Today, that most magnificent of Middle Eastern divas Ofra Haza would have been 50 years old. It is impossible to realise what an incredible influence this woman had as a singer throughout the troubles of the Arab-Israeli conflicts - she was (quite rightly) adored by both sides, yet was resolutely (despite her Yemeni origins) a Jewish patriot.
I first encountered her luscious voice on a remixed house track called Wish Me Luck in the early 1990s, but got to know her and to love her music more than a decade after that - her albums Kirya and Yemenite Songs are still favourites today!
Here is just a snippet from a tribute written by journalist Eric Silver at the time of her death in 2000: "With her striking, Middle Eastern beauty, she was the sister every Israeli would like to have had: talented, warm, spontaneous, unspoiled. She was a cliché - the ninth child of poor Yemenite immigrants, a star who made it from the back streets of South Tel Aviv to Hollywood, then came home. But she transcended the cliché.
"Ofra was Israel's pop star laureate. Her fans spanned generations and ethnic divides. She was chosen to sing in Oslo when Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize. She sang again at the memorial concert after Rabin's assassination. Ehud Barak and Bibi Netanyahu paid public tribute after her death. Peres eulogized her at the graveside.
"Her 13 days in intensive care were a national drama. Television cameras hovered at the Tel-Hashomer hospital. Every change (or non-change) in her condition was reported on the hour. Admirers recited psalms. A bearded elder delivered an herbal cure. A Yemenite rabbi changed the mezuzah on the door of the emergency ward. Channel 1 television broke into an international basketball match to announce her death."
Such was the impressive respect that Ofra Haza had! - and for very good reason. She was indeed a sublime talent, and one the like of which we will never see again... Rest in peace.
The orginal Eric Silver article
Ofra Haza on Wikipedia
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