Israeli concert goers urge Robbie Williams: “Make aliyah!”
'I felt you, I know who you are, I know how you are and you mean an awful lot to me,' pop icon addresses adoring crowd of thousands at close of his performance in Israel
Robbie Williams strutted his stuff to an adoring crowd at his much anticipated performance in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park on Thursday.
It was the 49-year-old singer’s first return to Israel in nearly a decade and he made it abundantly clear how happy he was to be back.
“I’m Robbie Williams. This is my band. This is my a**. Yalla balagan! (meaning chaos)” he yelled to the tens of thousands of fans there to welcome him.
“As an insider, you have something incredibly f***ing special here,” the British pop icon and former member of Take That said. “I went for a walk the other night. I noticed a peace here, there is a peace here that I don’t feel in London, that I don’t feel in Los Angeles. Considering as a people you have so much going on, there is a calm, and a sincerity… Just by this walk, I felt you, I know who you are, I know how you are, and you mean an awful lot to me. It’s always really special coming out.”
The crowd cheered as he mentioned his Jewish wife and four children, with one fan urging him to ‘Make Aliyah!”
“My wife is Jewish so my kids are Jewish,” said Williams. “I like to keep some of the traditions going in the family, just out of respect to you guys and their history.
He showed the crowd tattoo on his wrist with the word “simcha”, which means ‘happiness’ in Hebrew.
“I’m very grateful for you being there over the years… and very grateful just for you as a people, God bless you,” he said.
True to Robbie Williams form, he joked, he bantered and asked for the Hebrew words for ‘sex’ and ‘drugs’ during a set that included many of his popular hits, including “Let Me Entertain You,” “Millennium,”, “Could It Be Magic,” “Supreme,” “Angels” and “Feel.”
He also sang with Indie rock singer Noga Erez for the duet “Kids”, who performed the lyrics orginally sung by Australian pop star Kylie Minogue.
Williams is a passionate supporter of Israel. In a recent interview on the podcast Andrew Gold: On The Edge, he said: “I am a Catholic who has distanced himself from religion and Ayda is a Jew who has distanced herself from religion – but it is important that we have a tribe. It’s important to have a sense of belonging. I feel more Jewish than I feel Catholic.”
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