31 year old Zehava Ben is one of Israel's leading female singers. She was born in the capital city of Southern Israel (The Negev), Beer-Sheva, in a poverty, crime and drug struck neighborhood. Zehava became familiar in 1990, when the title track of a film she took part in, called "Tipat mazal" (A bit of luck), sung by her of course, became a hit all over Israel, mostly among the Ex-Asian and Ex-North African population. Zehava's popularity lead her to take part in the 1992 selection for ESC, our good old 'Kdam'. Even though before the contest she was considered as a favorite to win, luck wasn't on her side that night: her song "Daf chadash" (New page) ended last with only one point... Since then she had a couple of successful albums, one of them being recording her own version for several songs of the legendary Egyptian diva: Umm Kulthum.

Zehava is very proud of her Moroccan heritage, and most of her music is quite distinctive of that. Zehava has appeared in many music festivals outside Israel, namely in Sweden and France. Zehava is also known to be popular in many Middle-Eastern countries, even if officially her music is banned since she is Israeli. Zehava appeared in the 1996 election campaign for 'Meretz' (left wing civil rights movement), singing the famous 'Shir lashalom' (Song for peace), even though she said later in several articles that she only did it for the money...

"Anni Shatta" beat 12 other songs in the Israeli selection, actually tying for first place with veteran Yehudit Ravitz. OGAE Israel would like to wish Zehava Ben the best of luck in the 15th OGAESC, and good luck to all the other participants!!

Biography | Photograph | Lyrics