Tal Shanhav (23), known to you as one of the young presenters at “News 13”, surprised everyone recently when he announced that he decided to retire from the news in favor of a new self-search, an international project and also to pursue a musical career. Today he has already released a debut single about the situation, and in honor of the new step in his life – we caught him for a special interview about the world of media, about the importance of newsmen, about fulfilling dreams at a too young age and also – about the difficult story behind the song he wrote.
“I think what made me leave is a feeling of being exhausted too quickly at too young an age,” shares about the surprising decision. “I very quickly fulfilled a lot of dreams I had when I was a teenager, and also reaching a glass ceiling and realizing that the next stage in the news, for example, will only be in a few more years, it’s not that I will be presenting the edition tomorrow morning, and I don’t want to be either… Over time I understand more and more that my dreams They are a little different. This understanding made me realize that to be what I want to be – requires a change.”
Some will say that this is something that will reflect the current generation, that they fulfill quickly – but also exhaust quickly…
“One of the most significant things I discovered about myself, that ‘I am so much my generation.’ I like to change jobs like socks, I also like to be in a certain uncertainty at a young age, I have fun, I enjoy it. I like to dream big dreams and make them come true step by step. But I must point out that everything we thought about our generation has changed in the last months from end to end , so to tell you what characterizes our generation is still too early for me to say, but I completely identify with the uncertainty we are all in, and this is also part of my choice to make a change.”
© Igor Gorlik, News 13
As mentioned, as part of the new moves that Shenhav is making after his retirement yesterday (Wednesday) from “News 13”, he is breaking into a musical career, with the first step being a special and painful song about the period, “Homeless Song”, which talks about the really difficult parts of the current reality and even with A little criticism.
“Nothing I say in the song is something that is not said in the news every day,” he points out and adds, “there is no criticism here that is out of the ordinary. Criticism in a time like this is necessarily reality. If we are critical of reality now, when will we be? There are so many The people who are responsible for what happened. It may be a protest song, but not a political one, it doesn’t name names, but even if I touch on certain symbols – it’s only for the purpose of illustration.”
And yet, until the last few years we were not used to news people of all kinds being transparent in their personal opinions, do you see this change as a disadvantage or rather an advantage compared to what was customary back then?
“We live in a new era, also media-wise,” he points out. “Our generation has changed reality, we don’t consume content like our parents. We want the ‘everything’, we don’t like to be ‘spoilt’, we want to hear from a person for whom we open the screen, you know what he really thinks , especially when the current generation rarely opens a TV screen to watch. You want to hear the real opinion and not the mask he hides behind, in the end what conquers the screen is when you feel a connection to a person, when you feel like his friend and identify with what he thinks and feels – that he has a personality like yours there is…”
© Noam Atia
For example, it is possible to accept it more with commentators of all kinds, but with presenters it may be a little different – because in the end they are supposed to ‘only’ deliver the news to the viewers.
“This is also one of the reasons I chose to leave. In my current position, I was out of place in the news, according to the traditional hierarchy, that I am allowed to express an opinion on the air, not there yet, and there is a way to do it. In my generation, we don’t know how to do this way, at least I don’t . I feel that I have things that I want to say now and not at the age of 30, and if I don’t say it now – I will regret it. Besides, I don’t think that the news would have banned me from saying these things, but now it will be easier.”
Another thing that symbolizes the media people of the current era – is the social networks, the ones that made it possible to see the people who sit in the studio every day, in suits, ties and with the required seriousness – also in a humorous, light, tiktok and one that breaks the ice, for example, Tal drives the networks, and also the colleague His until recently – Omar Jordani.
“This is the real me. Another of the reasons I chose to leave is because I feel like I’m in a costume a bit… my ‘real me’ is much more colorful and happy. Omar, me and a few others, it was something relatively unique that we brought to the news. I think there’s a lot to it Value for the viewers, they are looking for a character to connect with and not a character that will be a floor and just read news like others, there needs to be a transition. We live in a world where there must be a transition, because our generation loses attention in three seconds on average, and even less.”
You are exposed to so many horrors, whether watching content or with stories. Do you even manage to get excited about things after so much hard content?
“A journalist must be empathetic, to feel, but one must not convey helplessness. Last week, for example, I was at an item for International Holocaust Day, an item that brought together Holocaust survivors and survivors of captivity. They sang Naomi Shemer’s ‘Lo Yahi’ there, and while I was sitting there with the camera and the microphone, It’s supposed to be cut off, one older woman who was next to me looked at me and cried – I cried too.”
Why there?
“This whole situation, the fact that I don’t know her, that she is 80 years old and we both feel the same. Off camera is my place to fall apart and it happens.”
And this is not the first time, in the Kidnapped Square, Nathalie Ben Ami, the daughter of Raz and a fan who is still in captivity, approached him. “She saw me with the microphone, approached me and told me that she had a dream that Inbal Bibi would come to perform with ‘Never Alone.’ This is one of the small moments that helped me understand the meaning of the work. By the way, even in the ‘Morning World’ I bring families of abductees together with artists that their abductee loves, and precisely the hug to the artist after the item, this moment that is not photographed and that I am not part of it – illustrates to me that the work There is meaning.”
Back to music, you’ve been singing for years and music always accompanies you, and still the first song you publish in your new way is rather a difficult song.
“I didn’t think it would be my first song,” he confesses. “I have a band, I have an entire album on the way that I hope to release within six months. I didn’t plan to release this song, it is a song from the perspective of a journalist who walks around the kibbutzim and hears stories every day at the centers, hears about cases – from people who point to me: ‘Here I fell, This is where I was injured, this is where I saw my girlfriend for the last time.’ So I listened every day – and in the end a song came out of it. It’s a song that was born out of a feeling of ‘I can’t absorb any more.'”
The song has a very unique music video that contains quite a few moments that should also be thought about as a viewer.
“There is a process there. The clown in the video clip is called Shuli in real life, whom I first met at the Soroka hospital, as a medical clown. In one of the transactions of the returning prisoners, I was sent to the hospital to check if the family of one of the abductees who had been sent to hospital – wanted to talk, and they didn’t. I waited in the lobby in utter boredom, And suddenly someone with a strange appearance, an adult in his sixties with a strange smile, a clown’s nose and a cap, came up to me and started talking to me and we got into a conversation. In the meantime he was playing tricks on me with cards and I was like – what’s the matter? People die and are hospitalized here, and you come with cards The size of a chocolate bar?! But we really connected.”
In the same conversation, Tal reveals a surprising detail – about how he and his family were saved from the disaster on October 7, and this is another point that will connect and bring the two closer. “Shuli is a resident of Nir Oz, and by complete coincidence, two months before the disaster, Shuli had a heart attack. Following the attack, he ended up in a hospital in Tel Aviv and moved here for a while – and that’s how he survived. And not only him – his ex-wife wasn’t in the kibbutz either, his children were already grown by then They weren’t there either. But Shuli’s best friends were murdered. After the conversation with him, I took his phone, and when I wrote the song and decided to release it, I realized what the concept I wanted for the music video was.”
What is the story you wanted to convey through the music video?
“The clown who is looking for help, he actually represents the children of the Otaf who got into the situation because they had nothing to suspect – i.e. innocent. I arrive with the car and represent the public or Shelton who tries to lend a hand, but I don’t really understand the need of the clown and I am indifferent towards him. During the clip The clown goes through a rollercoaster of emotions, sometimes angry, sometimes sad, and in the clip I don’t understand him and remain indifferent. At the end, the clown realizes that I’m taking him back to Nir Oz, and he goes crazy, and the first time I actually smile is when I leave him at the entrance to his burnt house in Nir Oz, He cries – and I laugh, wave goodbye to him and drive on my way. When I look in the rearview mirror – he is gone and all I see are his belongings, and this is a statement that the mind completes on its own. It is the circle that closes, in the end I am childish and happy and he is the one who is not found,” shares Tal about the meaning behind And adds – “This is a clip that you should watch several times. This is the first time that I create art in which I say something that is mine from A to Z, with help from close friends. I don’t think that the art needs to be explained, rather there are visible messages, there are messages are hidden, and whoever watches it three times will win. By the way, Shuli’s house in the clip is indeed his house, that is, his ex-wife’s.”
© Joel Knoll
Where did your connection to music begin?
“One of the greatest gifts I received was being in Galgaletz, I’m still there every week, but much earlier – I’m the composition comes from home. My father released an album, although he doesn’t do it as a profession, but music is his life… My sister was a sophomore soloist Thelma Yelin’, we are all a kind of musicians, it makes us get up in the morning. Without music, I don’t know how I would manage, nor do I want to test it. It has accompanied me until now and will always accompany me. For me, it was a privilege to engage in music during the army, it It’s not obvious. I also have a podcast in Gilglatz called ‘What Was’ – I worked on it for three years, and every episode in it is the product of at least three months of work! It’s about moments that no one knows about that changed our music from end to end in Israel, it’s a project that I very much Proud of him. By the way, there was a really cool achievement – we managed to unite Ethnics during the quarrel between Zeev Nechama and Tamir Kalinsky. When I talked to them, each of them asked if the other would be there, and I answered yes, but only from a distance and in a controlled way, and they agreed. This happened before the exciting union, I did This ‘black job’, Zeev and I became good friends because of it – and I know that it is true.”
© Noam Atia
You mentioned that you have already really fulfilled the dreams you had, and are moving on. Do you sometimes even stop to pat yourself on the back?
“I really appreciate life and the things I’ve been able to achieve, I’m also surrounded by people who help me understand it and who make me appreciate myself a lot. By the way, today I actually noticed that just a year ago I started Tiktok, and I have a not crazy amount of followers – but I constantly I think that a year ago I had zero followers! And I say if I reached this small amount in a year, then in another year it will double and for a long period of time it will only increase. There is no doubt that you should stop sometimes, pat yourself on the back and say – ‘We are young, but We achieve a lot of things without noticing…”
Will the first song reflect the rest of the music you release?
“It doesn’t reflect my music, neither in terms of genre, nor verbally or in the form of writing, what’s more, in the songs that are going to be released, there is a lot of sarcasm and questions about life. The song that will open the album is called ‘In the end we will all die’. It takes on an illusory meaning now… It’s an album full of sarcasm and a lot of honesty. Expect a nice surprise,” he promises.
What about reality music, is that something you would consider or rule out?
“My uniqueness is not in my voice, I have a nice and nice voice. Reality shows have a place of honor, it’s important and nice aspekism, but the one who really makes a difference and stays here for more than 15 minutes, is a person who knows how to say something from his heart, but something not Banal, something in a way that wasn’t said, otherwise it doesn’t have much meaning – it disappears. We’re inundated with content, music and everything possible, so I’m not aiming for reality and I don’t think it’s my way. I’m not afraid of it, from my experience the rabbi knows it’s not what will change. What will change is that you listen to your heart, reach an audience that will want to consume what you want to say and that’s all, I’m not looking to be the national Mami.”
How do you see your future?
“First of all, I hope I won’t regret it at the age of 40 when I read the article,” he replies with a laugh. “I see myself returning to television with an audience behind me, whether it’s from the music or from the content I’ll create, one day a performance on ‘Barbie’, and the next day a host on Light Night…”
Will you come back to the news?
“There will be no news, but don’t take my word for it. I do see myself returning to the screen as a presenter, as a presenter of other things that highlight my personality more.”
And what about a game?
“I do think about acting,” he shares and adds, “I don’t have experience in the field, but I don’t rule it out. I think it’s a field I’d like to get into someday, and when the right opportunity comes I might go for it.”
© Noam Atia