Ya Ghorbati | Divas in Exile (Vinyl Record)

In her debut album Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile, singer Laura Elkeslassy unearths the music and stories of Judeo-Arab divas from mid-century North Africa. Developed in collaboration with music director Ira Khonen Temple, the album weaves together North African Jewish folk and sacred music, ranging from traditional Andalusi style, to popular Chaabi, to Francarabe cabaret. The project looks across time and space to tell a tale through music of political upheaval, exile, and displacement, destabilizing the supposed binary of Arab and Jew.

First distributed as a multimedia Ayin folio that brought the music together with images and essays, the Ya Ghorbati vinyl record is now available for pre-order.

About the Artist

Laura Elkeslassy is a singer of Judeo-Arab music. Born in Paris and based in Brooklyn, her work draws inspiration from her Moroccan roots exploring North African folk, Andalusian, and Maghrebi Jewish liturgy. 

In 2019, Laura went digging into Arabic music theory and stumbled onto a treasure trove of family history. Laura’s ongoing journey of self-discovery–which includes forgotten ancestors, wild synchronicities found in dusty old bookstores, and the reclamation of a lost family name–is the inspirational heart of her latest project, Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile.

As a musician, Laura has toured across the U.S., Canada, the UK, and France and performed at  venues including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Joe’s Pub. As a cantor, Laura has been active in developing egalitarian Sephardi practices in New York for seven years. 

In the theater, she has worked at the National Opera of Paris, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, Noor Theatre, and beyond. In film, her work has been screened at the Venice Film Festival and was included in One Thousand and One Jewels by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, which showed this year at Luminor (Paris), the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (Marseille) and Palau Moja (Barcelona). 

Learn more at www.lauraelkeslassy.com

CREDITS

Songs originally composed and interpreted by Line Monty, Zohra Elfassia, Habiba Msika, Maurice El Medioni, Shlomo Abitbol, Salim Halali.

Executive Production | Laura Elkeslassy & Ira Khonen Temple
Music Direction | Ira Khonen Temple
Music Production | Ira Khonen Temple, Eylem Basaldi, Chris Gilroy, Laura Elkeslassy

Laura Elkeslassy | Vocals
Ira Khonen Temple | Keys, Piano & Accordion
Eylem Basaldi | Violin
Yoni Avi Battat | Oud, Guitar
Rachid Halihal | Oud, Violin
Zoë Guigueno | Bass
Marwan Allam | Bass
April Centrone| Drums, Percussion
Nizar Dahmani | Drums, Percussion

Recording & Mixing | Chris Gilroy, Douglass Recordings, Brooklyn
Mastering | Dan Coutant, Sun Room Audio, Brooklyn. 

Design | Tom Haviv, Carly Lewis & Sam Fine

Ya Ghorbati is made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Statewide Community Regrants Program, as well as from a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature, both administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.

Digital Release date: July 10th, 2026
Publication date: October 2026