YEHUDIT RAVITZ

YEHUDIT RAVITZ

Israeli singer-songwriter, composer and music producer.

She is one of the most successful and famous Israeli rock musicians, with a career spanning over thirty years, and has made a large contribution to the culture of Israel and to the careers of young as well as veteran artists, including poets, songwriters, composers, producers, musicians and singers. Ravitz is among the few female musicians who broke the cultural barrier of “discriminating” rock in Israel, although she said that she doesn’t believe in the phrase “Feminine Rock”, and that over the years she never felt gender discrimination. Ravitz spans on a number of musical styles, including jazz, rock, samba and classical music, while fitting Israeli tunes into the spirit of the period.”

Ravitz was born and raised in Beer Sheva and after high school joined an IDF military band. During her military service, she marked the beginning of the way Israeli music developed by participating in a radio talent show with Nurit Galron,. Following the broadcast Arik Einstein invited her and Korin Allal to sing on his successful album “Good Old Israel Part II.”

In 1977 Ravitz joined the band “Sheshet,” and contributed one of the first songs she composed, “Samba with a Left Foot.” Later that year she gained massive exposure by performing at the National Song Festival contest with the song “Slichot” (‘Forgivenesses’), which eventually become the most popular song of the year (even though it reached only number 7 in the contest). Ravitz’s first album was also released  that year, in a co-=production with Yoni Rechter, where the two presented some of their work together. Ravitz’s first solo album wasn’t released until 1979, and by then she already had an impressive repertoire of hits, including “Hayalda Hachi Yafa Bagan” (‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the Kindergarten’)

The 1980s was the decade during which Ravitz established her career as one of Israel’s leading ladies of rock/pop, and she did this mostly by releasing songs that she had written, and which became massive hits, including ‘Mila Tova’ (‘A Kind Word,’ 1982), ‘Derech Ha’Meshi’ (‘Silk Road,’ 1984), ‘Ba’ah Me’Ahava’ (‘Comes from Love,’ 1987) and many many others. Her album “Comes from Love” (1987)is considered one of the bestselling albums in Israel’s history. Ravitz composed most of the songs on the album, which were rocker style. To name just a few of them: “Rahavat Harikudim” (‘Dancefloor’), “Sof Lasipur” (‘End of Story’) and “Shabatot Vehagim” (‘Weekends and Holidays’). This album helped establish the status of Ravitz as a stand out rock singer and composer.

In 1990 Ravitz recorded the album  “Shem”, which was commercially unsuccessful, but much appreciated by critics, especially because of the title track,  which contains a sharp political statement on the relations between Jews and Arabs. It’s called “We were Both There.”  Ravitz again had success with the album “And it’s Not So Easy to Wait” in 1993, where she composed songs of Israel’s greatest poets, such as Dahlia Ravikovitch (“Picture”), Yehuda Amichai (“With Our Love”) and Leah Goldberg (“Gardeners of Today are Sad”, “I’m from There” and “Tomorrow”).

During the first decade of the new century, Yehudit Ravitz began to go more towards working with younger artists and releasing more intimate material. Following the adoption of her daughter in 2004 she released an album of her favorite children’s songs, and a few years later she recorded (with her brother Yaakov) an album called “Songs From Home.”

Ravitz’s sexuality had always been questioned by the Israeli audience, and some of her songs even contributed to that. ‘Comes from Love’ is basically a love song to a woman, and even in ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the Kindergarten’ she describes innocently being a fan of another girl. Only in December of 2009 Ravitz spoke publically about her life and her relationship with Naomi Kaniuk, daughter of author Yoram Kaniuk, on the main page of the newspaper Yediot Aharonot. The article follows a new TV movie about her life in the docu-series “Cultural Heroes.” The couple are currently living together, raising Ravitz’s daughter and the son of Kaniuk.