Yael Naim, Unlikely Pop Star

Once again Apple has turned an unlikely singer into a pop star. Last year, Feist rode the appearance of her music video for the song "1,2,3,4" in an iPod Nano commercial to a pop breakthrough. Now, it is the song used to advertise Apple's new Mac Air computer that is turning French-Israeli singer Yael Naim into a pop star.

The song is "New Soul" and it debuted this week on the Billboard pop singles chart at #12. It soared quickly to the top of the iTunes sales chart and has already been a top 5 pop hit at home in France. A US album release was slated for May 2008, but it has been moved up to March 18, 2008, by Naim's US label Atlantic Records. Approximately half of the songs on the album are expected to be sung in English and the other half in Hebrew. Yael Naim plans to tour later this year in the US in support of the album.

Watch the "New Soul" video.

_{Photo by Francois Durand / Getty Images}