Israeli singers & songwriters
Every song on Shir-ly comes with the person who made it: what they changed in Israeli music, where they came from, and which of their lines are worth learning by heart.
Naomi Shemer
נעמי שמר
Songwriter & composer · 1930 – 2004
Naomi Shemer, born on Kvutzat Kinneret, is remembered as the "First Lady of Israeli Song". She wrote both words and music — rare at the time — and gave the young country a vocabulary for longing, land and everyday life.
1 song with translation
Eyal Golan
אייל גולן
Singer · b. 1971
Eyal Golan, born in Rehovot to a Yemenite-Moroccan family, is one of the biggest voices of Israeli Mediterranean music (מוזיקה מזרחית) — the style that grew from neighbourhood weddings and cassette stalls into the mainstream sound of Israeli radio.
2 songs with translation
Naftali Herz Imber
נפתלי הרץ אימבר
Poet · 1856–1909
Naftali Herz Imber was born in Zolochiv, Galicia (today Ukraine), into a traditional Jewish family. A restless, bohemian poet, he wandered between Europe, Ottoman Palestine, London and finally New York.
1 song with translation
Sasson Shaulov
ששון שאולוב
Singer & songwriter · b. 1990s
Sasson Shaulov grew up in Israel's Mizrahi music scene and became one of the leading voices of the 'emuna song' — Hebrew pop built around faith, gratitude and everyday struggle.
1 song with translation
Eden Ben Zaken
עדן בן זקן
Singer, Songwriter · 2013-Present
Eden Ben Zaken is an Israeli singer who rose to fame as the runner-up in the first season of X Factor Israel.
1 song with translation
Ben Zion Chaim Tzur
בן ציון חיים צור
Singer & songwriter · Active 2020s
Ben Zion Chaim Tzur belongs to the new wave of Israeli 'emuna pop' — young artists who write about faith, therapy, money worries and family in the same breath, in the Hebrew people actually speak.
1 song with translation
Haim Gouri
חיים גורי
Poet · 1923–2018
Haim Gouri was born in Tel Aviv in 1923 to pioneer parents and grew up in the youth-movement world that shaped Israel's founding generation.
1 song with translation
Idan Raichel
עידן רייכל
Singer, composer & producer · b. 1977
Idan Raichel was born in Kfar Saba in 1977 and studied accordion and piano as a child before playing keyboards in an Israeli rock band.
1 song with translation
Omer Adam
עומר אדם
Singer & pop star · b. 1993
Omer Adam was born in Milwaukee in 1993 and moved to Israel as a child, growing up in Kiryat Ono.
1 song with translation
Sarit Hadad
שרית חדד
Singer — 'the Queen of Mizrahi music' · b. 1978
Sarit Hadad (born Sara Chudadatov in 1978 in Afula, to a family from the Caucasus) is one of the best-selling and most beloved singers in Israel.
1 song with translation
Eden Hason
עדן חסון
Singer-songwriter & producer · b. 1994
Eden Hason (born August 25, 1994) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and record producer from Pardes Hanna-Karkur.
1 song with translation
Gali Atari
גלי עטרי
Singer & actress — Eurovision winner · b. 1953
Gali Atari (born 1953 in Rehovot, to a Yemenite-Jewish family) is one of the defining voices of Israeli pop.
1 song with translation
Matti Caspi
מתי כספי
Singer-songwriter, composer & pianist · 1949–2026
Matti Caspi (born 1949 in Kibbutz Hanita) is one of the most influential singer-songwriters in Israeli music.
1 song with translation
Chava Alberstein
חווה אלברשטיין
Singer — the voice of 'Lu Yehi' and of Israeli folk · b. 1946
Chava Alberstein was born in Szczecin, Poland, in 1946 and immigrated to Israel with her family as a small child, growing up in Kiryat Haim. She is one of the most important and prolific singers in Israeli history, with dozens of albums spanning more than five decades.
1 song with translation
Gidi Gov
גידי גוב
Singer & entertainer — one of Israel's most beloved voices · b. 1950
Gidi Gov, born in Rehovot in 1950, first became famous in the 1970s as the lead singer of the legendary rock band Kaveret — Israel's own 'Beatles moment' — and as a star of the iconic comedy group and TV shows that shaped Israeli humor.
1 song with translation
Yasmin Moallem
יסמין מועלם
Singer-songwriter, rapper & producer · b. 1995
Yasmin Moallem (יסמין מועלם) was born in Jerusalem in 1995 and studied at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.
1 song with translation
Idan Amedi
עידן עמדי
Singer-songwriter & actor · b. 1988
Idan Amedi was born in 1988 in Kfar Yona to a family of Kurdish-Jewish descent, and grew up writing songs on an acoustic guitar.
1 song with translation
Arik Einstein
אריק איינשטיין
Singer, songwriter & actor — 'the voice of Israel' · 1939–2013
Arik Einstein was born in Tel Aviv in 1939 to actor Yaakov Einstein, and started out as a stage and comedy performer before becoming the central figure of Israeli rock.
1 song with translation
Shlomo Artzi
שלמה ארצי
Singer-songwriter — Israel's most prolific solo star · 1949–
Shlomo Artzi was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the son of a career army officer, and began singing in the army entertainment troupe during his conscription — the classic launchpad for Israeli performers of his generation.
1 song with translation
Yehoram Gaon
יהורם גאון
Singer, actor & cultural icon — 'the voice of Jerusalem' · b. 1939
Yehoram Gaon was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to a Sephardic family whose roots in the city go back generations. He served in the Nahal Brigade entertainment troupe and became one of Israel's most beloved performers.
1 song with translation
Dudu Barak
דודו ברק
Lyricist of Israel's army-band era · b. 1944
Dudu Barak is one of the central lyricists of Israeli song. He wrote 'Prachim BaKane' in the years after the Six-Day War, when the country was full of both victory and grief, and put into it the hope that the last battle had already been fought.
1 song with translation
Dudi Levi
דודי לוי
Singer-songwriter and guitarist · active 1990s–present
Dudi Levi is an Israeli singer, songwriter and guitarist. He composed the music for 'Dod' (דוד), setting the surreal love-lyrics of Meir Goldberg, and performs it himself; the arrangement is by Moshe Levi.
1 song with translation
Lola
לולה
Israeli band (comedy and pop) · 1997–2000
Lola (לולה) was an Israeli band active from 1997 to 2000, made up of four performers who came up through the entertainment show 'Paltfeus': Idan Alterman, Yarden Bar-Kochba, Yasmin Kedar and Avi Greinik.
1 song with translation
Yehuda Poliker
יהודה פוליקר
Singer, composer & guitarist · b. 1950
Yehuda Poliker was born in Tel Aviv in 1950 to Greek-Jewish parents from Salonika (Thessaloniki), both of whom survived the Holocaust. His father, Zako, was a bouzouki player, and the sounds of Greek and Ladino music filled Poliker's childhood home.
1 song with translation
Roei Adam
רואי אדם
Singer-songwriter · active 2020s–present
Roei Adam is a young Israeli singer-songwriter who broke through in the mid-2020s with sleek, beat-driven Mediterranean pop. 'Avi Hatachol' (2026) is one of his first viral singles.
1 song with translation
Odia
אודיה
Singer-songwriter · active 2020s–present
Odia (Odia Azoulai, b. 2000) is one of Israel's most streamed pop singers of the 2020s. She rose from online covers to stadium-level fame, known for blending Mediterranean pop with sharp, slang-heavy Hebrew lyrics.
1 song with translation
Ofra Haza
עפרה חזה
Singer · 1957–2000
Ofra Haza (1957–2000) was born in Hatikva Quarter, Tel Aviv, the youngest of nine children in a Yemenite-Jewish family. She began in Bezalel Aloni's neighborhood theater troupe and became, within a decade, the biggest star Israeli music had ever exported.
1 song with translation
Why the artist matters when you learn Hebrew
Israeli songs are documents of the country's history. Naomi Shemer wrote “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” weeks before the Six-Day War; Matti Caspi and Leonard Cohen sang for soldiers in the 1973 Yom Kippur War; Gali Atari won Eurovision in 1979 with “Hallelujah”; Idan Raichel brought Ethiopian-Israeli voices into the mainstream. When you know who is singing and why, the Hebrew words stop being vocabulary lists and start being a story you remember.
Every artist page here includes a biography, their cultural contribution, a short Israeli-culture quiz about them, and their songs with Hebrew lyrics, nikud, transliteration and a line-by-line English translation.