From Ethiopia to Israel to the world stage, singer-songwriter Gili Yalo defies categorization
The musician blends everything from traditional music of his native Ethiopia to funk to reggae in his genre-mashing sound
Gili Yalo.
Chutzpah! PLUS presents Gili Yalo Live in Concert at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre at the JCC on September 24 at 8 pm
ETHIOPIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER Gili Yalo was just four years old when his family was forced to flee their village in the country’s Gondar region for Israel as part of Operation Moses. That was one of a series of covert missions led by the CIA, Israel’s secret-service agency, and Sudanese State Security that began in 1984 to get persecuted Ethiopian Jews to safety. To reach Israel, thousands of people had to first travel by foot to refugee camps with deplorable conditions in Sudan, where they would eventually be evacuated by air. What Yalo recalls from that gruelling two-month-long journey was singing.
“You are moving with a group of people around you; there were hundreds of people, and I was on my dad’s shoulders,” Yalo says in a Zoom interview with Stir from a tour stop in New York City. “You are in danger, but I didn’t understand it. I have a picture from that time but I don’t remember most of it. I do remember I was always singing.”
If the power of song helped sustain Yalo and his family during that dreadful, perilous ordeal, it has continued to fuel him throughout his entire life.
Yalo sang with Pirhei Yerushalaim, a choir for religious boys, going on to tour Europe with the group. As a member of Israel Defense Forces, Yalo sang with one of its musical troops. After being discharged from the military, Yalo sang in cover bands and with a reggae group called Zvuloon Dub System. In 2015, he launched his solo career, releasing his eponymous debut in 2017 and a follow-up EP, Made in Amharica, in 2019. The latter was a collaboration with Texas-based Grammy nominees Niles City Sound. Yalo sings in English, Hebrew, and Amharic, and his sound is unlike anything out there, a blend of Ethiopian pentatonic music with soul, funk, jazz, psychedelic, Afrobeats, and reggae. His voice has been compared to that of Bob Marley. Along with his five-piece band, he’s coming to Vancouver as part of Chutzpah! PLUS.
Gili Yalo.
Expressing himself through song is how Yalo celebrates, processes, and copes with life.
“It’s just the feeling of being free,” Yalo says. “It’s unlimited; there’s something about it that it releases you from, I don't know… from everything about time. You feel like you just went out of reality. It’s like the border between reality and imagination. It’s sadness. It’s happiness. It’s feelings.
“I write about struggle and oppression and songs that motivate people,” he adds. “I write about something that is happening or something that I feel. It’s not something superficial.”
In a sector that loves to label things, Yalo doesn’t fit easily into categories, and he’s more than fine with that.
“There are a lot of people in the music industry who say you should stick with one thing,” Yalo says. “I see music as something that liberates you, so how can I defend its borders? I think there’s good music that I like….Music is a journey. I just want to continue making music until the day I die, and I don’t want to bore myself. The most important thing is to keep myself curious.”
Yalo has performed in Vancouver in the past and says it’s genuinely one of his favourite places on the planet, in large part because of the people. He’s reticent to divulge any specifics on what he has in store for his performance, other than to say that he likes to surprise his audiences.
“I love dancing and emotions, very warm music,” Yalo says. “It’s a big celebration. Just let people know to bring their dancing shoes!”
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