Moni Tivony

Anyone who watched BBC1's talent show The One And Only – which aimed to find the best tribute act in Britain – may remember Moni Tivony from Ilford who was transformed into Lionel Richie on a weekly basis.

Having finished third in the series, the former supermarket worker is now doing rather well indeed at weddings, barmitzvahs and other functions both with his Lionel act and as himself.

What was it like doing live TV on a weekly basis?
It was a whole new experience for me, in the past I've been used to performing for a crowd of people but not for such a wide audience and not with so much staging involved and camera angles you have to work out. So it was really daunting at first but luckily I managed to pull it off.

Has the show opened doors for you?
Most definitely, for me to do the whole Lionel Richie tribute act. It's an avenue I can go down, before the show I was working on material as myself, so I'm hoping to progress that again and taking that to the next level. I've got Barmitzvahs going on and I've got private dos. So there's definitely work out of doing the whole Lionel thing – there's definitely a gimmick in a white Jewish ginger boy becoming a soul crooner like Lionel Richie.

What's your family background?
My dad's Israeli, and my mum is English Ashkenazi. I lived in Brixton for the first few years of my life, then we moved to Ilford and I went to Ilford Jewish primary, from there I went to Lubavitch in Stamford Hill. My parents got divorced when I was quite young and at that point my mum became a bit more religious. I was there till I was about 15, went to America to study for a bit and then came back and got a job in the jewellery business. I'm not particularly religious now though, but it was an amazing experience, some of the best times I had were in the Lubavitch school. I had quite an Orthodox Barmitzvah, read my whole portion, and I used to teach Barmitzvah boys when I was about 16. I also used to take services in shul but I stopped that when I became less religious.

Do you perform other types of music as well as your Lionel tribute act?
Yes, I do Jewish music as well at weddings and Barmitzvahs – I come from a Sephardi background as far as my dad's concerned so I do all that, I do all the religious music as well but not as Lionel, as myself. Lionel doing the hora would look a bit funny!

More about Moni: www.myspace.com/monitivonyuk

First published in issue 3 of JLifestyle. Reproduced with permission from JLifestyle.

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