Comments (0)Paula Valstein
A Different Paula From `Idol’
September 3, 2009She might’ve gotten eliminated from “Kochav Nolad,” Israel’s version of “American Idol,” but Paula Valstein is still turning heads.
The fetching Ms. Valstein, a native of Uzbekistan who moved to Israel at age 8 and relocated in New York four-and-a-half years ago, recently received raves at the Big Apple’s Highline Ballroom, a venue that’s played to the likes of Joan Baez, Rihanna and even Sir Paul McCartney.
Ms. Valstein, a singer/songwriter/pianist, is an Israeli army veteran and a graduate of the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music near Tel Aviv. She originally turned down an offer to appear on “Kochav Nolad” (“A Star Is Born”) because “I’m a songwriter and I don’t do covers,” she told the Jewish Forward.
But she called the show “an incredible experience” that “opened every door I could want in Israel.” In fact, she can barely walk the streets of Tel Aviv nowadays without being mobbed.
Currently, she’s working on a single for American audiences in October, and plans to spend the fall working on a Hebrew album. That’s when she’s not at her day job – teaching Judaism, music and Hebrew to students at the United Synagogue of Hoboken, N.J.