Yael Naïm was born in Paris in 1978 to French and Tunisian Sephardi-Jewish parents. At the age of four, she moved with her family to Ramat HaSharon, Israel, where she spent the rest of her childhood. She served in the Israel Defense Force as a soloist in the Israel Air Force Orchestra. She began her singing career with a part in the musical Les Dix Commandements and her first solo album, In a Man's Womb (recorded in Los Angeles with Kamil Rustam), was released in 2001. She also sang the song "You Disappear" by Bruno Coulais for the film Harrison's Flowers. In her early work she was credited simply as Yaël. She also performed a duet with Din Din Aviv titled "Mashmauyot".

Naïm joined with percussionist David Donatien, and over a period of two years they arranged and recorded thirteen of Naïm's songs in a studio in Naïm's apartment in Paris, and these were released as her second album, Yael Naïm, on 22 October 2007, on the Tôt ou tard label. The songs are in French, Engli