Boaz Ma'uda (; born April 23, 1987) is an Israeli singer and songwriter. He won the fifth season of ''

Kokhav Nolad ''Kokhav Nolad'' (; meaning "A Star Is Born") was an Israeli reality television show searching for talented new vocalists, based on the British ''Pop Idol'' model. Since its debut on Israeli Channel 2 in 2003, Kokhav Nolad has become popular and ...

'', the Israeli version of ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and pa ...

'', and represented

Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 Israel was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "The Fire in Your Eyes", written by Dana International and Shay Kerem, and performed by Boaz Ma'uda. The Israeli participating broadcaster, the Israel Broadcasting Author ...

, finishing in 9th place. His voice has been described as somewhere between

David D'Or David D'Or (; born David Nehaisi on October 2, 1965) is an Israeli singer, composer, and songwriter. A countertenor with a vocal range of more than four octaves, he is a three-time winner of the Israeli "Singer of the Year" and "Best Vocal Perf ...

and

Dana International Sharon Cohen (; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International (), is an Israeli Pop music, pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest ...

Early life

Boaz was born and raised in

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

Elyakim Eliakim () is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Menashe Heights, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megiddo Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village was established in 1949 as a moshav by Jewish refugees from ...

, where he still lives. He is the youngest son of his mother, who became disabled from complications of his birth. He is of

Yemenite Jewish Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ; ), are a Jewish diaspora group who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of persecution, the vast majority of Yemenite J ...

descent.

Career

''Kochav Nolad''

Without any history in the music industry, and unknown to Boaz, he was signed up by a friend for the auditions of the fifth season of Kochav Nolad. During the show, Boaz sang many

Mizrahi ''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' () has two meanings. In the literal Hebrew meaning ''eastern'', it may refer to: * Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East and North Africa * Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberia ...

and acoustic songs. His voice was loved by the audience and judges. At the finals on August 29, 2007, Boaz competed against Marina Maximillian Blumin and

Shlomi Bar'el ''Kokhav Nolad'' (; meaning "A Star Is Born") was an Israeli reality television show searching for talented new vocalists, based on the British ''Pop Idol'' model. Since its debut on Israeli Channel 2 (Israel), Channel 2 in 2003, Kokhav Nolad has ...

. On that evening, he performed two songs: "Señorita" with veteran Israeli singer

David Broza David Simon Berwick Broza (; born September 4, 1955) is an Israeli singer-songwriter. His music mixes modern pop with Spanish music. Biography David Broza was born in Haifa, Israel. His father was an Israeli–British businessman of German-Dutch ...

, and then

Avner Gadassi In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner". Biblical narrative Abner is initially men ...

's ''"Menagen veshar"'' ("Playing and Singing"). He won ''Kochav Nolad'' 2007 with 50% of the votes. In addition, he won a contract with the label

Hed Artzi Hed Arzi Music (, meaning: ''Echo of My Country'') is an Israeli record label founded in 1946. History The company was founded in Tel Aviv in 1946 as a partnership of Zvi Levin (also known as Hirsch Lewin) with Josef Grossman, Alexander Borowi ...

''Kohav Nolad'' performances

Eurovision Song Contest

On November 14, the

Israel Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017, succeeded by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station '' Kol Yi ...

and Israel's Channel 2 announced that Boaz Ma'uda was chosen to represent his country at the ''

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcasting Unio ...

'' in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, Serbia. The pre-selection occurred in February 2008 in which Ma'uda sang five songs, and the audience, together with a jury of Israeli experts, voted for the winning song which was Ke'ilu Kan – a song written by Israel's Eurovision winner

. Ma'uda participated in the first semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on May 20, 2008. He ended 5th in the semi-finals and was awarded a spot in the final on May 24, 2008 where he ended 9th with 124 points. In 2009 he participated in the series Johnny Hollywood playing the famous singer Izhar Cohen, and in August the same year he began his tour of Israel.

Discography

* (August 3, 2008) – Ma'uda released his first single, ''"Oreakh baolam"'' guest in the worldfor what would be his debut album, titled "Boaz Ma'uda," as the singer; this song is written by composer

Keren Peles Keren Peles Toor (; born 11 March 1979) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and musician. Peles embarked her musical career in Israel in 2005 as a songwriter and later with her debut album ''If This Is Life (album), Im Ele Ha'Hayim'' (2006), and has ...

. * (March 2009) – he released his second single, also by Peles, "Lakhzor Ha-baita"'' ("Return home"). He published the song " Time to Pray" with singer

Sirusho Siranush Hrachyayi Harutyunyan (; born 7 January 1987), known professionally as Sirusho (), is an Armenian singer and songwriter. She received her first award when she was nine years old for her song "Lusabats". Sirusho's first studio album, ''Si ...

(Armenian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, which ranked fourth) and the singer Jelena Tomasevic (Serbia representative in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

which was in sixth place). * (July 7, 2009) – his first studio album, titled "Boaz Ma'uda". This album contains 11 songs, with five titles not previously released: ''"Mah Yafu"'', "Better Days," ''"She-tishaer",'' and ''"Ausencia"'' (Spanish: "absence"). The song ''"Sha'ar libech"'' ("The gate to your (f.) heart") is a cover of fellow Eurovision 2008 singer Olta Boka's Albanian entry

Zemrën e lamë peng "Zemrën e lamë peng" (; ) is a song by Albanian singer Olta Boka, written by Pandi Laço and composed by Adrian Hila. It was released as a CD single in 2008 through Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH). Musically, it is an Albanian-language balla ...

. * (2011) – he released one single called ''"Yeled hasade"'' ("Child of the field") a cover of a famous Israeli song. This cover was recorded to a daily drama series called "Alifim", based on a famous Israeli book. In April the same year he released a new song "Shniya Ve'od Ahat" from his second album which he is currently working.

Personal life

Ma'uda still lives with his family in

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma'uda, Boaz 1987 births 21st-century Israeli male singers Israeli Orthodox Jews Israeli people of Yemeni-Jewish descent Jewish Israeli musicians Kokhav Nolad winners Living people People from Northern District (Israel) Yemenite Orthodox Jews Eurovision Song Contest entrants