Yehoram Gaon

Born In :	Jerusalem, Israel
Web Site :	www.yehoramgaon.co.il/

Yehoram Gaon (born December 28, 1939) is a singer, television presenter, radio and Israeli actor. Winner of the Israel Prize (2004) for the Hebrew singer. He is one of the most prominent Israeli singers.

Gaon was born, raised and educated in the Beit Hakerem neighborhood of Jerusalem, where he studied at Beit Hakerem High School (later known as the Lidah High School), and the poet and journalist of the Ladino, Moshe David Gaon, who was born in Bosnia in 1889. After a while he was sent to teach Hebrew in the Jewish community of Izmir, Turkey, where he met Sarah, Yehoram’s mother.

Yehoram Gaon has three brothers: Yigal, Klila Armon and businessman Benny Gaon.

He was a genius in the Nahal group, which he received in 1957. Gaon was not initially perceived as a singer, so much so that during the recording of the song “Wind of Autumn” Uri Zohar, the band’s commander, recommended that he recite the two lines given to him instead Which will sing them, because “a singer will no longer be an actor.” [1] Gaon participated in the program “Usually” in 1959, directed by Naomi Polani, who recognized his talent as a singer.

After his release, Gaon was among the veterans of the Nahal group who asked Naomi Polani to continue working with her, thus creating the “The Roosters” band, where he began to sing for the first time, even though she was not a dominant singer, alongside the rising stars of the time. Among the songs that featured prominently in his first program from 1961 were “A Love Song for the Sea” and “An Evening in Massha.” At the same time he began playing at the Cameri Theater, and in the play “The Root of All Badness” at the Hamam Club, Sang the “Women’s Song.” Later, together with his friend, Arik Einstein, and with Benny Amdursky, he founded the “Yarkon Trio” trio. Many of the band’s songs were big hits in Hebrew songs, including “Night at Achziv Beach”, “Serenade Lech”, “You” and “What a Beautiful Day”. The trio recorded the album “First Love” together. Gaon retired a year after the trio was established, in order to concentrate on a solo career.

In 1965, Gaon published his first solo album, “The Whole City Rocks About Us.” The album was composed entirely of songs written by Yossi Gamzu, including the hit “Where are the girls,” written by folk melody, three songs from the album, “Lil Aviv”, “Tell Me” and “Maybe Stop Already”. Also included in the album is a Hebrew version of the Beatles’ song “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, which in Gamzu’s version is called “It Sticks”. A year later, Gaon released a mini-album called “One Summer of Fitness,” with four songs written by Gamzu and composed by Sasha Argov.

In 1966, Gaon traveled to the United States to study acting. He returned to Israel after Yoel Zilberg, who was about to direct the musical “Kazablan,” recalled the talented singer, and turned to him to come to Israel for auditions. The play, written by Yigal Mossinsohn, against the background of “The Great Area” in Jaffa, works for a musical, was produced by Giora Godik in 1966 and won great success, making Gaon one of the leading singers in Israel. Two songs from it, “Kol HaKavod” and “Ish Makom” are identified with him to this day.

Since the mid-1960s, Gaon has become a big star in the Israeli entertainment and singer world. In 1969, he won the first two places, with the songs “Ballad for the Physician” (Dan Almagor / Effie Netzer) and “The Oak Tree” (Yoram Taharlev / Moni Amarilio). Gaon sang another song in the festival, “A Clear Night,” composed by Moshe Wilensky to the words of Shimrit Or. The song was included in Gaon’s album “The Songs of Moshe Wilensky”, which was released that year and dedicated entirely to Wilensky’s poems. The album included hits like “Mother Mother,” “I Have a Dream,” “A Night of Rashes,” “Shalkat Balev,” and “When We Were Children.”

In the same year, Gaon published an album called “Romances in Ladino”, with songs that he sang in Ladino, as well as an album called “Shabbat Songs”. Another album that was released that year was “Where Are You My Love”, which also included many hits, such as “Ayea Ahuvah” (“Ayea Ahuva”) by the Argentine singer Leonardo da Vinci, the Allenby Bridge, which he recorded for the film “The War After the War”, “I’ll Remember the Way” and “The Spirit of Folly.”

In 1971, Gaon produced a single program, which was recorded on his album of that year, “In a Single Program”. Among the songs of the show was the hit “Rosa,” written by Haim Hefer and composed by Dubi Zeltzer. Other well known songs from the show were “El Tashta B’Avah”, “Rachel” and “I Remember”, written for the film “Lupu”. It also included Gaon’s version of the songs of Ehud Manor and Nurit Hirsh, “Maybe on the Beach,” which originally sang the band “The Chocolate”.

That same year Gaon created the film “I’m Yerushalmi” about his Jerusalem family and the city of Jerusalem, where he sang a number of songs. The songs of the film were recorded on the album “I am Yerushalmi” that was released that year. They included many hits, such as “I Am Here,” “I Make Me Melodies,” “Minister Montefiore,” and “Above Mount Scopus.”

In 1972 he released the album “Yours for a Light Hour” and in 1973 the album “Ahava Mediterranean”, in which the song “Kumi Tsai” was composed by Naomi Shemer according to the words of Haim Nachman Bialik.

In 1975, Gaon released the album “You Sing”. Among his familiar songs were “We Will not Stop Singing” and “Beit Avi”, both of Haim Hefer and Dovi Zeltzer. That same year, an album was released by Gaon, who recorded his performance at the Mann Auditorium. This album included Gaon’s song “The Last War”. Also included are the versions of Gaon’s poems “Song of Labor and Crafts”, “Golani Shelley” and “Night Night”.
Yehoram Gaon in the 1976 film “Joker”

In 1976, Gaon published an album entitled “Kessem Moledet”, in which he presents new versions of the songs composed by Mordechai Zeira, as “an ancient melody” and “what your eyes say”.

In 1977 he released the album “I did not like enough”. The album’s theme song, written and composed by Naomi Shemer, was a big hit and became a famous dance. Another song released from the album is “Shalom to you, a wonderful country”. That same year Gaon released another album, “Rising Sun”.

In 1979, Gaon produced a solo program composed of songs by Haim Hefer and Dovi Zeltzer. The program was not very successful, but the song “Keep me on the melody” was published. The program’s songs were recorded on the album “79”.

In 1981 he released the album “Marks Derech”. Among his well-known songs were Naomi Shemer’s “Road Signs” and “All These” by Nurit Hirsh for the songs of “Hanitzini under the Kneef” by Haim Nachman Bialik and Ilan Goldhirsh’s “Laila Tov L’Ahava”, and Gaon’s version of Yosef Sarig’s poem “Or and Jerusalem”. In 1983, Gaon published a song on his album “Youch Without You”, written by Natan Alterman and composed by Nurit Hirsh. The song was very successful.

In 1984, his album “Midway” was released, with the hit “In the Orchard by the Trough” written by Yoram Taharlev and composed by Nurit Hirsh. The song was a great success, and ranked second in the annual Hebrew song charts for 1984. Other well known songs in the album were “Do not Win Me”, written and composed by Naomi Shemer and “Let’s Return to the Tango” by Taharlev and composed by Shaike Paikov.

In 1986 the album “A Thousand Kisses” was released. The album’s theme song, written by Mirit Shem-Or and composed by Zvika Pik, was a big hit. In addition to the album, the songs “Free Woman,” “Like a Hatzav,” “Yes Yes,” “And Maybe the Silence” and “My Mother’s Portrait” were also produced.
Yehoram Gaon on a joint tour with Yardena Arazi held under the auspices of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers. In the 40th year of the state 1988
President Reuven Rivlin hosts Yehoram Gaon in his office on his 75th birthday

In 1988 Gaon recorded in a duet with Yardena Arazi the song “Another Man”. The song is included in Arazi’s album “One More Day”. In 1989, his album “Full Moon,” produced by Matti Caspi, was released. Among his songs was his duet with Boaz Sharabi “What the Spirit Will Bring”. That same year Gaon returned to play the musical “Kazablan” in which he played the mythological role with which he was identified most. He produced the musical himself with the help of the production company he founded “Five Five Productions”. Although the musical won the box office success, but the production got into heavy debts and fell after a while from the stage. Gaon suffered heavy debts, which he managed to repay only a few years later.

In the 1990s, Gaon released a number of other albums, which were not very successful. Among them were “Neshamah”, which was released in 1992, a performance album in 1993 and an album bearing his name in 1996. In 1997 Gaon planned to produce a collection album that would include his familiar songs. Because he found it difficult to obtain copyright on the original recordings and to save money, he re-recorded and re-processed the songs and marketed them as a collection of five CDs.

In 2007 he played himself in the musical “As in the Movie”, as a singer and mentor who comes to a development town in order to locate a young talent. At the end of 2008, he performed a musical and entertainment show called “Kol Hakavod”, in which he summed up dozens of years of activity on the stage and combined old and new songs with amusing monologues which he wrote especially for the show. The show was a great success, and was nominated for the show of entertainment of the year.

In 2013, Gaon returned to record new songs. That same year, his album “As Born” was published, all of whose poems were written and composed by Amir Benayoun. The songs were arranged by Lior Shoshan and Udi Turgeman. His poems include “Give Me Power,” “At the End of the Day” and “Not Me and You,” which Gaon sang in a duet with Benayoun.

In July 2014, Gaon recorded a new version of “Eretz Zvi”, a new home written by Thelma Eiligon in memory of Roi Klein, a Golani officer who was killed in the Second Lebanon War when he jumped on a hand grenade to save his soldiers. On September 21, 2014, Gaon recorded the song “Shlomi,” written by Zelda, which Nurit Hirsh arranged for the memory of Major Benya Sarel, commander of the Givati ​​platoon who was killed in Operation Tzuk Eitan.