When it became known on Sunday that Svika Pick had died, Israeli radio stations interrupted their programming. They switched to his hits, classics from especially the late seventies. Like Mary Lou (not to be confused with the number Hello, Mary Lou by Ricky Nelson from 1961), released in 1978 – the song with which he broke through and which became an unforgettable pop success in Israel. Thanks in part Mary Lou singer Svika Pick was widely regarded as the greatest Israeli pop artist.
Pick became internationally known with later work, which he wrote for others. In 1998, singer Dana International won the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Israel with the song he composed diva. It was a groundbreaking moment in the history of the song contest.
Poland
Born Henryk Pick in 1949 in the Polish city of Wroclaw, Svika Pick grew up in a musical family. His grandfather was the headmaster of a music school and an uncle was a music teacher. When he was 5 years old, Pick started training classical music in Poland. And when his Jewish family emigrated to Israel in 1959, he picked it up again. He enrolled at the conservatory of Ramat Gan, a Tel Aviv suburb, and applied to a number of fledgling rock and roll bands.
In the late 1960s, Pick let his hair flow freely, just like the rest of the music world. He broke through as a singer when he got the lead role in the hippie musical hair, which was given a Hebrew version in 1970. He then embarked on a series of self-titled albums, with songs he mostly wrote with his then-wife Mirit Shem-Or.
Pick had an excellent sense of the zeitgeist, mixing funky and very catchy glam rock with disco. In his Hebrew texts he celebrated life and love, in words that were in keeping with the soaring hippie language of the time. ‘We are children of the sun’, Pick in sang Mary Lou, which was dedicated to his wife. “She spins like a puppet, and she rides golden horses.” In Israel, Shiva Pick was a striking appearance at that time, also increasingly on national television. He was the first male pop artist to liberally dress his face and let his long hair flow over wide capes and cloaks.
Pop flavour
Pick found it difficult to connect with the pop taste of the eighties and the emerging synth pop. The singer lived on his civilized rocking success of the 1970s and toured the smaller Israeli theaters, where he had to drag his instruments himself because he had no money for technical personnel or roadies.
The composer was not deterred. He continued to compose and write, first for children’s series on TV, later for other artists. In the nineties he discovered the Eurovision Song Contest as a grateful customer for his festive, but also some camp-like songs. In 1993 he pitched the song Artik Kartiv in the fight, but the song did not make it through the national selection. Five years later, Pick was more successful. His stomping dance number diva was selected as a song for Israeli singer Dana International.
That election caused quite a stir in Israel. Conservative and Orthodox forces wanted Dana International’s participation withdrawn because she was openly acting as a transgender woman. The mood was so high that the singer had to be secured because of the fear of an attack. After its high-profile win, the Song Contest increasingly became a place where the public and participants from the LGBTI community saw themselves represented and could feel safe. Many Israelis also admired him because of Pick’s contribution to that culture change and emancipation.
Song Contest
Pick continued to write for Eurovision candidates, and composed for Israel, Georgia and Ukraine. He became a beloved TV personality, acted as a judge for the Israeli version of the talent show Pop Idol and got its own reality series in 2005. Four years later, the musical series Tamid Oto Chalom broadcast, based on his songs.
In 2018, he was given another honorary task. His daughter Daniella, herself a gifted singer, married Quentin Tarantino, making Svika Pick the father-in-law of the great American director. In the same year, the singer’s health deteriorated. He suffered a stroke on a flight from Britain to Israel, after which he was forced to cancel many performances.
His death was extensively commemorated on Sunday and Monday in his home country. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid quoted from the hit song Mala, Mala off the plate music from 1978, saying the singer’s music had penetrated the heart of the nation. ‘Svika was a revolutionary artist for his generation, a monument of Israeli pop.’ Svika Pick turned 72 years old.
Mala, Mala
One of his biggest hits, with a hopping piano beat and cheerful female choirs. Mala, Mala is about the power of music: ‘A beautiful song, a gypsy’s dream, a harmonica, a guitar on the horizon.’
Mary Lou
This declaration of love to his wife was a breakthrough success for Svika Pick in 1978. Mary Lou starts off slowly, but after an unclear intro of two minutes turns into a catchy glam rock song that even non-Israelis can sing along to.
diva
A worldwide pop success, thanks to the interpretation by Dana International, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 with it. diva is about a diva who cries like an angel and laughs like the devil. “Viva Maria, viva Victoria, Aphrodite.”