Ofra Haza (1959 - 2000) was Israel's leading pop music recording artist. Rising from poverty to stardom, Haza left the slums of Tel Aviv to win World Music Awards and to sing at the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
An icon in her country, the mezzo-soprano received international attention for her songs that blended ancient Yemenite-Jewish poetry with western music. After releasing 16 gold and platinum albums in Israel and winning the Israeli equivalent of the Grammy Award for best female singer in 1980, she broke into the European and North American markets. She died at the age of 41 due to complications from AIDS.
Started in Theater Group
Ofra Haza was born in Tel Aviv, the youngest of nine children in a Jewish family that had escaped religious persecution in Yemen. Growing up in the poor Hatikva district, Haza came from a musical background. Her mother, Shoshana, sang old Yemenite songs around the house and played the tambour drum. Israeli folk songs and songs from the Beatles and Elvis Presley were also among her musical influences during the 1960s.
At age 12, Haza joined the local Hatikva Theater, a protest theater group established by Bezalel Aloni. Aloni, who would manage her career for the next 20 years, made her the star of the show. She participated in the troupe for seven years, singing and gaining a following and appearing on four albums with the members of the Hatikva Theater.
Israel's Top Singer
During her teenage years, Haza performed in a variety of venues. She hit the Israeli charts with songs about poverty and the discrimination faced by Jews who moved to Israel from Arab countries. She won a national singing contest, appeared on television variety shows, and worked in movies with film directors Zalman King and Goran Bregovich. As is mandatory for all Israeli citizens, she joined the army at age 18 for a two-year stint, working as a secretary assigned to the tank corps. After her military service, she released her first solo album in Israel, signing with local label Hed Azri.
Haza's pop albums became best-sellers in Israel. Her 1979 "The Tart's Song" spoke of independent young women defying tradition and social convention. "At that early stage of her career, all Ofra wanted was to forget her ethnic roots and be an Israeli," commented Yoram Rotem, music chief at Israeli broadcaster Galei Zahal, for Billboard magazine. "She sang simple songs for the ordinary Israeli. They were largely ignored by radio, but fans bought them."
The mezzo-soprano, who sang in Hebrew and Arabic, easily crossed cultural boundaries and garnered numerous awards. Haza was named Israel's Singer of the Year for five consecutive years and went on to record more than 16 gold and platinum albums in her homeland. In 1983, she was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest, where she placed second. The experience offered her exposure to the European audience.
Recorded Yemenite Songs
By the mid-1980s, Haza had changed her subject matter, returning to songs learned from her parents. She attracted new audiences with the release of three albums of old Israeli songs that soon earned the attention of radio stations. Record producers who had begun to take notice asked her to make an album for international distribution. She decided to honor her Yemenite Jewish heritage by covering the songs her mother used to sing with a pop beat and modern arrangements.
Haza's first international release came in 1985 with the album, Fifty Gates of Wisdom: Yemenite Songs. For the album, Haza created a modern interpretation of a collection of prayers written by 17th-century Rabbi Shalom Shabazi by adding a dance beat that used electronic percussion. She told the New York Times, "I wanted to do an album to make my parents happy."
At a time when the World Beat sound was gaining popularity, Fifty Gates of Wisdom was an enormous success, hitting the club scenes in Europe, and topping the international pop charts. Haza soon became Israel's most popular international recording artist. Rotem said in Billboard, "Ironically, her international success came with the very material from which she wanted to escape. She caught the ethnic wave, and she also had talent, looks, and professionalism."
The album's singles, "Galbi" and "Im Nin'Alu" ("If the Gates of Heaven Closed"), played in dance clubs throughout Europe. "Im Nin'Alu" placed at the top of the singles chart in Germany for nine weeks and ranked number one on the European chart for two weeks. Worldwide, the album sold more than a million copies. In Germany, Haza won the Tigra Award for Singer of the Year in 1989. In 1987, Fifty Gates of Heaven reached the United States. Not long after, Haza became the first Israeli singer to be a guest on MTV.
In a circuitous route to fame, the British group Cold Cut heard Haza's voice on a pirated copy of "Im Nin'Alu" and included it on the group's remix of Erik B. and Rakim's rap song, "Paid in Full." M.A.R.R.S.S. also added her voice to their dance hit, "Pump Up the Volume." Haza commented about her unconventional connection to hip-hop, "That gave my song a big push. People that didn't know me heard my voice on a rap song."
Observed Jewish Tradition
When Haza performed songs from Fifty Gates of Wisdom, she added elements of tradition to her style as well as to her music. She proudly wore traditional Yemenite clothing, elaborately beaded and with ornate Yemenite rings and silver bracelets. Devoted to her religion, Haza observed Jewish tradition when she toured and performed. She avoided holding concerts on Friday night to observe Sabbath and requested only kosher meat.
She was living a very different life from the one her parents expected. "I see in front of my eyes my parents who educated me to appreciate what God gave me. I came from a poor neighborhood. Then suddenly I'm staying in first-class hotels, driving in limousines, flying first-class. Every day I say 'Shema Yisrael' and thank God for giving me this opportunity."
Success in English
A German company asked Haza to record an album in English so it could be released in the United States. Few thought a record with Yemenite songs would sell in America. Haza floundered with English and with the conventional subject matter. "He gave me American songs," she said. "You know, 'Love me, love you, need me.' I didn't like the lyrics but I had no choice." The album was abandoned but the idea of an English release was only postponed.
In 1988, Haza signed on with Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. A new producer helped her to assemble songs such as "Im Nin'Alu" and Haza's earlier Hebrew songs, translated into English, to create the album, Shaday. Released in the United States, Canada, and Japan, it sold a million copies worldwide, and "Im Nin'Alu" won top honors at the Tokyo Music Festival. In New York City, Haza won the New Music Award for the International Album of the Year in 1989.
Two years later, Haza succeeded again with the release of her English album, Desert Wind. Haza co-produced four of the songs on the album, which featured her mother chanting Arabic songs. She conducted a U.S. concert tour to promote the album that included 42 cities. Accepted by an audience no longer wary of foreign musicians, Haza commented about her material, "I think people are a little bit tired of the songs they used to hear. They want to listen to something strange and new."
Sang at Nobel Ceremony
Desert Wind brought increased recognition for Haza. She produced a video for MTV and appeared on American talk shows. In 1991, she participated in the Artists of the World for Peace in the World video of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance." She was also invited to work with the Sisters of Mercy, Paul Anka, Iggy Pop, and Paula Abdul. Her follow-up album, Kirya, featured guest Lou Reed and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the World Beat category.
Her biggest honor came in 1994 when Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin called her Israel's "goodwill ambassador" and invited her to sing at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat. She performed again a year later at Rabin's memorial service following his assassination.
After marrying businessman Doron Ashkenazi in 1997, Haza spent the rest of the 1990s on two movie projects. In 1998, she sang for Steven Spielberg's animated movie The Prince of Egypt, voicing Moses' mother Yocheved. For the movie's international release, she sang in 17 languages, including German, Greek, Polish, and Hungarian, from phonetic transcriptions written in Hebrew.
The same year, Haza sang on the Columbia/TriStar film, "The Governess," which portrayed Jewish life in England in the late 19th Century. The soundtrack was released on the Sony Classical label. Also in 1998, Haza joined the late Pakistani virtuoso Ali Akba Khan for The Prayer Cycle, inspired by music from Judaic and Muslim traditions.
Succumbed to AIDS
On February 10, 2000, Haza admitted herself to Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. Despite her fame, she guarded her privacy and refused to inform the media about her medical condition. She and her family forbade the hospital to leak information about her illness to the press. Some reports claimed she was suffering from influenza and that she was receiving treatment for liver and kidney failure. Fans and well wishers, as well as television crews, gathered daily outside the hospital keeping vigil, praying, and hoping to learn about her condition. On February 23, 2000, 13 days after entering the hospital, Haza was pronounced dead from multiple organ failure.
Her funeral, held on February 27, attracted thousands of mourners. Working-class people and the elite, including Shimon Peres, gathered to eulogize Israel's leading recording artist. Bibi Netanyahu paid public tribute, and Prime Minister Ehud Barak issued a statement, "I was impressed by her shining personality and her great talent. Her voice made its way into the hearts of many in Israel and throughout the world. Her contribution to Israeli culture was great, and the honor she brought this country will never be forgotten."
The daily newspaper Ha'aretz had been reporting that Haza was infected with the HIV virus and that AIDS was the cause of her organ failure. The paper was criticized for violating the singer's privacy, yet it defended its decision to report the news, which had existed as a rumor on the Internet and television. In a country where having AIDS was still considered taboo, Ha'aretz's editors believed that secrecy only demonized the disease. Haza's death prompted more discussion in Israel about AIDS and the shame that stills surrounds it.
Some AIDS activists suggested that Ofra Haza could have been her country's Magic Johnson, a celebrity who could have broken down stereotypes and promoted education on AIDS prevention and awareness. Bentwich said in the New York Times, "In this unfortunate case … it appears that Ofra Haza almost died of the embarrassment, from the terrible fear to reveal her illness."
Books
Contemporary Musicians, Volume 29, Gale, 2000.
Periodicals
Billboard, March 11, 2000.
Jerusalem Post, February 24, 2000.
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 3, 2000.
New York Times, February 24, 2000; February 29, 2000.
Wall Street Journal, February 15, 1990.
Online
"Exclusive Interview with Ofra Haza," Shalom, KakAfonia!http://kakafonia.hypermart.net/news/ofra.htm (December 23, 2003).
"Secrecy surrounding popular Israeli singer Ofra Haza's death," National Public Radio: All Things Consideredhttp://www.npr.org/programs/atc/radioshow (December 23, 2003).
Sony Classical,www.sonyclassical.com/artists/haza (December 23, 2003).
