Danielle Haim

Danielle Sari Haim was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, California to a Jewish family.[3] Her Israeli-born father Mordechai ("Moti") and her mother Donna were both musical; though he had been a professional soccer player in Israel, Moti also played drums, while Donna won a contest on The Gong Show in the 1970s singing a Bonnie Raitt song.[4][5][6] While Danielle showed an aptitude for the guitar at a young age, Moti made the decision that Este would be more suited to the bass, buying her a second hand Fender for $50.[7]

From 2013 to early 2022, Haim dated producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who also produced all three of Haim's albums. The first single from Haim's third record, "Summer Girl", was written for Rechtshaid after he was diagnosed with cancer.[20]

Danielle serves as Haim's lead vocalist and guitarist,[21][22][23] although all three band members sing and play multiple instruments.[24] Danielle also plays piano and drums,[25][26] the latter of which she typically plays for the band's studio recordings.[27] Vocally, Danielle is an alto,[28] with Abby Johnston of The Austin Chronicle describing her vocal delivery as "understated".[29] Reviewing Days Are Gone (2013), Heather Phares of AllMusic found Danielle's voice distinctive "Compared to the thin voices of so many 2010s pop stars", describing her as a "remarkably versatile" vocalist.[30] The Pop Break contributor Jason Kundrath described Danielle as being "in full command of her low alto, stacking her syllables close together, and using each one percussively to create rhythmic hooks on top of her grade A melodies".[31] Similarly, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic observed that the artist "breaks words into a cluster of onomatopoeias delivered rapid-fire, making sentences sound like tongue twisters even without alliteration".[32] When Danielle opted not to sing during a 2018 live performance upon contracting the flu, The Guardian music critic Kitty Empire found the absence of Danielle's vocals to be disorienting as a listener, opining that she "packs a gravitas her two sisters lack".[24]

BBC music critic Mark Savage declared Danielle "the honorary Mick Jagger of Haim", drawing similarities between their musicianship, performance styles and physical appearance, which Savage attributes to her having toured with The Strokes band members Jenny Lewis and Julian Casablancas.[33] Younger sister Alana likened her to rapper will.i.am because "She's always on some future sh*t".[34] Aspects of Danielle's personal life and struggles were written into Haim's third album Women in Music Pt. III (2020), such as the depression she experienced post-tour and the cancer diagnosis of her boyfriend at the time, producer Ariel Rechtshaid.[22][35] Several interviewers and publications have cited Danielle as the quietest and most reserved among her siblings,[36][34][33] with Melena Ryzik of The New York Times describing her as the band's "most precise and serious-minded" member.[25] Danielle herself admitted to being a shy person who "come[s] out of my shell on stage",[37] an observation corroborated by DIY's Emma Snook.[27] Danielle has publicly condemned the sexism she and her sisters receive as female rock musicians,[22] believing their musical efforts are often dismissed and ignored by the rock community because they "don't take ourselves too seriously, and we do choreography in our music videos".[38]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Danielle Haim.

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• Danielle Haim at AllMusic
• Danielle Haim discography at Discogs
• Danielle Haim at IMDb