The Israeli Madonna or “Madonna of the East” is how Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza is referred to in the West.
She is an Israeli singer, composer, actor, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist. She possesses a “tender” mezzo-soprano voice, according to critics.
Did Ofra Haza have children?
Ofra had no children with her then-husband Doron Ashkenazi.
She placed second with 136 points while representing Israel in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Hi.” After recording the album Shirei Teiman (“Yemenite songs”) in 1984, she experienced significant international success.
The CD featured versions of songs that Haza had grown up listening to, fusing classical instruments with real Middle Eastern drumming. The song “Im Nin’alu,” from the 1988 album Shaday, gained more notoriety when it won the New Music Award for Best International Album of the Year.
Google released a Google Doodle in honour of her 57th birthday on November 19, 2014. A Pakistani’s love letter to Israeli pop music and movies, written by pro-peace blogger Sarmad Iqbal of Pakistan for The Times of Israel in 2017, passionately lauded Ofra Haza.
She was more than simply a cultural star for Israel, according to Sarmad, who noted that “when her songs reached a larger Middle-Eastern audience, she defied all the hurdles to peace and goodwill between Arabs and Israel and also strove to bridge the huge divide between Israel and her Arab neighbours.”
