14 Facts About Shwekey

Yaakov Choueka, better known by his stage name Yaakov Shwekey, is an Orthodox Jewish recording artist and musical entertainer.

Shwekey is of Egyptian and Syrian Sephardic heritage from his father's side; and Ashkenazi from his mother's side.

Yaakov Shwekey was born in Jerusalem to an Ashkenazi Jewish mother raised in the United States, and a Sephardi Jewish father born in Cairo to a family from a Syrian background.

Shwekey's parents had met and married in New York City.

Shwekey later lived in Lakewood, NJ, and Brooklyn, NY, and attended Yeshiva of Brooklyn before moving to Long Branch, NJ.

Shwekey sang a new tune, composed by Yitzy Waldner, to Mi Shebeirach a prayer globally recited for soldiers in the IDF, in the Nokia Stadium, Tel Aviv in 2013, in the presence of many Israeli soldiers.

In June 2018, Shwekey released Musica, on which he displayed a variety of styles, with lyrics in multiple languages.

Shwekey released his tenth solo studio album in June 2018.

The reason for this, Shwekey said, was to "make people happy, because that's what God gave me the ability to do".

Shwekey issued a response that he had already posed the question to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef when an earlier concert featuring him, along with Mordechai Ben David, was banned.

Yaakov Shwekey headlined a concert together with Shlomi Shabbat at Live Park in Rishon Letzion, Israel and Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv.

Shwekey has been praised for his ability to collaborate with Jewish musicians of various backgrounds and for having the rare ability to reach Jews from all corners of the Jewish world.

Shwekey is widely considered one of the most popular Jewish religious singers in the world today.

Shwekey had a close relationship with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and his single Maran Sheli is dedicated to his memory.