Fried Talks About Cracked Voice

By COLlive reporter

Something terribly scary happened when Jewish music superstar Avraham Fried headlined his first concert in the Israeli city of Lod last week.

Midway through a Selichos-themed concert that attracted thousands, Fried was singing the poem ‘Unetaneh Tokef’ when his voice suddenly cracked.

“When I started singing the song ‘Unetaneh Tokef’ my voice got choked!” Fried later wrote in a personal letter to the show’s participants. “I wasn’t only choked, I felt as if someone put a knife on my voice strings until I was not able to make a pure higher tone.”

Fried said that “what happened to me tonight hasn’t happened to me in the 35 years that I am singing and performing,” and that the crack “was so noticeable that all of the thousands in the crowd immediately understood that I am in trouble.”

Fried said that he somehow managed to conclude the song, “but I had ahead of me a few more songs like Tanya, Oychila and Rak Tefillah that I needed to sing and what do I do?”

And then something happened that deeply moved Fried, leading him to compose a heartfelt thank you email to his audience on his flight back to New York.

“Suddenly the crowd started clapping to strengthen me, ready to help me in every way possible,” he wrote. “So I turned to the crowd asking that they sing Tanya and Oychila. In one voice, they raised their voices and sang!”

“It was a song from the heart with one intention in mind: To help a Jew standing on the stage and in need of help. I have no words to describe the feeling that I felt. It was pure Ahavas Yisroel.”

Fried concluded his public email by saying that he will never forget the kindness and help he received and said he looks forward to “being with you again in Lod and tell you ‘Thanks’ face to face.”

Upon reading the story, legendary Jewish composer Yossi Green commented: “The humility and professionalism of this precious communicator of Jewish music for all these years is boundless.”

Writing on Facebook, Green added: “Avremel shows us humanity and exactly what a Jewish singer is supposed to represent! A Gmar Chasima Tova to you and may you have the strength and Koichos to keep on singing.”