Her Life (a little biography)

From Middle East to Europe...
Born on the 19th of November 1957 in the poor neighbourhood of Hatikva in Tel Aviv, Ofra is the ninth child, the youngest too. Her parents, of Yemenite origins, like many at the time, were forced to flee their country and crossed the desert, a long journey, to Israel (in the late 1920's), which inspired a song to Ofra, "Fatamorgana". Ofra, it's the fairy tale that makes her a local legend. At 12, she joins the theatre troup of Hatikva, a theatre amateur:

"For one year, I watched the other worked, I was the youngest of the troup."

Then, with Bezalel pushing Ofra to invest herself more and more, she takes more leading roles within the troup, contributing in a good part of the success of the troup, Bezalel has sensed from the begining the exceptional voice she has. The albums produced by this troup sell in great number.:

"We were often going on tour, and in the bus that took us from one city to another, I was doing my homework".

Hence, at the age of 19, her solo career was launched. Once her military duties of two years done, she confirms her solo career by becoming one of Israel's most popular artist., her notoriety already crossing the borders. In 1983 wit her song "Chai", she reaches second at the Eurovision Song Contest. During that era, all of her albums are certified gold and platinum. Inspired by the melodies sung by her mother, Ofra tries in 1985 to blend these sacred chants with wind and cord instruments (religious chants accepted only percussion so far).

"I wanted to make this gift for my parents who have gave me the love for music".

To achieve that, she surrounds herself with traditional musicians who make the rhythm on enmpty square oil tanks, copper plates and these new instruments. While no one could have conceived such idea or even think of it as a possibility, Ofra did it and "it's the son of my producer, as he was listening to the demo of Im Nin'alu who had the idea to add funky elements. In the end, it's a good way, unplanned, to make these ancestral songs enjoyable for the youth of the whole world". Ofra and Bezalel agree, blend these three sounds: sacred chants, percussion and funky. These texts, written in the XVIIth century by rabbi Shalom Shabazi launched her international career in England first of all. Indeed, Ofra surprisingly discovered a sample of her song "Im Nin'alu" in the pop song of the moment "Pump up the volume" at the same time as the world did.

Ofra is now called on the international scene, all surprised. Many tv channel and radio seeks after interviews. Her first international album is released, "Yemenite Songs" and it's a big hit (it was already realeased in Israel but with this new popularity, the album is now pressed in Germany for the European market, and in the States, the label Sanachie releases it later on under "50 Gates of Wisdom"). "Im Nin'alu" stays for 9 weeks at first place on the German chart, and two weeks in the European Chart. She then is heard on the soundtrack Color in the song "Paid in Full". Following this success, Bezalel and Ofra put their effort on an international next album, and they travel often from Israel to Los Angeles, and Europe. In 1987, she survived a plane crash near the Jordanian / Israelite border, excatly on the 3rd of February 1987. Ofra has always considered this date as a second birth (and once again in 1994 when the boeing of El-Al is stroke by thunder on its way London-Tel Aviv and is forced to land in emergency);

Shaday is released and it opens Ofra the doors to the USA, Canada and Japan where she gets numerous rewards including the award for album of the year in 1989 in New York. The same year, is released Desert Wind almost in conjunction with her American tour, the first since her solo career.

Then the whole world...
Her sweet everyoung face, her colorful traditional clothing, her unique combination of ancient melodies on modern beats without ever losing in quality, her wonderful ballads, all these elements built up her international career.

It's no wonder her third album, Kirya, get a grammy for best World album. The Western world finds this album very oriental, but then again, we have Iggy Pop, quite a perfect match between Western and Eastern world. The same year, she records "Temple of Love" with the English Gothic band The Sisters of Mercy, it's actually a reprise of their own that will bear the lovely name of: "Temple of Love, touched by the Hand of Ofra".

Surprisingly, in the middle of her big success on the international scene, Ofra steps back a little to concentrate back on the Israelite carreer. Don't think during all these previous years she left it off, Ofra regularly went back to Israel, not only for her career, but most of all, and shall I say especially to take care of her parents too.

So, in 1994, she makes a huge come back to Israel with her breathtaking album "Kol Haneshama". In this album, she goes back to a more traditional style, with wonderful ballads. This will shut those who said Ofra totally forgot Israel. This album is actually her most worldwide sold album as a purely Israelite album (that is, an album aimed for the Israelite). Following Yitzhak Rabin's request, Ofra sings for the ceremony of the Peace Nobel Prize in Oslo in December 1994, with the song "Paint Box". Ofra is very busy again and the success of Kol Haneshama really comes when she sings for the shrine of Yitzhak Rabin after his assassination in 1995.

The more the years go by, the more we can feel in Ofra'songs a real personal investment such as the emancipation of the women (quite obvious in "Daw Da Hiya" on her album Kirya) and most of all for peace in the Middle East. It's no surprise her music crossed to the Arabic borders in the 80's, singing in Hebrew and sometimes in Arabic. Ofra managed to sing there (such as her concert in Turkey in 1989) mostly in Hebrew, without ever losing her culture nor denigrating other's.

Ofra comes back to the international scene in 1997 with an album, eponym, under the new label BMG Ariola. A wonderful work with Frank Peterson. Her topics are those dear to Ofra and she stays faithfull to her roots. Roots we can find also in the soundtrack "La Reine Margot". Naturally she's chosen by DreamWorks, in the person of the composer Hans Zimmer to play the mother of Moses in the animated "Prince of Egypt". Ofra is to sing the main song, "Deliver us", which she will manage to do in 17 of the 21 languages where this movie will be available. Ofra continues her path where she wants to invest herself in her projects and music, always willing to try new challenges. A wonderful passion that is shown in the soundtrack "The Governess" in 1998 where her voice, smooth and healing, is heard all through the movie. The two following years are full of projects like Babylon, an old project left aside for a few years, where Ofra and Bezalel worked from a minimalist demo, telling a story of the Bible (this is her last work). The last surprise will show up on Virgin Voices vol2, songs of Madonna. Ofra sings "Open your Heart" in a brand new way, where she worked in Germany.

But Ofra didn't just do guest appearances in her last yearys, she was working on a new album from 1999 that she wanted perfect. This album was without Bezalel. Quite strange and a year earlier, Ofra stopped contact with him, not in a definitive way, but to let her try and find a new path abroad without him around (at this stage, we are not able to tell if this choice really came from her or if she was heavily influenced by her husband). Unfortunately, the first pain of her fatality showed up, preventing her from working any further. At this stage, we don't how far she was in that album, but we do know she hadn't chosen a producer yet, so chances are there's little of it but quite some brainstorming.

Ofra married in 1997 to Doron Ashkenazi. The fairy Tale was going to take a turn for the worse. Full of projects, desires, of a strong friendship with her manager, Ofra left us on the 23rd of February 2000. At only 42, the Little Princess of the Poor Neighborhood who was an ambassador for a whole country has never known the chance to have kids, nor will she know the chance to grow old. It's with great sorrow and pain that we learnt that tragic event, like millions of people.

Ofra still lives in our heart for ever, her music is timeless and she bears the love, the true one. Let us be wise and clever enough to promote her, and open our hearts. I wish to Bezalel Aloni, her most faithfull manager who has always respected her and her family, the strenght to carry on to believe in love and faith, in the desire to build new projects. He was the one who knew Ofra the best, after her parents, to have taken her under his wing since she was 12. He has protected her, and learnt her this art of a living. Like Ofra, he never forgot where he came from, yet he stays quiet, simple, easy to reach. As Ofra's song says it, Ofra and Bezalel were gifted with a "yad anuga" (gentle hand)....