1957 - 2000.
Ofra Haza was an Israeli singer and movie/theater actress of Yemeni descent.
She is one of the most famous Israeli singers, and had an important international success!
Four times in a row she was designated "Singer of the Year" in Israel (1980-1983), and twice in Germany (1988-1989).
In 1983, she represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Hai" ("Living"), written by Ehud Manor. YouTube video on this link.
In 1993, Ofra Haza was the first Israeli nominee for the Grammy Award as "World Music Singer", due to her successful album "Kirya" (Spotify link), which was number one on Billboard magazine's sales charts for several weeks.
Her 13th album, 'Shaday', sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. Following this success, she released the hit "Im Nin'alu" which sold about 3 million copies (Spotify link).
"Im Nin'alu" is a Hebrew poem originally written by Shalom Shabazi, a 17th-century Yemeni rabbi and poet. In Ofra's version, the verses are sung in English and Hebrew while the chorus is interpreted only in Hebrew.
In this video, you can listen to another Shabazi song (for the Havdala) she performed on TV.
Among her hits are many songs that have become Israeli music classics, such as "Yad Beyad", "Hai", "Tefila", and more (available in our Spotify Playlist).
In 1994, Prime Minister Rabin invited her to sing at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, as you can see here.
Subsequently, she also collaborated on the project of the musical tapes of the cartoon The Prince of Egypt, which she sang in no less than 18 languages. Video on this link!
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