Reflecting on her career for BBC Radio, Yasmin Levy has remarked that she is “embarking on a 500 years old musical journey, taking Ladino to Andalusia and mixing it with flamenco, the style that still bears the musical memories of the old Moorish and Jewish-Spanish world with the sound of the Arab world. In a way it is a ‘musical reconciliation’ of history.” 

Born in Bakaa, Jerusalem, on December 23, 1975, Yasmin Levy has spent her career singing and writing in and generally promoting Ladino as a language and Sephardic music as a genre. The daughter of Yitzchak Levy, a Turkish-born cantor and head of the Ladino department at Israel’s National Radio, she grew up surrounded by Sephardic music in Ladino. Her father dedicated himself to preserving this part of their culture. He died when she was just a year old, and Levy grew up listening to his recordings. “He went from one Sefardic family to another and recorded lyrics and melodies,” Levy recalled in an interview at the offices of her American agent, IMG Artists, next door to Carnegie Hall. Haddassah magazine quotes her as saying that “the women sang the secular songs at home to their daughters. They had a great role in preserving the Ladino tradition. The fathers sang the religious songs to their sons in the synagogue.”

Levy’s discography includes traditional Ladino songs with flamenco instrumentation, original compositions, and collaborative musical projects with Middle Eastern and Mediterranean artists. She has cemented herself as a powerhouse in Andalusian music and has continued to put her culture and tradition at the center of her work.

Levy released her first album, Romance & Yasmin, in 2000, followed by La Juderia (the Jewish Quarter) in 2005. As of 2025, she has recorded ten albums, as well as a number of singles and collaborations with other artists. In 2008, she was honored with the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Award for promoting cross-cultural dialogue between musicians. She is a goodwill ambassador for Children of Peace, a group that fosters bonds between Palestinian and Israeli children through sports, art, education, and shared projects. 

Sources: 

Cartwright, Garth: “Yasmin Levy (Israel)” BBC Radio, https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2007/2007_yasmin_levy.shtml

Jewish Women’s ArchiveWA Staff. “Yasmin Levy.” Jewish Women’s Archive: Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Women. Jewish Women's Archive. "Yasmin Levy." (Viewed on August 13, 2025) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levy-yasmin>.&nbsp;

Musleah, Rahel. “Profile: Yasmin Levy” Hadassah Magazine, June/July 2010 https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2010/06/18/profile-yasmin-levy/