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The loss of Ofra Haza
Singer Ofra Haza Dies at 41
The Associated Press
Feb 23 2000 5:36PM ET
JERUSALEM (AP) - Ofra Haza, who melded ancient Yemenite Jewish
devotional poetry with 1980s techno music to become Israel's first
international pop music success, died Wednesday. She was 41.
Haza, who was admitted to Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv 13 days ago,
died of massive organ failure, Dr. Zeev Rortenstein said. He refused to
say why she was hospitalized or what led to the organ failure, saying
that was her wish.
Haza, the youngest of nine siblings in a Yemenite Jewish family who lived
in the Hatikvah slum of Tel Aviv, was discovered at age 12 by a talent
scout. She attributed her full-throated voice to singing at home with her
mother. By the time she was 19, she was a bubble gum pop success.
``She was Israel's first female pop idol,'' said Benny Dudkevitch,
Israel radio's pop music editor.
Her signature song was the defiant 1979 hit, ``The Tart's Song,'' a
celebration of being everything - funny, flirtatious, consumerist - a
young woman of the time was not supposed to be, with the chorus
declaring, ``I wanna shout out loud, `I'm a tart!'''
Later in her career, Haza was among the artists who distanced themselves
from efforts to consolidate an ``Israeli'' sound and delved into their
parents' ethnic roots.
``Yemenite Songs,'' released in 1985 with a photo of her in full
Yemenite wedding gear on the cover, was an instant Israeli hit.
Its signature track, ``Im Ninalu,'' (``If the Gates of Heaven were
Locked'') expanded a devotional poem by 17th century rabbi Shalom Shabazi
into a modern love song. The melody was pure Persian Gulf, a climactic
assemblage of rising quarter tones; the beat was pure 1980s drum machine.
But it was not until 1988, when American rap artists Eric B. and Rakim
sampled ``Im Ninalu'' on their dance hit ``Paid in Full,'' that Haza
became an international phenomenon.
A savvy self-promoter, she rereleased ``Im Ninalu'' worldwide with
English lyrics. It was an outstanding success.
The rerelease of ``Yemenite Songs,'' and her next album, ``Shaday,''
brought her worldwide attention - suddenly Ofra Haza was the byword for
world music. Reviewers would describe other ethnic music phenomenons as
``the Bulgarian Ofra Haza'' or ``the Indian Ofra Haza.''
``For audiences in Europe and the Far East, this was something completely
new,'' Dudkevitch said. ``In Germany alone, it was selling 15,000 copies
a day.''
Haza's insistence on privacy only stoked the Israeli public's interest in
her life. She made headlines in 1987 when she survived a small airplane
crash. She kept her marriage two years ago to businessman Doron Ashkenazi
out of the public eye.
After a flush of attention that lasted into the early 1990s, her fame
receded, although she continued to make high-profile appearances. She
performed in Oslo when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1994, and she sang the role of Moses' mother in the1998 film
``The Prince of Egypt.''
In Haza's last days, fans gathered at the hospital, anxious for word of
her recovery. After her death was announced, Israeli radio stations
switched to retrospectives of her music.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak said she represented the Israeli success story.
``Ofra emerged from the Hatikvah slums to reach the peak of Israeli
culture,'' he said. ``She has left a mark on us all.''
There was no word on funeral arrangements, or information about survivors
other than her husband.
APO/Obit-Haza/Copyright (C) 2000 The Associated Press. The information
contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of
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