Yasmin Levy
Yasmin Levy (; born December 23, 1975) is an Israeli singer-songwriter of Judeo-Spanish music. Biography. Levy is of Sephardic Jewish descent. Her parents were immigrants from Turkey. Her late father, Yitzhak Isaac Levy (1919–1977), was a composer and hazzan (cantor), as well as a pioneer researcher into the history of the Ladino music and culture of Spanish Jewry and its diaspora, being the editor of the Ladino language magazine "Aki Yerushalayim". Career. With her distinctive and emotive style, Levy has brought a new interpretation to the medieval Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) song by incorporating more "modern" sounds of  Andalusian flamenco and traditional Turkish music as well as combining instruments like the darbuka, oud, violin, cello, and piano. Her debut album was "Romance & Yasmin" in 2000, which earned her a nomination as "Best Newcomer" for the fRoots / BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards 2005, followed in 2005 with her second album "La Judería" (). In 2006, she was nominated again, then in the category "Culture Crossing". On her second album, "La Judería", she also covered the popular songs "Gracias a la Vida" by Violeta Parra and "Nací en Álamo" from the film "Vengo", directed by Tony Gatlif, which in its  original version won the 2001 César Award for Best Music Written for a Film (itself being a cover of "The Song of the Gypsies" (), written by Greek songwriter Dionysis Tsaknis in 1990). Levy's work earned her the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation Award for promoting cross-cultural dialogue between musicians from three cultures. In her own words: I am proud to combine the two cultures of Ladino and flamenco, while mixing in Middle Eastern influences. I am embarking on a 500-year-old musical journey, taking Ladino to Andalusia and mixing it with flamenco, the style that still bears  the musical memories of the old Moorish and Jewish-Spanish world with the sound of the Arab world. In a way it is a ‘musical reconciliation’ of history. Levy is a goodwill ambassador for the charity Children of Peace.