{"id":170790,"date":"2025-02-20T14:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T12:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=170790"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:10:15","slug":"ofra_haza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/ofra_haza\/","title":{"rendered":"When Ofra Haza Took America by Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the late 1980s in their Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles, Kathleen Beller went upstairs so her husband Thomas Dolby, a music producer, could start working with the singer who had just arrived and would be staying with them for a few weeks. Minutes later, she was back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe heard this voice filling the house and came down. The voice was so luminous,\u201d Dolby, now a music professor at Baltimore\u2019s Johns Hopkins University, said in a late-January telephone call. His wife, he said, had expected to find their guest standing in the middle of the room, projecting like an opera singer. Instead, the two were merely sitting on the sofa reviewing lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The singer was Ofra Haza, a pop star in her native Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"997009853324405171\"
Ofra Haza in 1985, backstage at a concert held in Israel for Soviet Jewry. Photo<\/a> by Moti Patael, the Dan Hadani Archive, the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt was surprising because Ofra managed to emote with her voice without needing to belt. Great singers are like that,\u201d said Dolby, who would know, having worked with such talents as David Bowie, Joni Mitchell and Foreigner.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ofrasfad\"
An ad for a concert in San Francisco, California, appearing in the February 12, 1988 edition of J. Jewish News of Northern California<\/em><\/a>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

With her career evolving, Haza had come to the United States to record albums and perform in languages other than her native Hebrew. The album Dolby coproduced, Desert Wind<\/em>, was one of several of that period that Haza recorded in English, Arabic and Aramaic in honoring her Yemenite roots. In Hollywood, she also sang on movie soundtracks, notably Dick Tracy<\/em> and the animated film The Prince of Egypt<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On her first full day in the city, Haza was in tourist mode, visiting Universal Studios and the Santa Monica beach. Dolby recalled her excitement at shopping on posh Rodeo Drive but returning having purchased only a pair of sneakers \u2014 which, he said, \u201calways looked white, brand new,\u201d thereafter because of her polishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haza enjoyed living in Los Angeles, according to her longtime manager, Bezalel Aloni, but was Israeli through and through. Haza telephoned her parents regularly, he said, and yearned to return home. She did just that, and in 1997 got married.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ofradetroit88\"
An article in the May 13, 1988 edition of the Detriot Jewish News<\/em><\/a>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

She died just three years later, at age 42, of AIDS \u2014 news that shocked Israelis. Haza reportedly was infected by her husband, Doron Ashkenazi, a drug user. She passed away on February 23 in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a stunning end to the career and life of a beloved figure, a singular talent with a pure voice, radiant smile and charm who\u2019d burst onto the world stage from humble beginnings in Tel Aviv\u2019s HaTikvah neighborhood and at age 25 represented the country in the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished second by singing \u201cChai\u201d (Alive).<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ofraeurovision\"
An article published shortly after the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest, in which Ofra Haza finished second, The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne)<\/em>, April 13, 1983<\/a>, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Haza attributed her musical inclinations to her mother, Shoshana, who sang professionally in the latter\u2019s native Yemen; Ofra was the only one of the family\u2019s nine children born in Israel. Dolby told of recording \u201cFatamorgana,\u201d on the Desert Wind<\/em> album, and encouraging Haza to call her mother back in Tel Aviv to ask her to sing some of the lyrics, which he incorporated in the song. That happened after Haza mentioned to Dolby a traditional Yemenite technique, wail-like, that Shoshana employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ofralouisville88\"
An article ahead of an Ofra Haza concert in Louisville, Kentucky. Community (Louisville)<\/em><\/a>, February 12, 1988, the Historical Jewish Press Collection at the National Library of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe managed to get her to sing in the key of the song, and it just fit, so it\u2019s a very touching moment,\u201d Dolby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three of Haza\u2019s greatest Israeli albums \u2014 Adama<\/a><\/em> (Earth), Shirei Moledet<\/a><\/em> (Songs of the Homeland) and Yamim Nishbarim<\/em> (Broken Days) \u2014 oozed with songs of Zionism, spirituality, romantic love and yearning. Then there were Fifty Gates of Wisdom<\/em><\/a> (also called Yemenite Songs<\/em>) and Shaday<\/a><\/em>, one of the names of God, that melded Yemenite tradition and Western dance beats, and broadened her appeal internationally. Kirya<\/a><\/em> earned a Grammy nomination, an Israeli first; Don Was<\/a> produced the album, which included Haza\u2019s duet with Iggy Pop on \u201cDaw Da Hiya.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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