Yael Naim was born in
Paris, France to
Maghrebi Jewish immigrants from
Tunisia. At the age of
four, she
moved with her family to
Ramat HaSharon, Israel, where she spent the rest of her childhood. She served in the
Israel Defense Forces as a soloist in the
Israeli Air Force Orchestra. She began her singing career with a part in the musical ''
and her first solo album, In a Man's Womb (recorded in Los Angeles with Kamil Rustam), was released in 2001. She also sang the song "You Disappear" by Bruno Coulais for the film Harrison's Flowers''. In her early work, she was credited simply as Yael. She also performed a duet with
Din Din Aviv titled "Mashmauyot". Her version of the
Britney Spears song "
Toxic" also garnered significant attention. Naim joined with percussionist and, over a period of two years, they arranged and recorded thirteen of Naim's songs in a studio in her apartment in Paris. These were released as her second album,
Yael Naim, on 22 October 2007, on the label. The songs are in French, English, and
Hebrew and received critical acclaim. In January 2008,
Apple featured her song "
New Soul" in its debut commercial for the
MacBook Air laptop.
Steve Jobs himself picked the song for the launch of the laptop line. Owing to high U.S. digital sales, the song debuted on the
Billboard Hot 100 for the chart week of 16 February 2008, at No. 9, becoming Naim's first U.S. top ten single, and making her the first
Israeli solo artist to ever have a top ten hit in the United States. "New Soul" moved up to No. 7 the following week. The song was also featured on the soundtrack of the movies
The House Bunny and
Wild Target. Her third album was released in November 2010. The first single from this new record was "Go to the River". In 2016, she won her second Female Artist of the Year award at , the French equivalent of the Grammys. She previously won the award in 2011. ==Personal life==