What a long wait we have had for new music to be released from Netta, but it sure has been worth it. She won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with empowering track “Toy” and has been teasing about a new song for a while, and this week saw her release “Bassa Sababa” which was inspired by rhinoceroses.
Netta Barzilai has had a whirlwind year, from entering HaKokhav HaBa, the Israeli national selection show to Eurovision, to going on to win the contest and getting the chance to represent Israel at Eurovision 2018, to then going on to win with her song, “Toy”. The song became an international success, even reaching the US Billboard Dance and US Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs charts. The music video has reached over 100 million YouTube views, becoming the first and only video to reach that milestone on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. Now, we have this new single, that is just as addicting, and an incredible bubble-gum visual to accompany it. Netta is really proving that she’s a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.
The new song has been written by Avshalom Ariel, Netta Barzilai, and Stav Beger, whilst it was produced by Avshalom Ariel and Stav Beger. As for the music video, that has been directed by Roy Raz who has worked with the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Dita Von Teese.
Watch Netta’s Music Video For “Bassa Sababa” Here:
The words of the song comes from two opposite Hebrew/Arabic words that mean “sad” and “happy” – which actually works well with the music video itself, but more on that later. “Bassa Sababa” is reminiscent of “Toy” in that some people will love it and others simply won’t; it’s certainly one we were unsure about in the first few seconds, and yet, we changed our minds within the first minute.
There are a huge amount of inspirations behind this song from bubble-gum pop to EDM, from 70’s folk-rock to African sounds, from afrobeat to current pop music; Netta is just an explosion, not just in her music but in the industry as a whole, shaping a whole new path for herself and we can’t stop listening. It’s groovy, uptempo, and beyond catchy – you’ll be singing along to the chorus in no time. Her vocals are on point throughout and she’s such a firecracker with her voice that it’s beyond identifiable. We hope she plans on dropping an album in the near-future as we need a collection of Netta tracks, for sure.
As for the music video, which was filmed in Ukraine, we watch Netta on her wedding day, standing at the altar opposite a guy, who then suddenly backs out and dumps her – totally nailing the “happy” and “sad” meaning behind the song’s title. Instead of being upset, Netta seeks revenge. She sings that she’s a rhino, and we all know we shouldn’t make rhinos mad.
We watch as she gives chase, with scenes including a car chase and a bubble-gum explosion in a tunnel, all wrapped up in a video game that we so want to play. Netta’s here and you do not want to mess with her!
“Bassa Sababa” is available to download and stream via Tedy Productions under exclusive license to BMG Rights Management. She is set to perform the track on live TV on 12 February 2019 at the live final of HaKokhav HaBa season six (which means “Rising Star” in English) – the show she won last year which led her to represent Israel at Eurovision, the winner from season six will do the same.