Published: 28 February 2020
Last updated: 5 March 2024
THREE OF THE legendary Israeli singer Ofra Haza’s 42 years remain the focus of almost every treatment of her after her death, and especially as this week’s 20th anniversary of her death approached.
Her last three years – from when she married Doron Ashkenazi in 1997 until her death in 2000, are repeatedly put under a microscope, scrutinised, mapped out and deciphered – her relationship with her husband, her longing for a child, the breakup with her longtime manager Bezalel Aloni, her illness, the secrecy and ultimately her death.
Her death did not just cause shock and deep sadness because of the sudden passing of a great, admired and relatively young singer, but also because of the total contradiction between the circumstances of her death and Haza’s image, which was all pleasantness, innocence and clarity. She was a beautiful crystal ball that suddenly shattered without anyone knowing it was cracked.
Since Haza’s last three years have been so repeatedly documented that they have come to overshadow the other periods of her life, it’s worthwhile, 20 years after her death, to focus on three other years, those in which she reached her peak as a singer (and also discovered herself as an artist). This happened between 1984 and 1987.
FULL STORY Looking back at Ofra Haza's transformation, 20 years after the death of Israel's iconic singer (Haaretz)
Photo: Ofra Haza, dressed in a traditional Yemenite outfit, on the cover of her album Yemenite Songs (Hed Artzi)
