Yael Naim’s clothes were as bright and bubbly as her personality. From the moment she took the stage in a bright yellow dress cinched with a patent red belt and accented with a hot pink heart barrette, sparkly black tights, brown leg warmers flecked with gold and shiny yellow flats, I knew she was going to put on a fun, playful show.

Accompanied by her talented musical collaborator, David Donatien, on drums, and two equally music-minded friends on bass guitar and keyboards (with a little accordion mixed in!), respectively, Yael’s clear, crisp voice filled the small auditorium at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, Mass., on June 21. Although she’s rather petite, her presence stretched into all corners of the room, mesmerizing the full house.

“How are you?” she asked the crowd amid plentiful cheers and clapping after opening with a few songs on guitar. “Good, you seem fine!” And we were, especially as she began a moving—and rather surprising—rendition of Britney Spears’ pop hit “Toxic.” “Since we like friends, we’ll do a song by a friend,” Yael said as she settled onto her piano bench. The audience immediately grew quiet as she began singing the usually fast-paced song slowly. “Baby, can’t you see, I’m calling, a guy like you, should wear a warning, it’s dangerous, I’m fallin’….” Her words were pointed and enunciated, turning this monster hit into an evocative, poignant song in which you could actually feel the meaning behind the lyrics. Her haunting voice actually gave me chills.

And just when we thought the song was over, she kept going, her hands twirling over the piano keys and her compelling, accented voice completely gripping the audience.

In between several songs she took to dancing at the front of the stage, though she said with a giggle, “The only dance I know is the chicken dance!” She eagerly displayed her playful, humble personality but transitioned easily as songs began into a more serious and emotional—yet warm and affectionate—songstress, warbling seamlessly from English to French to Hebrew and back again. Even David was watching her from the side like a proud friend, practically beaming.

But it was the MacBook Air song, “New Soul,” that everyone was waiting for—the song that essentially launched her career and made her the first Israeli to crack the Billboard Top 10.

As she began delicately hitting the keys of those now-familiar notes, she said: “Let me tell you about this song. It was one evening a few years ago, and I was thinking I was sure I was an old soul. For those who don’t know about reincarnation, I was thinking I came to Earth and did a lot of mistakes and did great things, like Mozart, and at the end I became very, very smart. Then my real life began and I had no other thought but that I was new to this earth. I was a new soul.”

A new soul, maybe, but one who seems to already have a lifetime of musical gifts to share with the rest of us.

For an exclusive interview with Yael and David, check out the July/August issue of JVibe. For more info on Yael’s tour dates, go to yaelweb.com.

Kali Foxman loves Yael Naim and thinks it would be great if she covered every single Britney Spears song in existence. When she’s not daydreaming about this possibility, she’s Associate Editor of JVibe.