Ofra Haza (photo of the artist is given later in the article) is an Israeli singer who has received international recognition through a combination of traditional Jewish-Yemeni lyrics and Western-style disco-pop music. She sang in Hebrew, Arabic and English. With her work, she sought to bridge the cultural gap between Jews, Muslims and Christians.
The first song in the biography of Ofra Haza, which became an international hit, was the composition Im Nin'alu - Yemeni prayer, laid on a bright disco rhythm. Over a million copies were sold. For several months, she took first place in the charts and enjoyed great popularity on the dance floors of Europe and North America. “The music of Ofra Hazy,” wrote the People’s magazine columnist, “combines ornate melodies into a quarter-tone of traditional Yemeni folklore and sonorous electronic music of modern dance pop in a surprisingly pleasant fusion.” Over her 20-year career, the singer has become one of the most successful artists ever born in Israel, and when in February 2000 she went to Tel Aviv hospital for reasons that were not disclosed, her fans were on duty around the clock, wishing her speedy recovery.
Early biography
Ofra Haza was born on November 19, 1957 in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was the youngest of nine children born to emigrants from Yemen.
Khaza's parents were rescued by military air transport and received entry visas to Israel.
People from Yemen, as a rule, are the poorest citizens of this Middle Eastern country. The family of the future star lived in the slums of Tel Aviv, in the Hachikwa area. However, in Yemen, her mother was a professional singer, and Ofra Haza remembered how she sang to children from their birth. The daughter began to show the same musical abilities and at the age of twelve she joined the local theater troupe, founded by her neighbor Bezalel Aloni.
Protest lyrics
Aloni, seeing the girl's unique talent, became an integral part of Hazy's singing career as a songwriting partner and her manager over the next twenty years. Soon she became one of the most talented performers of the troupe, also called “Hatikva”, and recorded four albums with other members. She even won a national song contest and began appearing on television as a participant in a television show. Many of these early songs were characterized by lyrics that protested against the discrimination of Yemeni Jews and other immigrants from the Arab countries she encountered in Israel. In addition, she starred in the films of Zalman King and Goran Bregovich.
The best singer of Israel
Like all Israeli boys and girls aged eighteen, Haza entered the compulsory two-year military service, which she held in the tank corps as secretary. After that, she signed with Hed Azri Recording Studio as a solo artist. The first album in the biography of Ofra Haza contained tracks such as The Tart's Song, a musical recitative in which a young woman rejected the conservative values ​​of society. At the beginning of her career, she wanted to forget her ethnic roots and become an Israeli. Ofra sang simple songs for ordinary people. Initially, Hazy’s albums enjoyed only nominal success and were hardly broadcast on the radio, but her defiant lyrics sank into the soul of young people, and the recordings began to sell well. Her mezzo-soprano, which sounded in Arabic and Hebrew, easily overcame cultural barriers and received many awards. Ofra won the title of Israel’s best singer for five consecutive years and recorded 16 gold and platinum albums in her homeland. In 1983, she was chosen to represent her country at the famous Eurovision song contest, in which she took second place. The producers liked her voice, and they invited her to record an album for distribution in Europe.
Recording Yemeni Songs
The period of Hazy's career, which began in the mid-1980s, was marked by her desire to return to the music of her people. She attracted a new audience by releasing three albums of old Jewish songs, which attracted the attention of the radio station. Music producers asked her to make an album for international distribution. Ofra decided to use her Yemeni-Jewish background by recording in a modern arrangement the songs that her mother performed.
She later told the New York Times journalist that Yemeni music has a good, distinctive dance rhythm, upon hearing which no one can stand without movement. She began to adapt traditional works, adding modern percussion and electronic instruments, and as a result in 1985 the album “50 gates of wisdom: Yemeni songs” appeared. His lyrics were taken from the famous liturgical poem written in the XVII century. Rabbi Shalom Chawazi. Haza and Aloni just wanted to make a record that would be liked by their faithful parents, and were taken by surprise when the track became an underground hit in European dance clubs. The English band Coldcut heard one of the songs and remixed it for rappers Eric B. and Rakim. According to Haza, this gave the song a boost: people who did not know the girl heard her voice thanks to rap.
The New York Times music columnist wrote that her catchy, intriguing voice fully justified itself. It fits perfectly into the modern arrangement, inviting different cultures to meet and have fun. Some Haza vocal compositions were remixed to another prominent track of that era. Pump Up the Volume by MARRS This song from “50 Gates of Wisdom” by Im Nin'Alu (“If the Sky Gate is Closed”) was remixed and in 1987 was released as a single in The United States. Its sales have exceeded one million copies worldwide. She stayed in first place in Germany's singles chart for 9 weeks, and in Europe for 2 weeks. In Germany, Ofra became the best performer in 1989.
Preserving Jewish Traditions
Performing songs from the album “50 Gates of Wisdom”, Ofra complemented the style and music with traditional elements. She proudly wore traditional Yemeni clothes, carefully embroidered with beads, with richly decorated rings and silver bracelets. True to her religion, Haza respected Jewish traditions when she toured and performed. She avoided holding concerts on Friday nights so as not to disturb Saturday, and ate only kosher meat.
Ofra Haza tried to live as her parents wanted. According to her, they always stood before her eyes, teaching her to appreciate everything that God had given her. She lived poorly and suddenly began to stay in first-class hotels, ride limousines, fly in first class. Every day, she said “Shema Israel” and thanked God for the opportunity.
Worldwide success
The next stage in the biography of Ofra Hazy was associated with the growing popularity of the new genre, which quickly became known as the “world beat”. By signing a contract with Sire Records, a Yemeni-Israeli singer recorded the Shaday album, which was released in 1988. Many of his tracks were based on another famous liturgical work, Songs of Solomon. It was her most successful album to date, with sales reaching the millionth mark worldwide. It combined songs in Hebrew and English. Nevertheless, the music critic of People magazine called the English work tracks too sentimental. In his opinion, it’s bad that Haza did not rise above the musical cliches, because her bright voice, sometimes similar to that of Barbra Streisend, seems able to cope with something more complex.
Ofra Haza toured the United States in 1988 and lived for some time in Los Angeles. In 1990, she released her first fully English-language compilation Desert Wind. As she told the Wall Street Journal, despite the different language, the album was still her personal message. One track, titled Fatamorgana, was dedicated to the tragic experience of her parents, expelled from Yemen many years ago. The song contains a passage in Arabic, sung by her mother on the phone from Israel while working on the album. This composition received special praise from the critic: Hazy's rhythmic contralto is associated with the campaign of the Yemeni Jews in the desert exile, the heat of mirages and sadness.
Grammy Award Nomination
Around the same time, Haza shot a video that was broadcast on the MTV music channel. It was the first video with an Israeli artist on this channel. In the 1992 album "Kiria", released by the famous studio genius Don Vas, again, songs of Ofra Haza were sung in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Rock legends Lou Reed and Iggy Pop helped create it . The album got its name from the ancient nickname of the holy city of Jerusalem, as Haza hoped to make a record that could serve as a reminder that peace in the Middle East was long overdue. In the title track, Ofra sings that many of his sons must die every day for this city. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the World Music category.
Performance at the nobel ceremony
By the mid-1990s, Haza was a Middle Eastern celebrity. Both Israeli and Palestinian teens bought her notes and saw her as an example to follow. In 1993, after a peace agreement between Palestine and Israel, which for decades fought for disputed territory, which they considered their ancient homeland, the signatories were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One of the three recipients, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, invited Hazu to speak at the 1994 Oslo Award Ceremony, calling her the “Goodwill Ambassador”. A year later, in 1995, Ofra was already singing at the funeral of Rabin after his murder.
Miraculous salvation
Despite her extensive international career, Haza never stopped performing in Israel, where her concerts have always attracted a wide audience. She often appeared at army bases in the north and south of the country. On returning from one of these shows, the Israeli Air Force plane carrying her and Aloni crashed. Both miraculously escaped death. In the biography of Ofra Hazy, a second similar case is mentioned. In 1994, lightning struck her plane on the way back from London, but nothing happened.
Life in israel
Haza performed at numerous national song festivals for children and adults, as a rule, performed the song of the winner. Throughout the country, fan clubs for the singer were created.
In 1997, the biography of Ofra Hazy was replenished with another important fact. She married businessman Doron Ashkenazi. Soon after, Ofra severed relations with Bezalel Aloni.
In 1998, she was chosen as the performer of Naomi Shemer’s song “Golden Jerusalem” at an official ceremony dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of Israel.
In 1998, Haza recorded the track Deliver Us for the animated Disney cartoon "The Prince of Egypt", and also voiced the role of Moses' mother. For the international release of the film, she sang the song in seventeen languages, including German, Greek, Polish and Hungarian, using phonetic transcription in Hebrew. The following year, she participated in the creation of the multilingual collection of sacred songs, “The Prayer Cycle: Music for the Century,” by Jonathan Elias, in which Alanis Morissette and Perry Farrell also participated. Ofra sang in a duet with Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Also in 1998, Haza sang in the movie “The Governess” in the film studio Columbia / Tristar film about Jewish life in London at the end of the 19th century. The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical.
Tragic demise
Ofra Haza was the darling of the Israeli public, so when she got to Tel Hashomer hospital on February 10, 2000, there was a lot of talk about the cause of this sad event. Fans around the clock stood at the walls of the hospital and suspected that the 42-year-old singer had cancer. February 23, she died of functional insufficiency of internal organs. At the funeral of Ofra Haza on February 27 and attracted thousands of grieving fans, Prime Minister Ehud Barak made an official statement that he had the honor of knowing Offra and was amazed by her bright personality and great talent. Her contribution to Israeli culture was enormous, and the glory she brought to her country would never be forgotten.
Mysterious disease
A few days later, however, the Tel Aviv newspaper wrote that Ofra Haza’s death was due to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). According to the Haaretz newspaper, part of the hospital’s medical staff was angry with the famous singer, who was trying to hide the nature of her illness. Doctors were afraid that they might be infected with HIV-positive blood. Confidentiality of the medical history remained unbreakable even after the death of Ofra Haza. This has sparked controversy over the rights of patients in Israel. Many believed that the right to a secret of the singer’s personal life was violated, which, most likely, wanted to leave her conservative Yemeni family in the dark about the cause of death. Ofra Haza, as already mentioned, was very devoted to family traditions. As the British medical journal explained, complaints that hospital workers were at risk of infection were questionable because Tel Hashomer must comply with an order from the Israeli Ministry of Health and treat all patients as if they were carriers of an infectious disease, if not proved otherwise. The newspaper, however, defended itself against accusations of sensationalism. According to the editor-in-chief, a world-famous performer was a public figure and, to some extent, her life was in the public domain.
So ended the creative biography of Ofra Hazy. The death of the singer was a shock for many of her compatriots. There are still many rumors about the true reason for the death of the artist.
Biography of Ofra Hazy and the personal life of the singer are described in the book of Bazalel Aloni. In her, a former manager claims that a few weeks before her death, she called him and reported her illness. At the same time, Doron Ashkenazi, according to Aloni, was the first and only male celebrity. For her, her husband was always in the first place.
Biography Ofra Hazy replete with mysterious incidents. Why did she die? The widower claimed that the singer became infected during a blood transfusion that she received after a miscarriage. Doron Ashkenazi died a year and 2 months after the death of his wife from an overdose of cocaine.