Yardena Arazi

Biography

Yardena Arazi was born in Kabri, a kibbutz in the northern part of Israel. She started her career as a member of the girl group Chocolate, Menta, Mastik. They represented Israel in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Emor shalom”. They made an international tour after Eurovision, but Yardena left the band in 1978. One year later, she was invited to host the Eurovision Song Contest in Jerusalem together with Daniel Peer. During the eighties, Yardena Arazi became one of the most successful singers of Israel. She released no less than 10 albums getting gold and platinum for every single one. She participated in Kdam Eurovision, the Israeli national selection, in 1983 and 1985, but was asked to represent the country in 1988. She sang all the songs in Kdam, and the juries chose “Ben Adam”. In 1989 Arazi recorded the album “Desert Fantasy” that included 10 Hebrew versions of Arabic songs. The album was released in the US and Japan and was hugely successful around the Middle East. Since 1997 Arazi has focused on her career as a TV host. For 9 years she co-hosted the channel 2 morning magazine Cafe Telad, and later on she hosted at Channel 1 (Shir Hashishim), Channel 2 (Malcot Hashabat), GLZ radio station etc. In 2008 Arazi was named the most popular Israeli singer of all time at the 60th Independence Day celebration.