Ofra Haza

Ofra Haza Israeli singer and pop star known for blending traditional Yemeni and Jewish folk elements with current pop music trends. Known as the “Madonna of the East,” Haza represented Israel in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest and maintained her national and international celebrity presence until her tragic AIDS-related death at age 42.Haza was born in the Hatikvah quarter of Tel Aviv, a working-class neighborhood known as a melting pot of cultures and backgrounds. Her parents, who were among some 50,000 Yemeni Jews airlifted from Yemen to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet (1949–50), raised her along with her eight siblings in the rich Jewish-Yemenite musical tradition. Her mother, who was a professional singer in Yemen, encouraged Haza from childhood to sing in the local choir and participate in the protest group Hatikvah Quarter Theater Workshop. In 1973 Haza performed her first hit, “Gaʿaguʿim,” at the workshop and was invited to perform the song “Shabbat ha-Malkah” at the Mizrahi Music Festival in 1974, which gained her critical acclaim within the Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) Jewish community. After appearing in a variety of television and radio shows, Haza released her first album at age 18. Upon completing mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, she decided to pursue a singing career.Haza spent many years as an ambassador of the Israeli music scene. She was especially known for the religious undertones in her music, a clean public image, and a general lack of relationships or scandals. In 1987 a Cessna aircraft carrying Haza and her manager, Aloni, crashed into a mountain on the border of Israel and Jordan. After several hours of searching the nearby desert, the country rejoiced when she was found unharmed. Haza had no publicly known paramours until she fell in love with Tel Aviv businessman Doron Ashkenazi, whom she married in 1997. In February 2000 Haza was admitted to the hospital and died 13 days later of AIDS-related organ failure. Her fans struggled in the wake of her death to reconcile her clean public image with her disease, which was associated with drug use and sexual promiscuity despite being transmissible through other means. Some speculated that she had contracted HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) from her husband, who died a year later from a drug overdose.

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