Ilana Eliya

Ilana Eliya was born in 1955 in Jerusalem

Ilana Eliya was born in Jerusalem in 1955 to a family from Iraqi Kurdistan, and grew up in the Katamonim. As a child she heard her father, Eliyahu Eliya, sing Kurdish songs at family and community events.

As a teenager she found no place to study Eastern music, so her parents sent her to the YMCA for voice training, where she sang arias and gospel. She also studied theater at the Hebrew University.

She worked as a bank clerk and turned to Kurdish folk music only after her father died in 1988, starting her music career at 37. Her first album, Jabaliyo, came out in 1992, and her band carries the same name. She sings in Kurdish, Hebrew, English and Aramaic, on themes that include political and women's protest, love and weddings.

She worked with Israeli artists including Mark Kopytman and Avi Belleli, and performed in Europe and the US. Her later work includes Umm Kulthum shows, the 2010 album Shira of Hebrew poems in Kurdish arrangements, and the 2019 album Ahava BeTaanugim.