Esther Ofarim

Esther Ofarim (Hebrew: ???? ???????, born Esther Zaied, 13 June 1941 in Safed) is an Israeli female vocalist.

She met Abi Ofarim, a guitarist and dancer, in 1959 and subsequently married him. With her husband and without him she began to sing Hebrew and international folk songs.

In 1960 Esther got a small role in the film Exodus. In 1961 Esther won the Song Festival in Tel Aviv, where she sang "Saeni imcha bemachol" and "Neama". Two years later, Esther made the 2nd place at the Eurovision Song Contest with "T'en vas pas", representing Switzerland.

From then on, her duo with her then husband Abi Ofarim began take off. In 1966 they had their first hit in Germany with "Noch einen Tanz". Their greatest success in Germany was "Morning of my Life" in 1967, which was written by the Bee Gees. In 1968 the Ofarims had their international breakthrough with "Cinderella Rockefella", which hit the top of the charts in a number of countries including the UK. They played many live concerts in New York and London, and in 1969 they toured around the world.

As result of problems in both business, and personal relations, they divorced in 1970 [1] (in German).

Esther started her solo career with several albums and concerts. In 1984 she played in Joshua Sobol's piece "Ghetto", produced by Peter Zadek in Berlin (Germany). There she sang some songs, including "Frühling" and "Unter deinen weissen Sternen". The play was extremely successful, which was attributed in part to Esther's strong presence.

Since 1998, Esther Ofarim has been performing several concerts each year, especially in Israel and Germany. This includes annual concerts in the Hamburger Kammerspiele.

Ofarim's songs were prominently featured in the 2004 Israeli film, Walk on Water.


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