Israeli singer Idan Amedi marked his 37th birthday with a packed concert at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena on Wednesday night, his first performance since being seriously wounded in combat in the Gaza Strip on Jan. 8, 2024.
Amedi, a successful musician and actor, is best known for playing agent Sagi Tzur in Fauda, a Netflix drama about an elite Israeli undercover unit chasing a notorious Palestinian terrorist.
Amedi serenaded some 8,000 fans, including 500 bereaved youngsters who lost relatives during the war invited by the Jerusalem-based NGO OneFamily. He opened with the Shehecheyanu prayer followed by his hit song “Superman,” whose lyrics tell the story of his heroic but harrowing path to recovery, which he shared with the audience.
“You die, and then suddenly gain the privilege of life again,” Amedi recalled. “And you thank God that the shrapnel missed your spine by two millimeters so that you can walk again.”
Amedi was serving as a reservist in the Combat Engineering Corps when an explosion in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed six soldiers and wounded him and several others.
On each chair of Pais Arena was a note from Amedi with a Superman pin. “I’m writing these words months before my first performance, with a million questions about how to return to the stage,” he wrote. “Thank you for being here.”
Amedi has recorded five albums since 2011. His most popular song, “A Warrior’s Pain,” about the post-traumatic experiences of a soldier returning from war, was one of Israel’s most popular songs in 2010.
He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two children.
