Corinne Allal leaves a lasting legacy for future generations - editorial

Corinne Allal, the singer, composer, and guitarist who died after a battle with cancer at the age of 69, was an Israeli icon whose repertoire of songs not only still resonates but also left a lasting legacy for future generations. Perhaps the most famous song she composed and sang, to the lyrics of legendary songwriter Ehud Manor, was “Ein Li Eretz Acheret” (“I Have No Other Land”). Written in 1982 in the midst of the First Lebanon War, its haunting melody and defiant lyrics are particularly relevant today. Here is the chorus in English:

“I have no other country

Even if my land is aflame

Just a word in Hebrew

pierces my veins and my soul –

With a painful body, with a hungry heart,

Here is my home.”

Its primary message is reminiscent of the famous quotation by Golda Meir: “We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.” But it goes on to pledge, “I will not stay silent because my country changed her face/I will not give up reminding her/And sing in her ears until she will open her eyes.”

Although it might have been written to protest a controversial war, it became a national anthem uniting all Israelis – and all Jews. When Allal sang it at a welcoming ceremony for French immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport in 2004, they all knew the words, singing along with her.

In 2016, JTA journalist Cnaan Liphshiz reported that Allal had accompanied ultra-Orthodox singer Lipa Schmeltzer as he sang the song in Yiddish at a conference hall in New York. “An unofficial, feel-good anthem that has been embraced (or co-opted, depending on your point of view) by all sides along Israel’s spectrum has again served as a bridge, this time between a haredi Ashkenazi pop star and the Sephardi lesbian Israeli musician who wrote the music,” Liphshiz wrote.

Like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” he noted, “the song had such wide appeal that it transcended its own politics and was embraced by all sides – including settlers who adopted the song as an anthem against the 2005 pullout from Gaza.”

“You have touched my heart,” Schmeltzer told Allal, who came out as gay in 2001, married her personal manager, Ruti Allal, and raised two sons together in Ganot, a moshav in central Israel. “Meetings such as this, of people from two different poles, can truly bring unity.”

Allal touched our hearts. She worked with many top Israeli artists throughout her career, including Yehudit Ravitz, a lifelong friend who produced her three albums, Antarctica (1989), Sfat Imi (Mother Tongue, 1990) and Zan Nadir (A Rare Kind, 1992). Together, the duo famously sang Arik Einstein’s classic “Atur Mitzchech,” penned by poet Avraham Halfi, composed by Yoni Rechter, and voted in 2004 as the greatest Israeli love song of all time.

The lyrics of “Zan Nadir,” which Allal wrote in Hebrew, beautifully portray the special quality of the people of Israel and of Allal herself:

“We are a rare species

An odd bird

Dreams in the air

Head in the ground”

Allal goes on to sing, “We mostly fool ourselves/Not blind but not looking/And it’s not clear what we will leave behind. Apart from the fears.”

Allal's musical legacy

Allal leaves behind a musical legacy that transcends the barriers that separate us. She reminded us that we have more in common than that what divides us, symbolized for her by the language of Hebrew. She referenced this in “Sfat Imi,” singing, “The sound of my mother tongue still echoes.”

But she had another side to her, too, a humorous side. The pathos of “Sfat Imi” contrasted nicely with the humor of “Antarctica,” lyrics of which she also wrote. “No horses speak Hebrew/No people don’t die/Search in the Antarctica/No palace in the middle of the Yarkon Street/No prince lives with me in the room/ No snow in Africa, a-ha a-ha a-ha/Search in the Antarctica.”

Allal’s last public appearance was singing “Ein Li Eretz Acheret” with Gali Atari on October 7 at the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, where the thousands attending – including family members of the fallen and relatives of the hostages – sang along.

Her death reminds us that none of us lives forever, and we have to do what we can while we can. But her music will always be with us, raising us up when we’re down. May her memory be blessed.