Noa, Mergui, Netta, and...Gabriel: Israeli pop music's latest sensation gets ready to go global

If you’re under the age of 35 – where the majority of the TikTok demographic lies – you may have heard of Gabriel Guy. He’s been working his TikTok profile and the promo for his fourth song, “Doing So Much Better,” has over 850,000 views; on YouTube, it’s hit over a million views; and on Spotify, 148,000 streams. In addition to being one of Universal Music Group’s (UMG) Israeli artists, Guy signed with Island UK in March, joining a line-up that includes names like Drake, Lola Young, and Ariana Grande.

“Would you like something to drink? Tea? Coffee?” In person, Guy is exactly as you’d expect from his online persona – a baby face with a five o’clock shadow framed in curls, with a funky style offset by an earnest, friendly energy. He smiles as he walks to the kitchen of the UMG offices in Ramat Gan.

So how does a 23-year-old from Even Yehuda get signed to a major record label? It all began with a demo produced by Guy together with friends, which included the first two songs eventually released by UMG – “Arrest Me” and “Money.”

“I’d searched for people that could make demos of my songs for cheap, to try to reach as many as possible with my music,” he says.

Guy was post-army and working with his friends – one whom he had met through his younger brother was, he says, “a little wonder kid, he’d play all the instruments” and another who he’d met through his piano teacher, “he was really young and a good producer.” And the three of them became, as he describes it, “this factory of demos and songs – we’d make like 30 songs in two months.”

Guy was signed by UMG in 2022, at which point they set out to re-produce his demo songs on a more professional level, and the video for “Arrest Me” was born. “It was the first music video. I didn’t have the courage to show my face and do all that sass to the camera, so we wanted to do something a little different,” he says.

“If motherf****rs wouldn care about me. If motherf****rs wouldn care about me. I’d probably be there for me. Try to fulfill all my needs,” the chorus goes. The video is a mix of gritty imagery with an absurdist twist, in which Guy, as an animated black-eyed little boy, is raised by a debauched, burlesque-like red-headed woman, all to the song’s bouncy, reggae-like beat. “I guess it paid off,” he says of the animation, “because it looks weird and awesome.”

“Hate You Instead,” Guy’s most recent single, dropped as an audio release in November. The song is an ode to the heartbreaker: “Hello stranger are you doing fine? Took a while to get you off my mind. I tried to hide I took a ride and wrote a song. Couldn’t you keep your distance?”    

Then there’s the single that reached one million views on YouTube. “I never read your letter. I’m doing so much better,” Guy sings in the lyrics to the song of the same name. In the video, he dances with hand puppets to the tune that’s become an upbeat anthem of sorts for Israeli Gen-Zers. On TikTok, they’ve used it in more than 4,000 posts since its September release.   GUY WAS that kid with no special exposure to music who became an exceptional talent.

“I always liked music,” he says. “I used to write little tunes on my phone, but I never really did anything with it.” During his last 2-years of high school, after returning with his family following seven years in Nigeria, Guy began taking piano and voice lessons. Through a teacher, he began to meet other musicians. “I didn’t know how to play any instruments,” Guy says. “I never sang in front of anybody before the age of 19.”

He’s sitting on a chair by the couch in a comfortable room, one of his managers seated at opposite end. It’s been a busy day, and Guy, wearing a long olive green t-shirt with a UFO emblazoned on the front, has come to this interview following a studio session. “We tried to crack some songs, and it didn’t really work, we tried really hard and nothing came up and then we ran out of time,” he says.  

Hoping to make it big abroad 

Though born in Ramat Gan, having attended an international school in Nigeria, his English is perfect. And at a time when other Israeli artists – Jonathan Mergui, Noa Kirel, and Noga Erez for example – have launched international careers, Guy and his team are hoping to follow suit. In 2025, he’s planning to travel to the UK and work with his label. Guy says he is optimistic.

He’s already had a couple of sold-out shows at smaller venues and people have started to recognize him in public.

“When older people see me they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I know you! I got you my playlist...’ When kids see me, they usually watch me from afar for a long time and then they approach me and they’re like (he does a kid’s voice), ‘Can I have a picture?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course!’”

Guy realizes he’s got work to do and says he’s keeping it all in perspective. “I’ve heard stories about people signing, then getting dropped, so it doesn’t really mark my success. I had to work for things and I’m still working on things because I’m still not successful. I’m at the beginning.”

He hopes the relationship with his labels will continue to grow. He wants to do shows, put out albums, write songs for other artists, and “make shit happen, keep working and growing.” And most importantly, Guy says, "I want to make a lot of music.”

Gabriel Guy will be opening for Lihi Toledano at the Barby on December 23 and performing at Syrup in Haifa on December 24. You can find him on Instagram and TikTok.