Hava Nagila

For the Party Animals song, see Hava Naquila (song).

	Hava Nagila Instrumental performance of Hava Nagila
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Jewish and Israeli music
Religious
Contemporary Piyyut Zemirot Nigun Pizmonim Baqashot
Secular
Klezmer Sephardic Mizrahi Mainstream and jazz Classical Jewish art music
Israel
Hatikvah Jerusalem of Gold
Piyyutim
Adon Olam Geshem Lekhah Dodi Ma'oz Tzur Yedid Nefesh Yigdal
Dance
Israeli folk dancing Ballet Horah Yemenite dancing
Music for Holidays
Shabbat Hanukkah Blessings Oh Chanukah Dreidel song Al Hanisim Mi Y'malel Ner Li Passover (Haggadah) Ma Nishtana Dayenu Adir Hu Chad Gadya Echad Mi Yodea

“Hava Nagila” (הבה נגילה Havah Nagilah, "Let us rejoice") is an Israeli folk song traditionally sung at Jewish celebrations. It is perhaps the first modern Israeli folk song in the Hebrew language that has become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. It was composed in 1920s Palestine, at a time when Hebrew was first being revived as a spoken language for the first time in 2,000 years (since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE). For the first time, Palestinian Jews were being encouraged to speak Hebrew as a common language, instead of Yiddish, Arabic, Ladino, or other regional Jewish languages.

Origin

Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, a professor at Hebrew University, began cataloging all known Jewish music and teaching classes in musical composition. One of his students was a promising cantorial student, Moshe Nathanson, who later worked in New York, most famously composing the nearly-universal melody that is sung with the Birkat Hamazon ("Grace After Meals"). Idelson presented the class with a 19th-century, slow, melodious, chant (niggun) assigning the class to add rhythm and words in order to fashion a modern Hebrew song.

The niggun is attributed to the Sadigurer Chasidim, who lived in what is now Ukraine. It uses the Phrygian dominant scale common in music of Transylvania. The commonly used text was probably refined by Idelsohn^[1]^[2] in 1918 as one of the first songs designed to unite the early Yishuv [Jewish enterprise] that arose after the British victory in Palestine during World War I and the Balfour Declaration, declaring a national Jewish homeland in the lands newly liberated from Turkey by the Allies and entrusted to Britain under the Treaty of Versailles. Although Psalm 118 (verse 24) of the Hebrew Bible may have been a source for the text of "Hava Nagila", the expression of the song and its accompanying hora ("circle") dance was entirely secular in its outlook.

Lyrics

Transliteration	Hebrew text	English translation
Hava nagila	הבה נגילה	Let's rejoice
Hava nagila	הבה נגילה	Let's rejoice
Hava nagila ve-nismecḥa	הבה נגילה ונשמחה	Let's rejoice and be happy
	(repeat)
Hava neranenah	הבה נרננה	Let's sing
Hava neranenah	הבה נרננה	Let's sing
Hava neranenah ve-nismecḥa	הבה נרננה ונשמחה	Let's sing and be happy
	(repeat)
Uru, uru aḥim!	!עורו, עורו אחים	Awake, awake,my brothers!
Uru aḥim be-lev sameaḥ	עורו אחים בלב שמח	Awake my brothers with a happy heart
	(repeat line four times)
Uru aḥim, uru aḥim!	!עורו אחים, עורו אחים	Awake, my brothers, awake,my brothers!
Be-lev sameaḥ	בלב שמח	With a happy heart

Note: The “ḥ” can be pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative [ħ] (as in Classical Hebrew) or a voiceless uvular fricative [χ], as “ch” as in Bach (Modern Hebrew pronunciation).

Notable performers

Idelsohn produced the first commercial recording in 1922 on the Polyphon Record label as part of a series which recorded 39 Hebrew folk songs.^[3]

Although "Hava Nagila" was known among Jews (particularly the more secular-oriented Zionist organizations) and became a staple at weddings and bar mitzvahs, its explosive popularity was triggered by the victory of Israel in its 1948 War of Independence. The Weavers started the trend of mainstreaming the songs of the newly emergent State of Israel with their recording of "Tzena, Tzena" which they rode to the top of the charts. "Hava Nagila" soon followed into 1950s radio.

Singer Harry Belafonte is known for his version of the song which was recorded for his album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall in 1959. He rarely gave a concert without singing it and stated that his two “stand out” songs are “The Banana Boat Song” and “Hava Nagila”.^[4] Belafonte explained: “Life is not worthwhile without it. Most Jews in America learned that song from me.”^[5] Such a claim has not been verified. Belafonte's version is also used in a comedy scene in the Tamil movie Mozhi.
Alma Cogan
Irving Fields^[4]
Josephine Baker recorded a version during her Havana sessions
Frank Slay recorded an instrumental rock 'n' roll arrangement titled "Flying Circle" that was a #45 U.S. hit in 1962.
Chubby Checker^[4]
Conjunto Quisqueya recorded a Merengue version^[6]
Connie Francis^[4]
Dick Dale and the Del Tones (surf rock)^[4]
Vigen Derderian
Glen Campbell^[4]
Celia Cruz ^[4]
Bob Dylan^[4]
Lena Horne^[4]
Jon Lord of Deep Purple included Hava Nagila in his solo keyboard improvisations before 'You Fool No one' track..)))... in concert, as heard on Made in Europe (1975).^[7]
Jeff Garlin sings Hava Nagila in the feature film Daddy Day Care
Raphael^[8]
Penta^[9]
Dalida^[10]
Elvis Presley
Neil Diamond, in addition to having performed Hava Nagila in such of his shows as his 1994 Live In America concert,^[11] incorporated it into a memorable scene in the 1980 version of The Jazz Singer, in which he acted out a cantor with popular-music ambitions.
Brave Combo^[12]
American thrash metal band Anthrax sampled "Hava Nagila"'s main melody at the beginning of their song I'm the Man.
Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica usually ends its shows performing a humorous song, usually referred to as The Vodka Song, played on the tune of Hava Nagila.^[13]
At a sold-out show in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 16, 2009, American progressive metal band Dream Theater performed a cover of "Hava Nagila".^[14]
Regina Spektor includes a performance of the song as the outro of her song "The Flowers".
The Spotnicks (instrumental rock)
moe. Dr. Stan's Prescription Pt. 1
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes played two versions of the song on their album Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah.
Merima Njegomir, notable Serbian folk singer
Rebecca Pan (潘迪華)
The Smothers Brothers; Tom Smothers sang a very credible presentation on their Think Ethnic LP under the name "Venezuelan Rain Dance", in spite of the inane comments and harassment from his brother Dick.
It features in the soundtrack of the crime comedy film Snatch, composed by John Murphy and Daniel L. Griffiths.
The Polish metal band Rootwater performs a rendition of the song on their album "Under"

Usage in sports

Association football

Ajax Amsterdam

Supporters of the Dutch association football club AFC Ajax, although not an official Jewish club, commonly use Jewish imagery. A central part of Ajax fans' culture, the song Hava Nagila can often be heard sung in the Stadium by the teams supporters, and at one point ringtones of "Hava Nagila", could even be downloaded from the club's official website.^[15]^[16]^[17]

Tottenham Hotspur

Supporters of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur commonly refer to themselves as Yids and are strongly associated with Jewish symbolism and culture. The song "Hava Nagila" has been adopted as an anthem of sorts by the club, and is one of the most frequently sung songs at White Hart Lane.^[18]^[19]

Olympic sports

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Date	Athlete	Sport	Event
1994	Lilia Podkopayeva	Gymnastics	1994 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
1995–1997	Tony Yeboah	Football	all season long
1998–1999	Evgeni Plushenko	Figure skating	all season long
1999–2000	Maurizio Margaglio	Figure skating	all season long
1999–2000	Barbara Fusar-Poli	Figure skating	all season long
2000	Yekaterina Lobaznyuk	Gymnastics	2000 Sydney Olympics
2000–2001	Irina Lobacheva	Figure skating	all season long
2000–2001	Ilia Averbukh	Figure skating	all season long
2002–2003	Alina Kabaeva	Rhythmic Gymnastics	all season long
2004–2005	Daisuke Murakami	Figure skating	all season long
2007–2008	Wang Chen	Figure skating	all season long
2007–2008	Yu Xiaoyang	Figure skating	all season long
2009–2010	Roman Zaretsky	Figure skating	all season long
2009–2010	Alexandra Zaretsky	Figure skating	all season long
2010	Sandra Izbasa	Gymnastics	all season long
2011–2012	Aly Raisman	Gymnastics	2011 CoverGirl Classic through Floor gold medal performance at 2012 London Olympics^[20]
2011–2012	Israeli Team	Rhythmic Gymnastics	all season long
2012	Neta Rivkin	Rhythmic Gymnastics	all season long