Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza, was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actress, and Grammy Award-nominated recording artist commonly known in the Western world as “The Israeli Madonna, or “Madonna of the East”. Her voice has been described as a “tender” mezzo-soprano.

Haza’s music is known as a mixture of traditional Middle Eastern and commercial singing styles, fusing elements of Eastern and Western instrumentation, orchestration, and dance beat, as well as lyrics from Mizrahi and Jewish folk tales and poetry. By the late 1980s, Haza was an internationally successful artist, achieving large success in Europe and the Americas and appearing regularly on MTV.

Is Ofra Haza still alive?

Ofra Haza died on 23 February 2000, at the age of 42, of AIDS. While the fact that she was HIV-positive is now generally known, the decision by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz to report it shortly after her death was controversial in Israel.

After Haza’s death was announced, Israeli radio stations played non-stop retrospectives of her music. Then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak praised her work as a cultural emissary, commenting that she also represented the Israeli success story, “Ofra emerged from the Hatikvah slums to reach the peak of Israeli culture. She has left a mark on us all.