The Hebrew song in 'The White Lotus' episode 4

It’s huge in Thailand.

This past Sunday, I tuned in to “The White Lotus,” the hit show about a group of hotel guests and staff that takes place in a fictional chain of the same name at a different locale each season (the current is set in Thailand), knowing it would hold a special moment just for me and other Israeli viewers.

No, I’m not talking about the full frontal nudity scene with Jewish actor Jason Isaacs, who plays rich Southern businessman Timothy Ratcliff and whose picture-perfect life is about to crumble, which did genuinely take me by surprise. (I’m still recovering, as are Ratcliff’s three children in the show who saw it all.) The special moment I’m talking about was when, as a group of hotel guests and fellow tourists and transplants sail the ocean on a gigantic yacht, a song starts playing that I have known my whole life, one of four Israeli songs that won the Eurovision, Europe’s biggest song contest and most popular televised event.

The song is the 1978 hit “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” by Yizhar Cohen and Alphabeta, though the version included in the show is a Thai cover. The song has apparently been popular in Thailand and across the world since it came out, and has been covered by countless stars and in many languages across the world. And for good reason: It’s a total bop. Just watch Yizhar with his big hair sing this song. What a dreamboat!

Cohen grew up in the Israeli city of Givataim, singing in a group with his family, led by his father, who was known as the Great Suleiman, one of the pioneers of Hebrew music. Cohen's grandfather came to Israel from Yemen in 1912. His mother was born in Sanaa, Yemen, and came to Israel with her family as a baby.

In 1978, after a successful singing career, young Cohen became the first Israeli to win the Eurovision (apparently when it became clear that he was going to win, Jordanian TV stopped airing the show and broadcasted a picture of flowers instead). He would go on to compete in the Eurovision again in 1985 with the excellent “Oleh, Oleh” (“Ascending, Ascending”) which earned him fifth place. (I’m obsessed with the very ‘80s music video for the song.)

But back to “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” the song was written by the late and great Ehud Manor and composed by Nurit Hirsch, who also gave us the same melody so many of us sing “Oseh Shalom” to. The Hebrew lyrics are inspired by a childhood code language Manor and his friends used to share secrets in, in which they add another syllable after every syllable of a word that starts with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, bet. The chorus of the song is “I love you,” “ani ohev otach,” in that special language: “a-ba-ni-bi oh-boh-eh-beh-v oh-bo-tah-bah-ch.”

Weeks before the third season of “The White Lotus” premiered, a good friend called Nurit Hirsch from LA. That friend works with the show's music supervisor and connected the two. Hirsch describes him in a February interview with Ynet as "a nice kosher Jewish American from Beverley Hills who has family in Israel.” Jewish geography is certainly something.

“They asked me and Ofra Manor [Ehud's widow] for permission to use the song in the show and we agreed,” Hirsch recounted. She says she has heard of other versions of the song, including one that was incorporated into a Korean movie, but didn’t know about this specific Thai cover. For those wondering, Hirsch hasn't seen a penny from any of these covers.

Cohen, apparently, has been well aware of the song’s popularity in Thailand. "Generations in Thailand have been singing that song, there are covers, not just in Thai, but in Chineses and other languages,” he told Mako in a recent interview. “Once, a good friend called me and said that the locals are arguing with her about it being a Thai song. She asked me, at 3 a.m., to tell them that it was my song. I understood that the young generation of people in Thailand think it's a local song."

“In Thailand they called me 'Abanibi man,’” he shared (that’s… so delightful!). “Here in Israel, Thai people who I've met asked to touch me to make sure I'm real.”

Cohen started watching “The White Lotus” after he discovered his song was in the show, and was blown away by it. “It's touching and wonderful, that [the song] made it into such a powerful series. The faith of a song can't be predetermined," Cohen said, echoing some of the themes of this season, about fate and faith. "The universe decides."

I personally am so glad the universe and Mike White’s team decided to include this song in the show.

Are you watching “The White Lotus?” What do you think of this season? Let me know in the comments!