Israeli singer (born 1981)
Harel Skaat (; born 8 August 1981) sometimes known by the mononym Harel is an Israeli singer and songwriter. He represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Milim" ("מילים", "Words").
Skaat has been singing and performing in public since he was a child. At the age of six, he won a children's song festival competition. While still in elementary school he appeared on national television and as a teenager, he was the lead singer for both his city's and high school's bands. During his mandatory duty with the Israeli Defense Forces, he sang in the Communication Corps Band. Skaat's professional breakthrough came when he was a contestant on the second season of "Kochav Nolad" ("כוכב נולד", "A Star is Born"), a reality competition television show similar in format to "American Idol", and finished in second place. After the show ended, he signed a recording contract with Hed Arzi, one of the largest music companies in Israel.
His debut album, the self-titled "Harel Skaat", was released in July 2006. It produced five hit singles, including the romantic ballad, "Ve'at" ("ואת", "And You"), which was the number one song of the year on both of the major Israeli year-end Hebrew song charts. The album has been certified platinum in Israel. He followed up the album with a concert tour, which surpassed 200 concert shows, a milestone in Israeli music.
In early 2008, Skaat and Hed Arzi became embroiled in a year-long legal dispute. Shortly after the dispute was resolved, he entered into a new agreement with Aroma Music and Partner Communications and recorded his second album entitled "Dmuyot" ("דמויות", "Figures"). The album was released in September 2009 and has been certified gold in Israel.
Generally classified in the media as a pop singer, Skaat has been influenced by a wide variety of music, and his albums have featured an eclectic mix of songs, from rock to romantic ballads. His singing and performing talents have been widely praised by critics and Israeli music industry professionals, but his albums have received only mixed reviews. All of the songs on his official albums and EP have been sung in Hebrew, but Skaat has occasionally sung in English and French in live concerts. In December 2009, the Israel Broadcasting Authority selected Skaat internally to be Israel's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The contest was held in Oslo, Norway, in late May 2010 and Israel placed 14th out of 39 entries.
Early life and education.
Harel Skaat was born on 8 August 1981, in Kfar Saba, Israel, to a family of Yemenite-Jewish and Iraqi-Jewish descent. When he was six years old, he won a national children's festival competition entitled "A Star for the Evening – Singing Big" in his hometown and while still a child he appeared in an episode of a popular Israeli television show called "Parpar Nehmad" ("פרפר נחמד", "Nice Butterfly"). Throughout his youth, he continued to appear at festivals and television shows, and at the age of 15 he was the lead singer of both the Kfar Saba city band and his high school band. At 18, he sang with the Israel Defense Forces' Communications Corps. Band, where he met and became friends with singer-songwriter, Dor Daniel. He attended Beit Zvi, a college specializing in the performing arts, where he was awarded two of the university's most prestigious scholarships for his performances in school-produced musicals, including the outstanding achievement scholarship and the Sano Scholarship. While still in college, Skaat recorded and released a single, "Ein od Si'kui" ("אין עוד סיכוי", "No More Chance"); around the same time, he competed in a televised talent show called "Ha'melech Ha'ba" ("המלך הבא", "The Next King") along with Ninet Tayeb, (who later gained fame by winning the first season of "Kokhav Nolad"). Rafael Mirila won the competition, while Tayeb finished third and Skaat finished in sixth place.
Career.
"Kokhav Nolad".
In 2005, during his second year of studies at Beit Zvi, Skaat became a contestant on "Kokhav Nolad" after a friend signed him up without his knowledge.
He emerged as the favorite, consistently receiving praise from the show's judges for his performances, which included his rendition of "Betoch" ("בתוך", "Inside") and the Hebrew version of the French song "Je suis malade" known as "Bdidut", ("בדידות", "Loneliness"), which he sang in the semi-finals (Ricky Gal, one of the judges on the show, said of the latter performance that it left her "almost speechless"). On his way to the finals, Skaat received the highest votes of each stage he competed, including the semi-final round where he defeated his competitors, including eventual winner, Harel Moyal by a wide margin. The final show generated huge viewer interest in Israel. At the finals, Skaat sang the song "Hinenny Can" (, "Jerusalem, Here I Am") which was originally performed by Yehoram Gaon in the 1971 movie "Any Yerushalmy" (, "I Am a Jerusalemite"). This version of the song went on to top the Israeli Music Channel's chart for a record-setting 80 days. Moyal's surprise win "sparked heated debate in the general public in Israel" and spurred accusations of voter manipulation by some of Skaat's fans. The allegations, which were denied by the producers of the television program, arose in part from perceived problems inherent in the voting system, which allowed for block voting and from online betting taking place before the finals.
After "Kokhav Nolad".
Both Skaat and Moyal emerged from "Kokhav Nolad". A large part of Skaat's fan base has consisted of Israel's youth. He won the "Singer of the Year" from the Children's Channel three times from 2005 to 2007 and in 2007, 2008, and 2010 he was ranked number one out of Israel's Top 100 Stars by the youth magazine, "Maariv Lanoar". 
In the period between his appearance on "Kokhav Nolad" and the release of his first album in 2006, Skaat appeared dozens of times on Israeli television talk shows, and at televised special ceremonies and holiday events. In 2005, Skaat sang in front of an estimated 80,000 people at Rabin Square, Tel Aviv at the memorial rally for former prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin on the tenth anniversary of his assassination. He continues to be a popular singer at holiday events, performing for example, in five different cities on Israel's Yom Ha'atzmaut (יום העצמאות, Independence Day) 2010. He has also taken part in several Festigal children song festivals, which occur annually during the Hanukkah season. At the 2004 Festigal, Skaat competed in a song contest, playing the part of Peter Pan (a character which he told an interviewer that he identified with) and sang the song "Lauf" ("לעוף", "To Fly"). He again finished second to Moyal, who won the contest with the song "I Am Zorro" ("אני הוא זורו"); Ran Danker finished third.
In 2005, Skaat performed in a musical play, "He Who Dreamed" (English translation), based on the last 10 years of the life of Yitzhak Rabin. The cast also included Gila Almagor and Oded Teomi in the title role. In early 2006, Skaat was featured in a unique series of three-minute reality-based segments produced by Cellcom, which was made available for download to its customers, among the first content of this kind in Israel's history.
Debut album: "Harel Skaat".
Skaat released his debut album, "Harel Skaat" (הראל סקעת), in July 2006. Reviews of the album were mixed. A review in "The Jerusalem Post" criticized the lack of spontaneity of the album, and the inclusion of dance tracks which the critic claimed undercut the singer's talents, but praised Skaat's soothing vocals and his ability to move listeners. In a review of the album for Ynet, Roman Singer compared Skaat to a cultured rose without the thorns. Another review claimed that Skaat was "trapped" singing "romantic stories", but praised his warm singing of "Ve'at", and his singing talents which the writer claimed allows him to "express at higher levels".
"Harel Skaat" produced a string of "chart-leading hits", including "Kama Od Efshar" ("כמה עוד אפשר", "How Much More is Possible"), "Mashehu Mimeni" ("משהו ממני", "Something from Me"), "Kol Hatziporim" ("כל הציפורים", "All the Birds"), "Im Hu Yelech" ("אם הוא ילך", "If He Goes"), and the award-winning, romantic ballad, "Ve'at" ("ואת", "And You"), which stayed number one on the major Israeli music charts for seven weeks and finished as the number one song of the year on the Reshet Gimmel's and Galgalatz's year-end music charts for 2006, and also on the BBC Israeli regional radio annual poll for 2006 ("Mashehu Mimeni" and "Kama Od Efshar" finished fourth and tenth respectively on the same poll). Skaat was named "Male Singer of 2006" by both Reshet Gimmel and Galgalatz. He also won "Singer of the Year" and "Song of the Year" for "Ve'at" in the Music 24 Channel's Israel Music Awards (AMI). In addition, "Im Hu Yelech" was named the best music video of the year by the Israeli Music Channel.
Produced by veteran record producer, Izhar Ashdot, the album was certified gold less than one month after its release and eventually achieved platinum status. (Because of its small market size, the Israeli music industry certifies an album to be gold when it sells 20,000 copies.) The album's commercial success was not only important to Skaat's burgeoning career, but it also proved helpful in launching the careers of three young singer-songwriters, Keren Peles, Dor Daniel, and Kfir Epstein, who each wrote hit songs on the album, and went on to release successful debut albums of their own. Skaat co-wrote one song on the album, "Afilu Shesreifot" ("אפילו שהשריפות", "Even Though it's Burning").
Second album: "Dmuyot".
In early 2008, Hed Artzi sued Skaat for breach of contract, claiming that he had secretly recorded new material for a new CD for a rival company before their contract had expired, and demanding all the recordings Skaat might have made in secret. In court, Skaat denied that he had broken their contract, but Hed Artzi won a temporary injunction against Skaat, which kept the singer from recording any new material. A resolution seemed possible in December 2008 when the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) selected Skaat to be the country's representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Skaat and Hed Artzi renewed their negotiations to resolve the conflict but when these broke down, the record company contested the IBA's selection, which forced Skaat to drop out. In February 2009, the Tel Aviv District Court permitted Skaat to return to the studio. (The IBA eventually selected Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad to represent Israel with the song "There Must be Another Way", and they finished 16th in the contest.)
The two parties subsequently reached a compromise and Skaat soon entered into a new agreement with Aroma Music and Partner Communications. Skaat's second album, "Dmuyot" ("דמויות", "Figures" [alternative translations of the title include "Images" and "Characters"]) was released on 1 September 2009. The album contained the hit song "Muvan Li Achshav" ("מובן לי עכשיו", "Now I Understand"), which was released as a single and sold exclusively in Israel at Aroma Espresso Bar's chain of coffee shops. Other singles from the album include "Boi Ha Yom" ("בואי היום", "Come Today"), "Sof", ("סוף", "End") and "Od Ya'ir Alay" ("עוד יאיר עלי", "Shine on Me"). The majority of the album was produced by either Peter Roth or Izhar Ashdot, with a number of young Israeli songwriters contributing songs to it, including Ofer Bashan, Yali Sobol, Ben-Artzi, Sheila Ferber, Kfir Epstein, Didi Shachar, Ilai Botner, and Yoav Degani. Skaat co-wrote four of the songs on the album ("Sof", "Od Ya'ir Alay", "Dmuyot", and "Zippor" ("ציפור", "Bird")), including two which were released as singles.
Although it has been certified gold in Israel, "Dmuyot" did not achieve the same level of commercial success as his first album. The album's biggest hit, "Muvan Li Achshav" placed number 34 on the Reshet Gimmel annual music chart for 2009. Critically, the reviews of the album were mixed. For example, a review by Yossi Hersonski praised the "beautiful melody" of "Sof" but found the lyrics to be overly-sentimental. In contrast, Hersonski wrote that "Dmuyot", the closing song on the album was a monologue by Skaat with "his soul, confessing his weaknesses", and that Skeat's singing "is very emotional, but more polished this time"
Eurovision 2010.
In December 2009, the Israel Broadcasting Authority selected Skaat to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The announcement was made at the Knesset, Israel's legislative body. The