If you need something empowering to start the week with, then maybe this video of Noga Erez, one of the biggest musical sensations to have come out of Israel in recent years, is it. Erez, 34, recently had one of the most high-profile opportunities in her career: opening for Jewish pop sensation Pink during her extremely successful Summer Carnival tour, the third most profitable tour by a woman musician, in her Tulsa, Oklahoma and Arlington, Texas stops.
Erez’s third album, “The Vandalist,” came out in late September after being postponed because of October 7 and the war. Erez and her partner in life and music Ori Rousso had worked on the album for over three years, and poured “our love for music, everything we learned from previous projects and other artists, and our hearts, souls, and spirits” into it. “We kept working to perfect it while also trying to maintain its fragile imperfections — keeping them where they belong,” she wrote on Instagram. The album contains collaborations with international artists like Flyana Boss, Dillom and Robbie Williams and is full of humorous tunes to help alleviate the heaviness of the world at this moment.
Erez is also seven months pregnant. She first announced her pregnancy in September in a sweet Instagram post in which she zooms in on her belly in the mirror and Russo walks by and gives it a kiss.
Unfortunately, the reception to her new album has been marred by angry responses from around the world, because Erez is an Israeli artist, with many of her collaborators receiving online backlash for working with her (Erez responded with a video in which she shared some of the responses as her song “Smiling Upside Down” plays in the background and she eats a sandwich, her pregnant belly in sight commenting “spread love”.)
But Erez was all smiles when she took the stage of Globe Life Field stadium in Arlington, Texas, this past Thursday with her pregnant belly fully bared to the crowd, wearing a sports bra and her traditional oversized button up shirt open to reveal her midriff — and gave the performance of a lifetime. In a video from the show, she runs around on stage waving her hands up and down urging the crowd to clap along. What a beautiful memento to show a future child. We wish Erez an easy rest of her pregnancy. Can’t wait to hear what Jewish baby name she gives her newborn.
