Zehava Ben

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Zehava Ben (*November 8, 1968) is one of the most popular Israeli female vocalists in the Mizrahi genre, the Turkish style of singing which has come to dominate Oriental music in the '90s. 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), became a hit all over Israel, mostly among the Ex-Asian and Ex-North African population.

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 popular in the Middle-East, even if her music is banned due to her Israeli origin. Zehava appeared in the 1996 election campaign for 'Meretz' (left wing civil rights movement), singing the famous 'Shir lashalom' (Song for peace).

One of her famous songs is Ma Yihye (What will be) from 1994, which is included in the Buddha Bar collection.

In 2005 Zehava Ben tried to represent her country in the Eurovision songcontest with the song "Peace and Love" but she reached the second place and lost to Shiri Maymon.

[edit] Records and Discography

1999: Best of Zehava Ben
2000: Arabic Songs
2000: Crying Rainn
2000: Stop the World
2000: What Kind of World
2000: Whire Stork
2000: Super Gold
2001: Coming Home
2001: Real King
2001: To Be Human 2002: Melech Amiti (A Real King)
2003: Beit Avi
2003: Laroz Variations
2003: My Father's House