Yuval BanaiSongs, albums, age and where shows are announced

Yuval Banai was born in Tel Aviv in 1962. With the guitarist Shlomi Bracha he wrote the first Mashina songs while they were still soldiers, and after their release in 1983 the band took shape and began playing the Penguin club in Tel Aviv. At one of those shows the director Yaky Yosha cast him in the lead of Makat Shemesh (1984), whose title song he also sang.

Mashina's first album came out at the end of 1985, and Mashina grew into an influential Israeli pop rock band. Banai wrote some of its best-known songs, among them Shlach Li Malach and BeRechovot Shelanu, and he wrote and composed every song on Lehitraot Ne'urim Shalom Ahava (1995), including Tachzor Tachzor. After the band broke up in 1995 he released three solo albums: Yuval Banai (1997), Rashi Dub (1999) and Nishar BaMakom (2001).

Since Mashina reunited in 2003 he has fronted the band again while carrying on alone: Me'ever LeHarim (2008), produced by Allan Moon, Od Shir Echad (2015), the 2019 show Yuval Shar Yossi, with songs by Yossi Banai, and Odysseus Shel HaRakevet HaTachtit (2026), which he produced with Ronen Roth. In 2012 he and Shlomi Bracha were mentors on the second season of The Voice Israel.