ACCIDENTAL SUPERSTARS
Montrealer becomes singing sensation in Israel.
Montreal-born singer Kathleen Reiter had only lived in Tel Aviv a few days when she strode onto the stage of Israel’s top televised vocal competition and stole the show.
A powerful rendition of British singer Adele’s Rolling in the Deep last October had judges of the Israeli version of The Voice leaping from their seats and clamouring for the chance to coach the 23year-old, who had decided to “make aliyah,” or immigrate to the Jewish homeland, that summer.
And when the show’s first season ended Saturday, Ms. Reiter was crowned victor — a win that has propelled the trilingual pop powerhouse to national stardom.
“It was a huge surprise and I think I’m still a bit in shock,” Ms. Reiter said when reached by phone in Tel Aviv on Monday. “I don’t really realize what’s going on.”
Ms. Reiter had taken vocal lessons in Montreal since age 12 and competed in singing competitions on a much smaller scale — clinching the title of Montreal’s Jewish Idol in 2004, when she was 15.
But never had she taken such a risk — stepping out before a national television audi-
ence in a country she had only visited in the summers of her childhood.
A friend of her father’s had heard about the auditions and suggested Ms. Reiter give them a try.
“I was familiar with the format because the first season of the American one was airing,” she said. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”
Israel’s The Voice, which had 1.6 million viewers in its premiere episode, is modelled after the original show, The Voice of Holland, though Canadians might be more familiar with the hugely popular American version. In that show, popular artistscum-judges Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and country star Blake Shelton sit with their high-backed red chairs faced away from the stage so they are unable to see the performer and hit the ‘I Want You’ button to spin around when they like what they hear. Once the blind auditions are through, the judges, who mentor each artist on their team, pick two of their singers to perform a duet in a “battle round,” eliminating the weakest one. Then, the remaining singers perform in the live shows and fans vote for their favourite.
The favourite on Israel’s The Voice turned out to be Ms. Reiter.
“You go up there and hope for one chair [to turn around],” she said of the blind auditions. “In my case, all four chairs turned around. Not only was it exciting, it was a huge adrenalin rush as each
chair turned. After that they were fighting for me. It was a weird feeling.”
Ms. Reiter went with her gut and chose to work with Israeli pop star and judge Sarit Hadad, who coached Ms.
Reiter to sing big but also pay attention to the subtleties in her music. Ms. Reiter was the only contestant to sing in English, French and Hebrew — proving a versatility that set her apart, she
said. She beat out finalist Raz Schmueli in the last episode — her style veering far more toward traditional Israeli music than Ms. Reiter’s soulful pop.
“It’s the soul music, I like to sing like that,” she said, adding that she is indeed inspired by Adele — “obsessed,” even. “It’s a big part of how I want to portray myself as a performer. I’m not that outgoing of a person regularly, but onstage, I can sing bigger.”
Ms. Reiter says she never craved the fame, but she’s already being recognized by fans around Tel Aviv.
Her first single — she and the other three finalists each handpicked and recorded one as part of the show — is a summertime dance number sung in Hebrew, she said. It’s already playing on the radio there.
“The goal is to get to a place where I can release an album and play shows and all of that stuff. I’m definitely in the direction I want to go to,” she said.
Does that mean North America is next on her list? Sure. But for now, she’ll enjoy her newfound success in Israel and see where it takes her, she said.
“So far so good.”