Lior is one of Australia’s most-loved ARIA award-winning artists, and his Jewish identity has often been central to his work. His debut album Autumn Flow released in 2004 catapulted him to success with songs such as This Old Love and the Jewish prayer Avinu Malkeinu which became more known to non-Jewish audiences. Lior has just released his sixth solo album The Blue Parade and spoke to The AJN about his latest album and diverse career.
Discussing The Blue Parade, Lior said, “Songwriting has forever been my diary and that is the common thread. Thematically, as per my previous albums, it is eclectic.”
But he adds this collaboration with guitarist/composer Cameron Deyell enabled the album to “delve into some new sonic territory”.
The album features the song Berlin which reflects on Lior’s Jewish identity. “It’s a song about my first visit to Berlin a few years ago whilst touring, and all the intense feelings and contradictions I was confronted with both leading up to the trip and during my time there. It is one of the lyrics that I am proudest of and I think that a lot of Jewish people will relate to the emotional rollercoaster it portrays around visiting Berlin.”
“I think meeting Nigel Westlake was probably a huge turning point for me, because it opened the door to work with orchestras.”
Lior is celebrating another success, he contributed music for the Hollywood movie Gladiator 2, directed by Ridley Scott which premieres in November. The collaboration occurred after he was approached by leading Hollywood film composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Lior subsequently co-wrote and sang on some of the score excerpts to the film. Lior will perform excerpts from the film with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall for the inaugural London Soundtrack Festival in March 2025.
Lior has remained a truly independent artist over his 20-year career, which has led him to embrace diversity. He has performed in a lead role in the Australian production of Fiddler on the Roof, contributed a much-loved song for ABC’s children’s program Giggle and Hoot and collaborated with renowned Australian composer Nigel Westlake.
“I think meeting Nigel Westlake was probably a huge turning point for me, because it opened the door to work with orchestras,” he reflected.
The collaboration resulted in two major works for orchestra and voice: Compassion and its follow up Ngapa William Cooper.
Compassion was composed around texts of compassion in Hebrew and Arabic, while Ngapa William Cooper focused on Cooper’s protest at the German consulate in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.
“There’s no doubt that my Jewish identity has informed so much of what I’ve done.”
“Here we have an Indigenous man, who is deprived of his own rights, standing up for the Jewish people on the other side of the world.
“And so there’s this incredible act of courage and bravery, but also one of compassion and to me that act reflected so much of the philosophical themes that compassion held, and so it felt like a really great follow up.
“Nigel and I started working on the lyrics and melody to tell this incredible story through an orchestral song cycle, and at some point we felt that we needed to collaborate with an Indigenous artist on completing the telling of the story.
“And we were lucky enough to collaborate with Lou Bennett, who is not just a beautiful artist, but also a direct descendant of William Cooper.”
Both these works were performed with major Australian orchestras and arts festivals. Compassion has also been performed internationally and won the ARIA for Best Classical Album.
Lior was born in Israel and moved to Australia when was 10. He said his birthplace inspired his music as he was entranced by 1970s Israeli music, and that singing in a cantorial Jewish style and having eastern inflections came to him naturally.
“There’s no doubt that my Jewish identity has informed so much of what I’ve done.”
Asked if it is difficult to be a Jewish artist at this time, he said, “It’s a challenging time to be in the arts, in Australia as well … I think fortunately for me, I’ve always been very strongly independent in what I do, and so I haven’t had the challenges of navigating being part of an arts organisation or a group where there’s a lot of friction, and I’m really grateful for the fact that I chose that independent path.”
Lior will be appearing for one night only at Emanuel Synagogue on Saturday, November 23. Purchase tickets.
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