Idan Amedi proves his status as a beloved public icon: Just five minutes after he opened the ticket sales for his next two shows, he was forced to announce a sell-out due to the huge demand for his songs and performance. Amedi was forced to announce another show in Tel Aviv on February 26, in addition to the two performances already sold – on February 19 at the Jerusalem Arena, and on February 24 at the Tel Aviv Expo.
Yesterday, he released his new album, “Superman”, while announcing his intention to return to his first appearance since the outbreak of the war: “The last time I performed with the band was on October 5, 2023. It was in the north, the last show of the summer tour,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “On Saturday, we woke up to the longest and cruelest war we have ever known.” At the end of the post he wrote: “Despite the pain, despite everything, I want to learn, let life dance.”
The story of an Israeli hero
Amedi gained him special public status because of what he went through in the war: As a reserve soldier, he maneuvered with the forces in the al-Bureij refugee camp and was seriously injured in the explosion of the Amolsia trucks (in which 10 soldiers were killed), which took place almost exactly one year ago (January 8, 2024). He turned to rehabilitation in hospitals in the country, and received a lot of public attention – as it is not often possible to find celebrities on the battlefield. He later held a number of press conferences in which he spoke for Israeli unity, and in addition to all he refused various decorations and honors, including lighting a torch on independence day. The songs of Amedi, who also fought in previous wars and operations – including the Second Lebanon War of 2006, and Operation Protective Edge in 2014 – express the feeling of fighting for the home on the battlefield, More accurately and authentically than any other artist – such as in the songs “The Pain of Fighters” and “Over”. The things that have happened to Amedi in the current war, including the long reserve duty, the heroism, the injury, and finally the rehabilitation, have made him a symbol of the Israeli fighter, and the embodiment of the Israeli experience as a whole in the past year. It is not by coincidence that Amedi was also at the top of Google’s search in Israel during the past year.
