Israeli pop superstar Noa Kirel's latest song sparked controversy after the writer of Kriel's song, "Like What You See," which came out on Friday last week, demanded that Kirel remove her name from the song credits over fear of being boycotted by her fans, sources told N12.
The Haitian-French descent, American-born singer-songwriter Naika co-wrote the song with Kirel before the war began when she was recording her latest album in the United States.
"She [Naika] threatened to sue," the sources said in the report. "She didn't want to be in any part of the song that she wrote. She was afraid of her audience. She didn't want to be boycotted."
As the song and music video's release date neared, Naika reportedly contacted Kirel and her team and demanded that the song not be released at all. When Naika realized that the song was going to be released, despite her objections, she demanded that her credit be removed from the song entirely.
Naika's loss of credit for the song means that she will not receive any royalties from it.
Another source told N12 that when the song was released, Naika refused to listen to it, claiming that "She ignored it."
Kirel's Israel advocacy
In March 2024, the Diaspora Ministry announced that Kirel would participate in a Public Diplomacy campaign to spread awareness of the October 7 Hamas massacre in 2023.
The ministry explained that the video would be distributed worldwide and aimed to illustrate the situation in Israel to the world and acquire international legitimacy.