About a year after her release from Hamas captivity, Daniella Gilboa is releasing her debut single, “Where Everything Ends,” which she created with Gil Vain and Uri Sachiv. “It’s important to me that you know I’m here to stay,” she said.
Gilboa was abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, when she was 19, along with fellow surveillance soldiers Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Agam Berger. She was freed after 477 days in Hamas captivity.
(Listen to Daniella's new song)
While Daniella was in captivity, a video surfaced of her performing the song and was widely shared in Israel and abroad. After returning home, she began a rehabilitation journey that includes work on her first album, featuring songs she wrote. Musician Gil Vain collaborated with her on the debut single and the album.
The first song is written from Daniella’s perspective and describes the path she has traveled since captivity, from the darkest place to moments of light, hope and homecoming. “Ever since I was a little girl, music has been the air I breathe, my remedy for joy and sadness, my safe place. My biggest dream, long before October 7, was to release my own songs and make music part of my daily life,” Daniella said.
“Then came the event that shook my life. Beyond the depth it added to my writing and the new meaning the words took on, it also made me realize that I only live once. My goal today is to wake up every morning with a smile and know that I am doing what I truly love.
“A year has passed since I returned home, and during that time I have worked a lot on myself,” she said. “To understand who I am, what I went through, to process the loss I experienced and what remains with me. The therapy and inner work are not over, and maybe never will be, but today I feel ready to share with you for the first time my most personal words, thoughts and feelings, and my path to healing.”
Daniella said she understands that a music career requires patience. “It’s important to me that you know I’m here to stay. I am working, continuing to create, and I have many more songs I’ve written over the years — some I didn’t even think I would dare release — and they will be coming out soon, God willing,” she said.
About the debut single, she added: “It was so important to me that the words in the song that introduces who I am, as a person and as a singer, would tell the story of that turbulent period from my point of view — from where I was, from my thoughts about the reality outside, from the question that kept coming back again and again: What am I doing here. And also from the moment of returning home, from the feeling of being home again, with the sun above me. I’m excited for the journey we’re about to take together. The people of Israel live.”
Lyrics of “Where Everything Ends”:
Where everything ends
Waiting to return again
To the reality
That I once had
I don’t want to experience
Uncertainty anymore
What about the world
Miracles happen if you only know how to look for them in the darkness
Don’t worry, even small noises
Will disappear, we’ll start again
Where everything ends
Something new touches
Sun after a cold night
Here a new day begins
Where everything ends, they say it will be happier
And I am still waiting
You fight not to remember
And swear not to break
Yet as time passes
Everything runs quickly before your eyes
Even if my head starts to spin
I now remember better
Smile now, everything flows
There’s nothing like, nothing like home
Open shutters
Once again feel
The sun above me
Don’t worry, all the angels see
There is someone watching over you