Erez Halevi

Erez Halevi (Hebrew: ארז הלוי) was an Israeli singer, songwriter and guitarist whose 1984 debut album HaLaila (The Night) is remembered as one of the most beautiful first records in Israeli pop. Its songs, among them "HaDayagim" (The Fishermen), "Kach Bara Otcha HaTeva" (That Is How Nature Made You), "HaLaila" and "Tipa Shel Chom" (A Drop of Warmth), became radio hits and have stayed in the Israeli songbook for four decades. His death at the age of 71 was announced on 17 October 2026.

He was born on 20 December 1954 in the Shaarayim neighbourhood of Rehovot to parents who had immigrated to Israel from Yemen. He began playing guitar at 15, first strumming Beatles songs with friends, and later fell in love with the Spanish guitar, studying flamenco and classical music in his home town. At 19 he appeared on the Kol Yisrael radio talent programme Tsu'ot Rishonot, broadcast from Beit HaMoreh in Tel Aviv, and won a scholarship from the composer Moshe Wilensky for his guitar playing. A few years later he moved to Tel Aviv and began writing his own material while playing in pubs, where he mostly performed songs by Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Tim Hardin before gradually adding his own compositions. For years no record company would sign him.

His break came in 1982, when Matti Caspi, a musician Halevi admired, saw him perform at the Tel Aviv club Shamayim during a young talent evening that also featured Meir Banai. Caspi helped him reach a deal with CBS Records, although the label agreed only to distribute the album and Halevi paid for the recordings himself. Caspi produced, arranged and played almost every instrument on HaLaila, and the guitarist Gary Eckstein added solos to three tracks. Halevi wrote all of the words and music. The songs reached the radio charts in 1983 and the album, released in 1984, blended soft rock, folk and Eastern influences with Halevi's distinctive high voice and Yemenite Hebrew pronunciation.

"Kach Bara Otcha HaTeva" grew into much more than a hit. Halevi said in a 2008 interview with the theatre and culture site Habama that he wrote it in response to people who could not understand why a singer of Yemenite origin chose Western music rather than Eastern music. Over the years it became an anthem of self acceptance and of the freedom to be who you are. It was embraced by the LGBT community in Israel, recorded in a new version by Ivri Lider, included in a film by Tomer Heymann and in the soundtrack of the television series Paper Dolls, and featured in the 2023 Channel 13 documentary series Kru'im by Ron Cahlili about Mizrahi identity.

Despite the album's success, Halevi rarely performed and largely disappeared from the media. He married his publicist, Nili Salomon, raised three children, opened a plant nursery and later an art gallery. In the early 1990s he returned to the stage with a band called Lechem (Bread), performing new songs. His second album, Matzav Beinayim (In-Between State), came out on Hed Arzi in 1994, co-produced with Miki Lederman. It had a deeper voice and darker material but did not match the success of his debut, and Halevi later said he was unhappy with the production. In 1998 he released a four-song promotional vinyl, Eretz Atikat Yomin (Ancient Land), from a third album that was shelved. After the death of Ofra Haza in 2000 he released a cover of her "Love Song" dedicated to her memory, and in 2003 he issued a remix of "Kach Bara Otcha HaTeva".

He returned in 2008 with the album HaSha'ar Niftach (The Gate Opened), followed in 2009 by the stage show Yom Rodef Blues and a live double album of the same name. In 2010 he sang "HaYam Osef Dma'ot" on Ilai Botner's album. In August 2012 the tribute album Michtavim BeBakbuk (Letters in a Bottle) gathered leading Israeli artists, among them Ehud Banai, Ariel Horowitz, Ariel Zilber, Dudi Levi, Kobi Oz and Kfir Ben Laish, to record his songs. Speaking about his career over the years, he acknowledged that a self destructive streak had kept him from realising his full potential.

Halevi was found dead at his home in Rehovot. A family friend, Yaakov Waxman, told Haaretz that he had been living alone and was in poor health, and that he had probably died in his bed some days before he was found. Israeli outlets gave differing accounts of the day of death, so only the month is recorded here. The cause of death was not made public. His sister-in-law announced his death on Facebook, writing that Erez was a special and sensitive person who knew how to touch the deepest strings of the heart through his works. He was survived by his three children.