Amaraya – An Album Expressing Connection & Unity, by Eliezer Cohen Botzer & Lucky Ali

How did the Collab between you and Lucky Ali originate and come to fruition?

Eliezer Cohen Botzer (ECB): This collaboration is a very meaningful journey, probably one of a kind of experience that I’ve been through in my life; musically and otherwise it’s been a very unique experience. Lucky is a very inspiring person and a true friend. After over a decade and more of our connection with India, the land and its people and exploring India’s many gifts to the world, it was only natural that we searched for an Indian artist to connect with musically… to create a collaboration of spirit and that of souls through the element of music. God guided us to the best partner for the journey. My fascination for India, it’s people, culture and its music of course, is not new at all. So, a few years ago on the recommendation of our management I was in search of a collaborator from India.  The very second I came across Lucky’s voice, I was fascinated by his depth, his songs, his love of humanity and felt a connection instantly. We started with an idea of a song and three years later, one song took the shape of an entire album called Lemalla– of friendship, love and discovery. We initially connected online and then came to India where Lucky met us with so much warmth… our journey began there. We reciprocated and Lucky came to Israel to experience our world and culture and continue our recording. Several trips back and forth , led to literally bridging between our worlds. This is a collaboration in the truest sense of the word.  Our journey together led  us  through an emotional dialogue beyond language, and obvious differences.

Lucky Ali: For me Lemalla, the whole album is a discovery in itself. And the music found its way through like-mindedness, a connection that we all felt and made through the process of discovering each other, our cultures and our connection, which was expressed through music.  While we were working on the project we also realised we had more similarities, culture wise as well. Amaraya is one of songs we composed in that space, it talks about all of us being reflections of each other.

What’s the album all about and how does Amaraya fit into it?

ECB: The album Lemalla (Hebrew for rising above and delving deeper)  is an album of a journey that goes through different stations of life. There are songs of dialogue between companions, songs of common prayer, love songs, songs of fatherhood. Both our daughters participated in accompanying voices within the songs in the album. The instruments are a fusion of the connection between our cultures between east and west. We sing in four languages, Hindi, English, Hebrew and Arabic.

The song Amaraya is a song of prayer and unity written in Hebrew, Hindi and Arabic.  The word Maraya in Arabic means mirrors. The “A” we added to the name of the song symbolizes the oneness of all humans . “We are all mirrors and reflections of each other” is what we sing in the song together with a prayer for guidance, peace and  healing. This is the vibration that echoes through the entire album. The word Maraya in Arabic means mirrors . 

How important is Amaraya’s release now at such difficult times the world is facing?

ECB: When we released the song “On My Way” we didn’t know that a short time after the release we will all come into a new reality and perspective of ‘home’.  After a year with long periods of time in quarantine at home, where the pandemic didn’t skip over  any country, religion, culture or mentality. We felt that the song ‘Amaraya’  has an especially important message for this time . It comes to remind us that we are all part of the same humanity and to encourage empathy between all people as One.

The song is out now on all major streaming platforms, hence it is pretty much going to be a convenient swipe left or right for you listeners to begin the mass consumption. Also conveniently leaving embedded here is the YouTube link to the video.