *''Vivement dimanche'' (2012) - Self (Episode: "Enrico Macias 4") *''Bayit. Pizmon.'' (2018) - Self (Episode 1.4)

Awards

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Riff 1984 births Israeli people of Tunisian-Jewish descent Israeli people of Algerian-Jewish descent Living people Jewish Israeli musicians Actresses from Tel Aviv Musicians from Tel Aviv Israeli film actresses Israeli women singer-songwriters French-language singers Hebrew-language singers Arabic-language singers of Israel 21st-century Israeli women singers Raï musicians