Yael Naim was born in Paris in 1978 to Tunisian, Sephardi-Jewish parents. At the age of four, she moved with her family to Ramat HaSharon, Israel, where she spent her childhood and learned how to speak Hebrew. She served in Israel Defence Forces as a soloist in the Israel Air Force Orchestra. She began her singing career with a part in the musical "Les Dix Commandements" and her first solo album, In a Man's Womb, was released in 2001. She also sang the song "You Disappear" by Bruno Coulais for the film Harrison's Flowers directed by Elie Chouraqui. For her early work she was credited simply as Yaël.

Naim joined forces with percussionist David Donatien, and over a period of two years they arranged and recorded thirteen of Naim's songs in a studio in Naim's apartment in Paris, and these were released as her second album, Yael Naim, in 22 October 2007 on the Tôt ou tard label. The songs are in French, English, and Hebrew and received critical acclaim, and the album entered the French album chart at No. 11 the week after its release. The style has been described as having a touch of folk and a touch of jazz, with mysterious and evocative words sung with a delicate and intentionally slightly husky voice. In January 2008, Apple featured her song "New Soul" in its debut commercial for the MacBook Air laptop--giving the single near-instant publicity.[6] Owing to high U.S. digital sales, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart week of 16 February 2008 at #9, becoming Naim's first U.S. top ten single, and making her the first Israeli solo artist to ever have a top ten hit in America. On 5 February 2008 her song "Far Far" from the self-titled album was released as a free download on Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store. Steve Jobs himself picked the song "New Soul" for the launch of the MacBook Air.

--Wikipedia