San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
A NEW HANUKKAH SONG, COURTESY OF DAVEED DIGGS
With much of the arts moving to online and streaming platforms, here’s a look at a weekly standout:
My pick: “Puppy for Hanukkah” by Daveed Diggs
Why: Christmas has so many great songs — enough that radio stations are able to play Christmas songs all day and all night. Hanukkah? Not so much. Aside from the traditional songs we learn in Hebrew school, our most famous holiday tune is Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song” with lyrics like: Put on your yarmulke, here comes Chanukah. So much funukuh to celebrate Chanukah.
Love it or hate it, that song was first performed in 1994. And sure, since then there have been some worthy contenders like Sharon
Jones & the Dap-kings’ “8 Days (of Hanukkah)” and “Feast of Lights” by They Might Be Giants. But nothing that’s gone as mainstream as Sandler’s.
Just in time for Hanukkah 2020, however, we get a new song by none other than Broadway star and rapper Daveed Diggs. It’s called “Puppy for Hanukkah” and it’s about, well, a kid who really wants a puppy for Hanukkah. The song was created for the Disney Channel and has funny, wholesome lines like: Some kids write lists for they Christmas gifts, and send em’ all off to they Santas. But I don’t trip off a list for my gift, I’mma get it cause I got eight chances. But it also has very specific Hanukkah references, including an auto-tuned version of the Hanukkah blessing followed by (the relatable line): that blessing is a bop, now I’ve said it. Not sure what it means but I learned it phonetic.
Diggs’ mother is Jewish and he grew up going to Hebrew school, and the accompanying music video features mixed-race Jewish kids playing dreidel, lighting menorahs and opening presents — faces that are rarely represented in the already lacking Jewish holiday music genre.
Find it: “Puppy for Hanukkah” is streaming on Disney Music and on Youtube.