In 2007, the whole world was gently wandering on the melody of “New Soul”, a dreamy track in a debut album bearing her name: Yael Naim. Since then, the author, composer, and singer has reincarnated multiple times. From the luminous “She was a Boy” to the introspective “Nightsongs” and the whimsical “Older”, her discography has translated the paths taken into music.
“Solaire,” released at the beginning of the year, is the independence album. After 15 years with the label Tôt ou Tard, the musician performs solo for the first time in order, she says, to take all the risks. The result is an album with windows open to the world and an ode to the freedom of being oneself.
Born in France, Yael Naim grew up in Ramat Ha-Sharon, Israel, immersed in the music of Chopin, Mozart, and the Beatles. As a child, she didn’t really differentiate between genres: “music was wonderful, I had the sensation of elevation, happiness, joy… Mozart drove me crazy; I had seen the movie Amadeus and to me, he was a rockstar. He made me laugh, he was a bit on the edge, not politically correct, and free in his creativity. He was a bit ‘too much’ – artists are often told that, that they are ‘too’.” […] “I took time to understand that I wasn’t going to be a classical pianist, or a jazz pianist, or anything else that fits into a box. I wanted to take all that baggage and make a music that is the music of my time.”
Throughout her career, propelled by curiosity and life’s impulses, Yael Naim has constantly evolved her music by assimilating various influences. If French took time to integrate into her repertoire, she now writes indifferently in the three languages she speaks daily, Hebrew, English, and French. “Solaire” reflects this openness and the journey traveled by the musician to surrender to the joy of being diverse. “We are a thousand times more complex than the little labels that are stuck on us or that we stick on ourselves. Because we attach ourselves to these identities, because they are reassuring and true in certain periods. But our molecules, they are born and die, we are in constant renewal.”
More information: “Solaire,” the new album by Yael Naim, will be released on January 20th. This is her seventh album, and the first album the singer produces independently after collaborating with the label Tôt ou Tard for 15 years.
Additional details: – The documentary “Yael Na’âm, une nouvelle âme,” released in September 2025, is available on Arte until December 2027. – Yael Naim will be in concert on April 13th at La Cigale in Paris, and on tour throughout France starting in March 2026, with about thirty dates.
First tour dates: – 12/03/26 at L’Eden in Crest, France – 13/03/26 at Espace culturel Saugonna-Mamers, France – 14/03/26 at Palais Congrès d’Issy in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France – 19/03/26 at Espace Malraux in Joué-lès-Tours, France – 20/03/26 at Theater of Poissy in Poissy, France – 26/03/26 at Sémaphore in Cébazat, France – 27/03/26 at The City of Water in Publier, France – 28/03/26 at Eden Spectacle vivant in Saint-Jean-d’Angély, France – 02/04/26 at Le Polaris in Corbas, France – 03/04/26 at Cinéma Les Quinconces in Vals-les-Bains, France – 04/04/26 at Saint Remy de Provence City Hall in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France – 07/04/26 at Romain Rolland Theater in Villejuif, France – 09/04/26 at Théâtre Pierre Barouh in Les Herbiers, France – 10/04/26 at Centre Culturel Les Arcs in Quétigny, France – 11/04/26 at Centre Culturel Le Sillon in Pleubian, France – 13/04/26 at La Cigale in Paris, France
Audio excerpts: – “Paris” from the album “Yael Naim,” 2007 – “Solaire,” “La fille pas cool,” and “Multicolor” from the album “Solaire,” 2026 – Joni Mitchell, in 1988, on the Norwegian television channel NRK1.
