Lina Makhul

Leena Makhoul (Hebrew: לינה מחול‎) (Arabic: لينا مخول‎) also written as Makhul is an Arab-Israeli singer best known as the winner of the television reality show The Voice Israel in 2013.

Makhoul was born to Palestinian Christian parents, Radha (electronics engineer and teacher) and Rizaq (Deputy City Engineer Acre), in Ohio in the United States and grew up in Acre, Israel. She danced ballet for ten years (from age 9). She was a volunteer in Magen David Adom for five years. She started studying biology at Technion but quit to pursue music. Playing piano is one of her hobbies. She speaks five languages: Arabic, English, Hebrew, Spanish and Italian.

The Voice of Israel

In an audition for the second season of the TV show The Voice of Israel in late 2012, Makhoul sang the female part from Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and joined the mentoring team of Shlomi Shabat. In the program she sang a cover version of the song "Autumn Leaves" (Arabic version, originally by Fayrouz) obtaining the vote of all mentors.

On March 23, 2013 Makhoul won the final program in Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv with 62% of the vote, having performed "What A Feeling", theme song of the movie Flashdance. Along with her mentor Shlomi Shabat, she performed a song written and composed by him with his daughter singer Manor Shabat. She also sang "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen.^[1] She won a recording contract with Helicon Records.

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