Mergui

Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Yehonatan Mergui first gained attention across Israel as a teenager after appearing on the television competition Rising Star. His take on the modern Disney staple “How Far I’ll Go” from the Moana soundtrack won over both judges and viewers, securing second place in the program’s fifth season. Two Hebrew-language EPs, Ma Iyea in 2019 and Lo lihiyot levad in 2021, followed soon after.

An Israeli pop artist shaped by successive waves of soulful singers from the United States and Europe, Mergui aims for recognition outside his home market. Counting Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars among his primary influences, he adopted a comparable classic-pop stance on the 2022 EP Dark Side of the Rainbow, whose energetic farewell number “Sucks to Know You (FU)” quickly accumulated millions of streams. The next project, Shadows of Blue, arrived in 2024 and leaned further toward pop and adult-contemporary tastes: “Cry” reworked Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” while “Look Easy” was co-written and co-produced by dramatic pop master David Foster.