Jóga is one of Björk’s most recognisable songs, a masterpiece that only a brave soul would cover. Zohara is that brave soul.
By Graeme Smith
Feature photo by Kama T. Vardi
“Honestly, I had this strange certainty for years that one day I’d cover it,” she confesses, “just an unexplained knowing.”
Her version of Jóga is not a simple copy and paste cover. She’s made it her own, drawing from her heritage to give it an Arabic and Middle Eastern flavour, a far cry from the original’s Icelandic root.
“It surprised me too, to be honest,” Zohara says. “The whole thing kind of wrote itself. Suddenly, I started hearing the lines in a different groove, the rhythms shifting into a new place that somehow just worked. There’s no real explanation. Something about it just clicked.
“These are actually two worlds that live inside me. I live in the Middle East, but for years I’ve been going back and forth between here and London. I always feel this urge to bring the warmth and simple joy of this place into the cool, refined sophistication of the other.”
What stays is the drama of the original, and Zohara hits the tempo change beautifully. I had goosebumps while listening to the track’s climax. While no-one can imitate Björk’s distinct vocals, Zohara’s are infused with the same kind of charm.
I wanted to delve more into the track’s origin.
“This past December, I went on a short tour in Italy with a mix of audiences, some who knew my music and some who didn’t. I wanted to include one familiar track in the set, something that could offer a way in for people hearing me for the first time.
“I actually built the whole arrangement over the course of five days, about a month before the tour, which happened to be one of the busiest months I’ve ever had. Rehearsals, flights, styling… it was a lot. But I felt this deep need to bring that arrangement to life.
“When I brought it to one of the rehearsals before the show, the band got pretty annoyed, to be honest. They said we still had loads of work to do on the existing songs. But I insisted, and, in the end, it became one of the highlights of the show.
“After coming back home, I knew I had to make a recorded version and release it properly. That led to months of recording, producing, and mixing. I did it all myself. It was fun and challenging.”
You can clearly hear the joy that the process brought to Zohara, and you can hear the hard work that went into it too. One other element of the project’s genesis was the current situation in her home of Israel, something I wanted to get her take on.
“One of the clearest ways to get a population to believe that survival depends on bloodshed is to plant fear,” she says, “and one way to plant fear is by erasing cultural expressions that show a person as a spirit and a soul, not just an enemy.
“Arabic music is part of my roots. My father was born in Morocco, where Jews and Arabs lived together peacefully. Bringing this beautiful music into the electronic world I’ve built in my earlier works felt like both a personal identity statement and a radical act, one that aims to connect, to bridge over fear.”
“Tomorrow I’m playing a benefit show for Gaza residents. I’m mentioning that because I think it’s important to know that on both sides, there are people who want something different, and are not afraid to say it out loud. It matters that we know that.”
Being a cover, Jóga clearly doesn’t define Zohara’s overall style, something I keen to delve into further.
“Lately, something’s become clearer to me: I want to be the kind of artist you can recognise by their musical language, not by a fixed genre,” she says. “I think there are elements that have been in my music since the beginning, but it’s hard to box it all into one style.
“I actually want to be recognised more for my musical identity as a producer, not just labelled as ‘that singer who does R&B’ or tied to any specific genre. Even though I sing my own songs, I see myself first and foremost as someone who shapes sound and tells stories through music and textures.
“My next song probably won’t have Arabic motifs, for example, but you’ll still be able to tell it’s me through other details. Or at least, I hope so.”
Speaking of her next song, what does the future hold for Zohara?
“Looks like I’ll be in London in October, performing with my solo project as well as performing as the lead singer of Oi Va Voi.
“I’m hoping to release a lot more music this year. I’ve become fully, fully independent, it’s a 24/7 job, not gonna lie, but I’m enjoying it. Even the stuff around the release: prepping content, the technical side, all of it.
“Of course, I hope things will grow enough that I can eventually delegate some of that and focus just on creating music. But for now, it’s all good.”
You can keep up to date with all things Zohara via her website, on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok, and on YouTube, Spotify, and Bandcamp, where you can buy Jóga as a digital track.
The single is out now, and you can listen to it below.
Supported by Musosoup #SustainableCurator
