Shay grew up in Tel Aviv, and by the time he was 14, he had learned how to compose original music on Cubase. The next year he began studying at Ramat Gan Conservatory, where he learned piano for several years. Alongside composition, Shay polished his writing by producing stories and song lyrics, with one of his pieces winning a short story writing competition. Shay moved to a small town in the south of Israel at the age of 18, where he began writing his first album, Fairytales. After pouring his life into the songs, Shay needed to find the right music to match.