Esther Ofarim

Esther Zaied better known by her married name Esther Ofarim Hebrew אסתר עופרים born June 13 1941 is an Israeli singer She came second in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Ten va pas representing Switzerland After marrying Abi Ofarim in 1958 she was half of the husbandandwife folk duo Esther Abi Ofarim in the 1960s After the couple divorced she undertook a successful solo career Esther Zaied was born in Safed to a Syrian Jewish family She began performing as a child singing Hebrew and international folk songs In 1958 Esther met Abi Ofarim a guitarist and dancer who she later married She was a student in his dance studio in Haifa Esther served four months in the Israeli Army before she was discharged owing to her marriage to Abi American director Otto Preminger cast Esther for a small role in the film Exodus 1960 In 1960 Esther landed the role of Katzia in the play The Legend of Three and Four at the Habima Theatre In 1961 she won first at Israels first pop song festival in Tel Aviv where she sang Saëni Imchá Bemachol Take Me with You When You Dance and Naamah written by Pnina and Tsvi Avni accompanied by Kol Yisrael orchestra under Gary Bertini In 1962 Esther released her selftitled debut solo album and was invited to join Frank Sinatra in his performances in Israel Kol Yisrael radio then sent her to the Sopot International Song Festival in Poland She came in second place for singing Stav written by Moshe Wilensky and Shimshon Halfi Esther and Abi settled in Geneva Switzerland where she took part in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest representing Switzerland with the song Ten va pas In a very close and controversial competition with the Danish duo Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann her song placed second Initially it appeared Switzerland had won the contest with 42 points to Denmarks 40 but after an apparent change to the Norwegian scores Ofarim ended up with 40 points as opposed to 42 points for Dansevise a reversal of the initial result Ten va pas was released as single on Philips Records in 1963 reaching No 39 in Germany In 1963 Esther had a starring role in the German film Es war mir ein Vergnügen In 1963 and 1964 Esther and Abi had success on the charts in Europe In the fall of 1964 Esther embarked on a tour of the United States with the Smothers Brothers Speaking about a performance at Oregon State University in Corvallis Oregon Jim Albright campus correspondent stated Everyone expected the Smother Brothers to be great but Ester sic turned out to be fabulouspeople were amazed with her singing and her looks By 1965 Esther was well known throughout Europe She headlined in the major concert halls and theaters She starred in German films and had her own television specials on BBC and Eurovision Source Article Esther Ofarim from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30