Kobi Oshrat ( he, קובי אשרת; born July 15, 1944) is an Israeli
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
and
conductor. He composed and conducted the winning entry at the
1979 Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest 1979 was the 24th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Jerusalem, Israel, following the country's victory at the with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. Organised by th ...
''
Hallelujah
''Hallelujah'' ( ; he, ''haləlū-Yāh'', meaning "praise Yah") is an interjection used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four tim ...
'' sung by the vocal ensemble Milk and Honey.
Biography
Yaakov (Kobi) Ventura (later Kobi Oshrat) was born in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
to parents who had immigrated from
Salonika
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
. After an early career on the Israeli stage, in 1969 he began composing and arranging music for radio, TV, film and advertisements. Oshrat achieved international fame when his composition, ''Hallelujah,'' sung by the Israeli group
Milk and Honey, won the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest. Oshrat has written more than 1000 songs, but ''Hallelujah'' is his most famous, with 400 cover versions of it around the world.
Honouring a resistance hero, Australian Jewish News
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Oshrat also composed and conducted the 1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
and 1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
Israeli entries. He conducted the 1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
and 1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
Israeli entries but did not write the music for them.
See also
*Music of Israel
The music of Israel is a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish music traditions that have come together over the course of a century to create a distinctive musical culture. For almost 150 years, musicians have sought original stylistic elements ...
References
External links
* http://www.hebrewsongs.com/artist.asp?name=kobioshrat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oshrat, Kobi
1944 births
Living people
Israeli composers
Eurovision Song Contest winners
People from Haifa
Eurovision Song Contest conductors
21st-century conductors (music)
Israeli people of Greek-Jewish descent