Shoshana Damari, 1923-2006
Photo: Sa'ar Yaakov, GPO
Death of a legend
Shoshana Damari, a legendary Yemenite singer and actress, died Tuesday aged 83
Legendary Israeli singer/actress Shoshana Damari died Tuesday morning at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. She was 83.
Damari was hospitalized in critical condition last week for pneumonia. Her condition deteriorated Monday night and she died Tuesday morning.
Damari was born in 1923 in Damar, Yemen and immigrated to Israel with her family when she was two. She began performing at the age of 10, and appeared in several influential Israeli movies in the 1950s, including "Without a Homeland" (1956), the first Israeli color film.
In 1988 she won the Israel Prize for her contribution to Israeli vocal music.
"I'm happy that I'll leave behind so much, that I gave so much pleasure to an entire country," she told journalist Yair Lapid in one of her final interviews. "I have no fear of the end. Whenever it happens, it will happen."
