Radio interview with Esther Ofarim
and Yoni Rechter (rough English translation):
Visit
to the homeland: Esther Ofarim summarizes 60 years of creation
The long collaboration with Yoni Rechter and the successful career overseas: the
singer who came to visit from Germany to perform in Israel in a festive
interview here on Net Liat Regev share over April 16, 2022 17:11 Israeli singer
Esther Ofarim visited her homeland in Israel this week on the occasion of a
joint performance on the Sabbath with the musician and creator Yoni Rechter.
Ofarim is now marking 60 years since her international breakthrough in the early
1960s, after which it began a successful career overseas and currently resides
in Germany.
Listen
to the interview here on Network B.
She said in an interview on the program "On the Sixth Day" with Liat
Regev here on Net B, about the feeling during her visit to Israel: I heard your
news a bit, so it's a bit difficult." She has been collaborating with Yoni
Rechter for 45 years. Rechter also says in an interview that he does not
remember how the connection between the two was formed: "She probably
turned to me, because I was not in a position that I could turn to such a
singer." He says that since the meeting between the two has been
exceptionally frequent for 11 years, due to the geographical distance: Lots of
shows in Israel and abroad. Her big break in Europe came in 1962, when she was
sent on behalf of the Voice of Israel to perform at the Sopot Festival in
Poland, where she won second place with the song "Stav". This
performance led to her representing Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest,
a year later: "I was at a festival in Poland, there was also a radio
director in Geneva, and he decided to invite me there and I sang for Swiss Radio
and that's how I got to the Eurovision Song Contest. It was a very important
part. "The Eurovision Song Contest is not the most interesting thing in the
world I know."