{"id":480448,"date":"2026-06-07T07:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T07:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/480448\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T07:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T07:43:13","slug":"mizrahi-music-icon-ishay-levi-dies-at-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/480448\/","title":{"rendered":"Mizrahi music icon Ishay Levi dies at 63"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer Ishay Levi, one of the most recognizable voices in Mizrahi and Mediterranean music, died overnight Sunday at Tel Aviv\u2019s Sourasky Medical Center after a deterioration in his condition in recent days, his family said. He was 63.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith unimaginable pain, we announce the death of Ishay Levi tonight,\u201d his family said, adding that funeral details would be released later Sunday. \u201cThere are no words right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levi was considered one of the pioneers of Mizrahi music in Israel, breaking through in the 1980s and becoming one of the genre\u2019s defining figures. His distinctive voice and hits such as \u201cRaiya,\u201d \u201cRikdi,\u201d \u201cRikud Romanti\u201d (\u201cRomantic Dance\u201d) and \u201cIsha Ne’emana\u201d (\u201cFaithful Woman\u201d) influenced generations of singers and became part of Israel\u2019s musical soundtrack.<\/p>\n

Culture Minister Miki Zohar called Levi \u201cone of the great and moving voices in Israeli music,\u201d saying he \u201ctouched the hearts of entire generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musician Aviv Geffen called him \u201cone of Israel\u2019s great soul singers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levi was born in Rosh HaAyin in the 1960s to a religious family. His father was a Torah scribe. In a 2021 interview with ynet’s parent newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Levi said he knew from age 11 that he would be a singer. \u201cI didn\u2019t like anything except singing,\u201d he said. \u201cAt 15, I was already the lead singer of a band, and at 19, I already had a record. The rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first album, \u201cHafla with Ben-Mosh,\u201d was released in 1984 and became a major success. His second album, \u201cHiney Ba Ha-yom\u201d (\u201cHere Comes the Day\u201d), brought some of his biggest early hits, including \u201cDream,\u201d \u201cRaiya\u201d and \u201cOne and Only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levi also spoke openly for years about his struggles with drug addiction, arrests and personal crises. Still, he repeatedly returned to performing and recording, cementing his status as one of the genre\u2019s most important artists.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d9\u05e9\u05d9<\/a>\"\u05d9\u05e9\u05d9<\/p>\n

Levi (right) performs alongside Shimi Tavori and Shlomi Shabat <\/p>\n

(Photo: Oren Agmon)<\/p>\n

His career was revived in 2008 with the album \u201cRikud Romanti,\u201d which returned him to the center of Israeli music. In 2012, his single \u201cAt\u201d (\u201cYou\u201d), written and composed by Amir Benayoun, won an ACUM song of the year award.<\/p>\n

Over his career, Levi collaborated with many Israeli artists, including his son Shir Levi, his brother Nati Levi, Dudu Tassa, Ethnix, Mosh Ben Ari, Arkadi Duchin, Aya Korem, Rami Kleinstein and Rivka Zohar.<\/p>\n

In 2025, he appeared on the fourth season of \u201cThe Masked Singer\u201d in Israel, performing as Pufferfish, and finished in seventh place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer Ishay Levi, one of the most recognizable voices in Mizrahi and Mediterranean music, died overnight Sunday at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-480448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}