Yoshi (singer)

Yoshi, stage name Yohai Blum (Hebrew יוחאי בלום; born September 21, 1983) is an Israeli musician, singer and songwriter.

Yoshi
Background information
Born	(1983-09-21) September 21, 1983 Nof HaGalil
Genres	Pop R&B indie rock lo-fi Piano
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals guitar
Years active	2021-present

Blum was born and raised in Nof HaGalil to a teacher mother and a mechanical engineer father. He studied at Kiryat Ehachin Ort High School, named after Moshe Sharet in Nazareth Illit. He was interested in music as a child and began playing the piano when he was in second grade, but in retrospect, Blum notes that he didn't find much interest in it until he was in ninth grade and learned Rami Klinstein's score by heart: "( ...) I realized that you can find a familiar song and learn to play it yourself. It literally changed everything I knew." Klinstein was also the one who, in a chance meeting with Blum, convinced him to audition for a military band. The nickname Yoshi was created in his youth by his friends from the dance group in which he danced as a teenager, but according to him it is also related to the Japanese culture to which he connects (where there is a fictional character named Yoshi, Yoshi and in Japanese: ヨッシー) Yoshi lives in Tel Aviv.

Musical career

After completing his military service in the IDF Youth and Education Corps Band, Blum began working professionally in the field of music. He produced, recorded and played keyboards with various musicians and ensembles: Moki, Eli Butner and the Foreign Children, Shay Gebso, Rami Kleinstein, Kobi Afalo and more. He also worked with Roni Alter whom he met during his service in the IDF and performed with her playing piano and singing.

While working in the field of music, Blum graduated with honors with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in philosophy studies from Tel Aviv University.

After completing both degrees, he was also accepted to study medicine at Tel Aviv University and at the same time continued to practice music.

After three years of studies as part of the path to medical studies, Blum decided to leave his studies to focus on his musical career. About four months after leaving school he finished working on his debut album. Acquainting Strangers, his debut album, was released in 2021. Lyrics, melodies and musical production by Blum except for two songs that are a collaboration with producer Omri Amado. The album contains ten songs that deal with Israel's experiences, relationships, and more. Their songs, among others, "Strangers know", "The most beautiful" and "Being to talk", inspired by the story of the television presenter Ill Peled, reached the top places in the playlists and entered the top ten. Viral songs from Israel on the Shazam website. The music video for this song was directed by actor and director Oren Shakdi who recommended Yoshi collaborate with photographer Alex Liebek.

The three collaborated with editor Shahar Amarilio and eventually created a music video composed entirely of photographs by Liebek , who searched for the appropriate photographs in his private archive. One of the subjects saw the video on the Galglatz website and recognized himself in the photo along with his twin sister, which was apparently taken in 1990 on the Tel Aviv waterfront, shortly after they emigrated with their family to Israel as part of the immigration from the former Soviet Union in the 1990 approached Blum and told him their personal story.

On February 12, 2024, he released his second album, "Reminder to Myself." The album was composed of voice recordings from Yoshi's cell phone, where he constantly recorded reminders, lines, and melodies. The album creation process involved pulling reminders from his phone, which revealed that he had already written an album without realizing it. From the album he released the song "Friends" as a single for radio stations.

Other websites

• Yoshi on YouTube