Havazelet Ron

Yemeni-Israeli singer. Havazelet Ron (born Havazelet Damari in Aden, Yemen, in 1936) immigrated to Israel when she was 8 years old and grew up in the Ezra neighborhood in Tel Aviv. After she began singing, She changed her surname from Damari to Ron, because the singer Shoshana Damari was already becoming popular in Israel. In March 1960, her only Israeli album was released, "The Music of the Desert," which was produced by the "Makolit" label and featured Yemenite folk songs. The album was ahead of its time in that it introduced an innovative sound, comprised of drums, electric guitar, and organ, making it one of the first albums in Israel to record this type of composition. However, it confused the Israeli audience of the time: The vocals were in Yemeni-Arabic, preventing it from being played on the radio, which mainly played Hebrew music; moreover, it was too innovative and far from traditional music for the Yemenite scene. The album fell between the cracks and her big breakthrough to mainstream did not happen. Following the album's failure, Havazelet left Israel in 1963 and went to Germany, where she performed in festivals, TV shows, and recorded several more albums. All of this was made possible by her talent for singing in five languages (Hebrew, Yemeni-Arabic, German, English, and Yiddish). The European audience enjoyed the original music she produced and her Yemenite-style cover versions of Hebrew songs. In 1968, Havazelet married and then retired from music in 1969. In 1980, she returned to Israel but she left again four years later, for Los Angeles, where she worked as a kindergarten teacher. In 2013, she passed away in Los Angeles after a long battle with cancer.