April 7, 1973 Israel’s first-ever entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, Ilanit with the song “Ey-sham,” finishes fourth out of 17 nations, while host country Luxembourg wins for the second consecutive year. The music contest dates to 1956. Ilanit’s song is a dramatic ballad in which she realizes that she must take her lover […]
May 9, 1998 Dana International wins the Eurovision Song Contest, becoming the third Israeli and the first since 1979 to do so, with her performance of the techno-pop song “Diva” in Birmingham, England. Her victory earns Israel the right to host the 1999 Eurovision contest at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on May 29. […]
The 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, an annual competition between member countries of the European Broadcasting Union, is held in Jerusalem.
November 19, 1957 Singer Ofra Haza, the youngest of nine children, is born in Tel Aviv to a family who had emigrated from Yemen. Haza grows up in the impoverished Hatikvah Quarter, where she is surrounded by music, including a mother who was a singer in Yemen. Haza joins her school choir. and at age […]
November 18, 1951 Yoni Rechter, considered one of Israel’s greatest musicians, is born in Tel Aviv. He is the son of architect Ya’akov Rechter and stepson of actress Hanna Meron. He pursues music as a boy and joins the Artillery Corps band during his military service. Rechter joins the band Kaveret as a keyboardist in […]
May 2, 1968 Israel’s first general-interest television network begins broadcasting at 9:30 a.m. with an image of a menorah, followed by an aerial view of Jerusalem and, at 9:40, the national Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) parade. Known as Israel Television or General Television to distinguish it from the Education Ministry-run Israel Educational Television, the network […]
August 13, 1942 Nurit Hirsch, a musician and composer, is born in Tel Aviv. From a young age, she plays piano at a theater, a ballet studio and a quartet club. She plays in a Armored Corps band unit during her Israel Defense Forces service, then begins to compose songs. She learns with Israel Prize […]
July 13, 1941 Singer, songwriter and media personality Ehud Manor is born to Russian immigrant parents in Binyamina. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Manor composes about 1,200 songs and translates 600 others into Hebrew. He also translates many Broadway musicals, including “Hair,” “Les Miserables” and “Chicago,” and such Shakespearean plays as “Romeo and […]