Gali Atari

Gali Atari was born in 1953 in Rehovot

Atari was born Avigail Atari on December 29, 1953, in Rehovot, to parents who immigrated from Yemen. Her sisters are singer and actress Yona Atari and radio host Shosh Atari. Her father died when she was 4, and the family moved to Tel Aviv.

She passed the entrance tests for the army radio station Galei Tzahal, but there was no open position, and she did not enlist. In 1971 she recorded her first songs and represented Israel at a song festival in Tokyo. She later spent time in New York, where she studied jazz and voice.

In 1978 she acted in the film Halehaka and placed third at the Israel Song Festival with Dream Prince. In 1979 she sang Hallelujah with Milk and Honey, and the song won Eurovision in Jerusalem. She left the group in 1980 and sued her manager, a case she won after 14 years.

As a solo artist she released many albums. Her 1986 album Middle of September included I Have No Other Land, and in 1992 Reshet Gimel named her Singer of the Year. In 2008 she dedicated an album to her late sister Shosh.