“Hebrew song” is a general term for the field of music that combines Hebrew text with music; in other words, a lyric that is sung in the Hebrew language. (This classification does not include liturgical and paraliturgical song, although the latter is also sung in Hebrew.) The term “Hebrew song” generally encompasses both shirei Erez Israel (songs of the Land of Israel) and “Israeli song,” both of which consist of Hebrew lyrics that are sung; however, the melodies in this case were composed in pre-State Palestine or, after 1948/9, in Israel.

Hebrew song as a whole, including songs of Erez Israel and the State of Israel, is a unique sociocultural phenomenon resulting from a combination of several factors. It came into being over the course of a relatively short period—some 140 years—in an emerging society that was striving mainly for homogeneity. This process was an overt—at times, even deliberate—response to an explicit ideology of creating a new culture that would arise on the foundations of the old.

The field of Hebrew song includes both songwriting and performance. The former involves the composition of lyrics and/or melodies, and the latter, singing and/or playing an instrument.

The present article surveys the development of Hebrew song in general, and songs of Erez Israel and Israel in particular, over the course of six separate periods, with special emphasis on the role of women in the areas of songwriting and performance.

The dawning of Hebrew song can be traced to the revival of the Hebrew language, even before the waves of Zionist immigration to pre-State Palestine, when Jewish poets in Europe began to write poetry in Hebrew, expressing a yearning for the Land of Israel coupled with the hope and desire to renew the nation in its historic homeland. This genre is also referred to as the “poetry of Hibbat Zion” (Love of Zion).

These and similar themes represented a distillation of the Zionist ideas that were beginning to gain a following in the Jewish world at the time; they later became a poetic expression of the ideas of the Zionist movement. Like any national liberation movement, Zionism needed songs to be sung by its members at Zionist gatherings. The lyrics of these early songs were these same works of Hebrew poetry “married” to melodies borrowed from well-known songs (a practice known as contrafactum). The melodies were drawn from A member of the hasidic movement, founded in the first half of the 18th century by Israel ben Eliezer Ba'al Shem Tov.hasidic songs, songs in Yiddish (including some from the plays of Abraham Goldfaden), and the repertoire of folksongs from Romania, Poland, Russia, and the other lands from which Jews were then immigrating to the Land of Israel. This group of songs, some of which were brought to pre-State Palestine by members of the First Aliyah (1882–1903), are known as the “songs of Hibbat Zion,” and they were the first songs in the Hebrew language.

From a musical perspective, these were melodies written in minor keys, in duple meter, at times in the rhythm of a marche (in most cases, a slow marche), in strophic form. The stress was on the penultimate syllable of the Hebrew words.

Among the writers of these works were poets Naphtali Herz Imber (1856–1909), Menachem Mendel Dolitsky (1856–1931), Mordechai Zvi Mane (1859–1886), Constantine Aba Shapira (1839–1900), and E. Zunzer, and educators Aaron Loboshitsky (1874–1942) and Noah Pines (1871–1939) (who were the first to write children’s songs in Hebrew). Their ranks also included the poet Sarah Shapira, whose poem “Al Tal ve-Al Matar” (On Dew and on Rain) was also “married” with an existing tune and sung in various Jewish communities at the time. Hebrew songs were also composed in pre-State Palestine during the years of the First Aliyah, but no lyrics and/or melodies written by women of the period have yet been found.

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The sixth period can be defined as the "sunset" period for some of the characteristics of Hebrew song. While in earlier periods the military bands (disbanded in 1977) formed a kind of "arsenal" of performers and musicians (composers, processors, music instructors, etc.), during this period this type of composer and performer was devalued. Singing clubs of all kinds, which operated in all parts of the country, dwindled, and only a few remained. The number of "singing groups" decreased by more than 55%. The style of "Eretz Israel Hayeshana" (Songs of the Old Land of Israel) has almost completely disappeared. With a very few exceptions, it is impossible to mark a unique creator or performer who has left a mark. The following list consists of female singers of this period, some of whom "shone" during this time, and others who appeared as a one-time "flicker" : Dana Berger (b. 1970), Miri Masika (b. 1978). Rona Kenan (b.  1979), Maya Buskila (b. 1979), Keren Peles (b. 1979), Shiri Maymon (b. 1981), Ninet Tayeb (b. 1983) Nasrin Kadri (b. 1986), Eden Ben Zaken (b. 1994), Noa Kirel (b. 2001) and Netta Barzelay (b. 1993), who became famous when she won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 for the song TOY.

2020 will be remembered in Israel's and the world's history as the "Coronavirus Year." This year might mark a significant shift in the "Hebrew Song," due to the limitations the plague set on the public, causing the cancellation of public events and performances. The long-term consequences remain to be seen.

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From a historical perspective, it is obvious that the contribution of women to Hebrew song in general, and to shirei Erez Israel and Israeli song in particular, has risen steadily with the years. From a small group of women songwriters and performers who were active in the early periods, the number of women in the field has reached dozens in the more recent decades.