Yael Naim biography

Yael Naim, a French-Israeli singer-songwriter and director, has become an essential artist on both the French and international music scenes.

Yael Naim has always made her life her art, and vice versa: innovating, exploring, and sharing. Creating her own reality by taking risks.

"Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it, without claiming it, she stands up for all women." — Maya Angelou

1 - A Complete Artist

A singer-songwriter, performer, director, and multidisciplinary artist,

Yael Naim constantly explores new creative horizons.

Since the groundbreaking success of her song “New Soul”—which reached number one on the singles charts in France, the United States, and several other countries, and entered the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100—Yael Naim has been composing and producing not only for herself, with four albums to date, but also for a range of other artists and film soundtracks. She has been awarded three Victoires de la Musique (2008, 2011, and 2016) and was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. Yael has collaborated with numerous artists including Brad Mehldau, the Metropole Orkest, Jules Buckley, Stromae, Rone, Orlan, and many others—cultivating both personal expression and creative dialogue.

In 2021, she chose independence to push even further in her pursuit of a unique sound and full artistic freedom. She directed and produced an ambitious album that fuses classical music, electronic textures, and orchestration, carried by provocative, personal, and committed lyrics dealing with themes of individual freedom and breaking free from limiting beliefs.

In parallel, Yael Naim is at the heart of a documentary co-written with director Jill Coulon: “Yael Naim. Une nouvelle âme” (“A New Soul”). The result of six years of filming, this intimate and sensitive film delves deeply into Yael’s artistic journey, unfolding through a constant dialogue between her inner life and creative process. It features never-before-seen archival footage from her childhood, rare moments captured over the years, and animated sequences created by Yael herself, bringing a poetic and introspective dimension to the narrative. Told in the first person, the film sincerely explores what it means to be a woman, an independent artist, and a mother—a delicate balance in constant reinvention. More than just a portrait, it is a universal quest: the journey of building oneself freely, against the grain of norms and expectations.

Over the past four years, her writing has also taken shape in a book where Yael Naim reveals herself as never before. At the heart of this autobiography, Une chambre à moi (A Room of My Own, published by Éditions Leduc), she revisits—with great honesty—her path and all the transformations she has undergone as a woman, artist, and activist.

2 - The Visual Artist Beyond Sound
Creation as an expression of liberation, liberation as the driving force of creation

Since her childhood, image has always played a decisive role in Yael's daily life. From the age of three, she developed her creative sensitivity, both in singing and playing the piano, as well as in drawing. Over time, each medium developed at its own pace. Records, concerts, musical direction, photography, painting, animation... Then came the desire to master the image—her own as well as others’. Yael Naim seeks and innovates with the sole desire that everything can resonate together, in order to better assert herself and better reflect the issues of her time.

In recent years, Yael has developed her visual language by painting a series of portraits of women to give voice to their stories, as well as self-portraits. Having directed her own music videos since "Shine" (2020) and signed the short film “Unreleased Nightsongs” released on Nowness in collaboration with the Fondation Louis Vuitton during the exhibition dedicated to Cindy Sherman, she uses visual art to extend the invisible world of music.

Recently, she decided to reveal her large collection of figurative paintings of imaginary women titled Well Behaved Woman, as well as an impressive series of photographs portraying the women who surround and inspire her. Meanwhile, through the self-portrait format, she continues to explore her own presence in the world.

3 - Causes that Resonate

A Prolific Discography and Activism

For Yael, engagement is not just a word. As an Officer of the Arts and Letters and one of the 100 Women of Culture for 2025, she has long held a strong ecological consciousness and a deep commitment to women's rights and all forms of life. She is actively involved with the Foundation of Women and Women Warriors for Peace. This advocacy for peace, which she believes is more crucial than ever since October 7, 2023, is something Yael Naim embodies with the unique light she has carried for over 25 years on the musical stage. A light she has learned to tame, even at the risk of burning herself at times, but which makes her an artist of integrity—attentive to both her own emotions and those of others. Solar, simply, and deeply human.

DISCOGRAPHY

2022 - Live in Paris (Written, composed, and produced by Yael Naim) - Mouselephant

2020 - Unreleased NightSongs (Written, composed, and produced by Yael Naim) - Tôt Ou Tard

2020 - NightSongs (Written, composed, and produced by Yael Naim) - Tôt Ou Tard

2019 - Mon Bébé (Original Soundtrack) (Written, composed, and produced by Yael Naim) - Tôt Ou Tard

2015 - Older (Revisited) (Co-composed with David Donatien) - Tôt Ou Tard

2015 - Older (Co-composed and Co-produced with David Donatien) - Tôt Ou Tard

Victoire de la Musique for Best Female Artist of the Year

2010 - She Was a Boy (Co-produced with David Donatien) - Tôt Ou Tard

Victoire de la Musique for Best Female Artist of the Year

2007 - Yael Naim (Co-produced with David Donatien) - Tôt Ou Tard

Victoire de la Musique for Best World Music Album of the Year

—--

AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS

2021 - Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters

2016 - Victoire de la Musique for Best Female Artist of the Year

2013 - Chevalier des Order of Arts et des Lettres

2011 - Globe de Cristal for Best Female Artist Performer of the Year

2011 - Victoire de la Musique for Best Female Artist of the Year

2011 - Big Sacem Prize for Export Repertory

2009 - A Cultures France Trophy Creators Without Borders

2009 - Victoire de la Musique for Best World Music Album