Her name is Victoria Hanna, and she’s a vocal artist. She performs Aramaic hip hop, wild, rhythmic rap on ancient Hebrew texts.
The label “singer” does not come close to describing the range of varied vocal techniques she uses. She is a cosmopolitan, multi-faceted artist. She investigates the boundaries of sound. Chews letters. Swallows syllables, shoots out words and letters, stretches and compresses them, spits, screams and sings. She plays with the Hebrew letters, recites the aleph-bet. Jumps, tames and bewitches. Moves between ancient and contemporary music, between texts from philosophical-poetic religious writings, such as the Song of Songs and Sefer Yetzirah, and ritual connections to the aleph-bet and the letters, setting them as captivating contemporary compositions.
Victoria’s appearance/performance is unique, surprising, hypnotic, unlike any other seen here. She is stormy, fragile, beautiful and sensual, boundary-less, a shy child, quiet and helpless, and a seductive, playful woman, all in one. She contains endless Victorias.
She was born in one of Jerusalem’s religious neighborhoods, the daughter of an ultra-orthodox Sephardic Rabbi. She studied in ultra-orthodox institutions, in a home filled with books, she had no contact whatsoever with the city’s secular population. But since then she has crossed the border and has begun to find her place as a woman with a singular, special means of self-expression. She studied acting, participated in plays and movies and learned a variety of vocal traditions .Victoria hasperformed in festivals throughout the world. Her great success was achieved in New York.
She has stuttered since childhood. This inborn speech disability was actually her greatest gift, and what led her to explore the boundaries of sound and diction. She embarked on an inner journey to explore the mouth as creator, which became the inspirational and emotional journey of her life.
Only recently has this great artist, who has left her impression on a significant number of places in the world, begun to work on her first full album.
The single being presented is the first of her debut album sensitively and thoughtfully produced by Tamir Muskat. “Aleph Bet (Hoshana),” is a prayer for rain arranged according to the alphabet, part of the “Hoshanot” service, and in it she appears as a child learning the magic as if it were a secret code, and as a bewitching woman, acting on nature and the falling rain.
The clip was directed by Asaf Korman (“Next to Her”).Victoria appears as two characters, the teacher and the student, two characters that dwell deep within her. It makes use of motifs from the “Hoshana” ritual, as she learned it from the rabbi, with her hands shaking up the four winds, and beating of the willow branches.
Victoria Hanna performs with Yarden Erez on Acordeon and Giori Politi on Drums, Roy Rabinovici on tenor sax.
