The rise and demise of Israeli pop superstars Static and Ben El
Liraz Russo and Ben El Tavori’s high-energy sound brought a string of local hits, but efforts to break out globally fell flat and their clean images were tarnished by messy personal lives
Static and Ben El on a promotional trip to New York City in February, 2020. A month later, their international rise was cut short due to the pandemic. Photo by Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
They may not have been the Beatles but, for a generation of young Israelis, hearing last week that the pop duo Static and Ben El were breaking up disrupted the soundtrack of their lives just as much as the dissolution of the Fab Four did to an earlier generation.
The two flashy young men have reigned as the undisputed kings of the Israeli charts for the past seven years, with a string of hits and viral videos that injected new energy into an Israeli music scene that was previously dominated by wistful singer-songwriters, aging rockers and angry rappers.
Mixing hip-hop and Mizrahi pop with Latin and reggaeton sounds, Static and Ben El’s upbeat, high-energy look and sound was slick and international, with lyrics that were fun and catchy (if not particularly sophisticated).
The duo – real names Liraz Russo, 31, and Ben El Tavori, 30 – first rose to prominence in 2015 via YouTube (as one does these days), with all of their hits accompanied by videos that drew millions of views.
Over the years, they garnered an army of devoted, die-hard teen and tween fans – who reacted with sad emojis and GIFs when the announcement about the split reached their social media accounts last Thursday.
“Dear friends,” the pair posted across their platforms. “This was not an easy decision, however, the duo known as Static and Ben El has decided to part ways. This project has changed our lives in so many ways, and we still will continue to love and support each other on our separate journeys. We also wanted to thank you for being so supportive and for helping us live our dreams. Of course – the shows already scheduled will still take place. We love you very much, see you in our new incarnation.”
It was a steep fall from 2018, when the sky seemed to be the limit for the duo. That was the year Israeli-American entertainment mogul Haim Saban took them under his wing and, after eight months of negotiations, ushered them into a $5 million contract with Capitol Records – part of the storied Universal Music Group, and putting them in the company of Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Coldplay and Jay-Z.
The duo became the first linchpin of Saban’s new global music entertainment company, Saban Music Group, into which he sank a reported $500 million. They became jet-setters, flying regularly between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles.
Static and Ben El’s international launch was the icing on the cake of a multifaceted local career that had already exploded locally, sweeping the country’s music awards. Their popular personas translated into fat endorsement deals for everything from fashion to chocolate pudding, and lucrative, high-profile gigs as judges on the Israeli iterations of popular reality shows like “The Masked Singer” and “American Idol.”
Even before their official international breakout, they looked beyond Israel through their music. One of their biggest hits, “Tudo Bom” (which has the fifth-highest number of views on YouTube ever achieved by an Israeli video), featured Brazilian music and included lyrics in Portuguese. A song called “Namaste” looked toward India, while another, “Kawaii,” had a Japanese anime theme. And in 2020, they released “Habib Albi” (Arabic for “Love of my Heart”) as Tel Aviv’s official song for that year’s Pride Week, together with Arab-Israeli singer Nasreen Qadri, with lyrics in Hebrew, English and Arabic.
Their distinctive sound was masterminded by their producer, Yarden Peleg – who goes by the professional moniker Jordi.
The odd couple
Their backgrounds and personalities were very different, making them something of an odd couple. Rainbow-haired Static, who grew up and lives in Haifa, had been a gifted musical prodigy from a young age and is viewed as the mastermind behind their hits.
Ben El brought the celebrity pedigree and golden voice to the act. He is the son of Middle Eastern crooner Shimi Tavori, known for his turbulent love life, multiple marriages and problematic relationships with his kids (he and Ben El are currently estranged) as much as he is for his hits, and he lived much of his life in Los Angeles, where Ben El was raised. In a twist on “The Osbournes” (featuring Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne and his dysfunctional family), their topsy-turvy household became a short-lived reality show in 2021 called “The Tavoris.”
However, after the excitement of the announcement of their well-funded international launch in 2018, their luck began to turn. After intensively working for a year recording new songs and rerecording Israeli hits in English, Static and Ben El were about to start touring around the world when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This limited their potential to maximize publicity for their collaborations with big stars: they recorded the single “Further Up” with U.S. rapper Pitbull in 2020, followed later that year by “Shake Ya Boom Boom” with the Black Eyed Peas.
In several cases, the pandemic forced them to make big media appearances virtually – like their debut on CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden” – and any hopes of a big international touring schedule was shattered.
Post-COVID, as they worked to reinvigorate their international ambitions with keeping up locally, their personal lives became more complicated and the strain began to show.
After Static’s high-profile 2019 engagement and 2021 celebrity wedding to his longtime girlfriend Sarit Polak, he was soon dogged by rumors of infidelity with a much-younger pop star.
The situation became even messier for Ben El Tavori, who had a turbulent relationship – and son named Prince – with television host Ortal Amar, also marked by cheating scandals, a breakup and more recently a highly publicized Los Angeles romance with Danielle Levi, a member of Kim Kardashian’s style team.
Tavori appeared to be following in his father’s footsteps when a leaked recording hit the media containing a lengthy rant in which he insulted, cursed and berated Amar over their financial differences, exclaiming, “I don’t want to see the kid anymore as long as I live – I told you that! I’ve erased him” He followed up with a threat that, if he did spend time with his son, he would spend it inciting the child against Amar, making him “hate her,” and that he wouldn’t pay her a dime even if doing so sent him to prison.
The resulting publicity cost Tavori some of his lucrative endorsements: he was no longer considered an appropriate pitchman for chocolate pudding ads aimed at children.
Then, in what seemed in retrospect an omen, disaster almost struck at a Static and Ben El concert in Eilat last Wednesday, when a platform holding two massive speakers collapsed, lightly injuring two young girls ages 10 and 15.
Following the disastrous week of bad publicity, their team attempted to pick up the pieces with positive spin.
The man behind their successful videos, director Roman Buchatsky, took to the media on Saturday night. He declared that the decision to split had been a long time coming, and the “bad vibes” as he described the events of the past few weeks were the catalyst, not the cause.
“There was a sense of karma, that something wasn’t working here,” Buchatsky said, noting that from the beginning the pair were an “odd couple” whose relationship had its ups and downs.
The breakup, he predicted, “will give them a chance to explore new opportunities and to rebrand. I’ve heard some of the material they’re working on as individuals, and it’s nothing like what this country has seen before. … If anyone thinks this breakup means that they’re finished, they’re wrong. It’s just the beginning.”
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