David Broza

David Broza (born September 4, 1955) is an Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and guitarist whose work has connected Hebrew music with Spanish traditions, international pop and a broad humanitarian vision. Over more than four decades, he has built a career across Israel, Spain, England and the United States while remaining closely identified with Israeli culture.

Broza’s importance lies not only in his best-known songs, but in the way he has made cultural exchange part of his artistic language. He brought Spanish melodies and rhythms into the Israeli mainstream, carried Israeli songwriting to international audiences and repeatedly used musical collaboration to create contact among people from different communities.

Formative years between Israel, England and Spain

Broza was born in Haifa as David Simon Berwick Broza. His father, Arthur Broza, was a British-Israeli businessman, and his mother, Sharona Aharon, was a singer. His grandfather, Wellesley (Pinhas) Aron, was among the founders of Neve Shalom–Wahat al-Salam, a community established to encourage shared life between Jews and Arabs.

When Broza was twelve, his family moved to Spain because of his father’s work. He studied at Runnymede College in Madrid and spent part of his education at a Jewish boarding school in England. The three environments that shaped him—Israel, Spain and England—later became audible in his music: Israeli language and memory, Spanish guitar and rhythm, and a broad international outlook.

As a teenager he already performed and played guitar, while also considering a future in visual art. His early experience abroad gave him an unusual musical vocabulary for an Israeli performer, one that could move naturally between languages and traditions.

Entering Israeli popular music

In 1974, Broza returned to Israel and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. After his initial service, he joined the Air Force entertainment troupe with his sister Talia Broza, Danny Bassan and Daphne Armoni. Their song “Betoch” was performed at the 1977 Hebrew Song Festival and introduced him to a national audience.

After his discharge, he joined Yehonatan Geffen’s stage production Sihot Salon as part of the ensemble Lahaka Tova. He performed “Bedouin Love Song” and “Ad Olam Achakeh,” and recorded “Yihye Tov” (“Things Will Be Better”), written during the period of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel. The song became an enduring expression of hope and the possibility of change.

Broza’s collaboration with Geffen continued in the landmark children’s project The Sixteenth Sheep, for which Broza composed and performed “Lightning and Thunder.” The album became one of the defining works of Israeli children’s culture, remembered for its literary texts, memorable melodies and appeal to generations of listeners.

Broza’s debut album, David Broza, appeared at the end of 1979. It included “Yihye Tov,” “Bedouin Love Song” and “Mutar Lomar,” which he composed to a poem by Nathan Alterman. His second album, Klaf, released in 1982, further established him as a composer and included songs such as “Haifa,” “HaChaim Hem Homer Tov” and “Daniela.”

The Woman by My Side and a breakthrough in Israel

Broza’s decisive breakthrough came in March 1983 with HaIsha SheIti—The Woman by My Side. The album presented Hebrew versions of Spanish songs, translated by Yehonatan Geffen and produced and arranged by Louis Lahav. “The Woman by My Side,” “Belibcha” and “Violets” became major hits. The album sold more than 200,000 copies and achieved five-times-platinum status.

The album’s significance went beyond its commercial success. Broza made Spanish musical color part of the Israeli mainstream at a time when it was not a central element of popular Hebrew music. He demonstrated that an artist could bring another country’s rhythms, memories and emotional vocabulary into Israeli culture without giving up a distinctly local identity. Following the album’s success, he was named Kol Yisrael’s Singer of the Year, and its concert tour became one of the major Israeli musical events of the period.

An international career rooted in Israeli identity

At the height of his Israeli success, Broza moved to New York and began dividing his time between the United States and Israel. In 1989, EMI released his first English-language album, Away From Home. He later released additional albums in English and Spanish, toured Europe and the United States, and appeared in concert programs associated with artists including Paul Simon.

International success did not loosen his connection to Israel. It allowed him to present an Israeli voice to audiences abroad—one shaped by guitar, pop, rock and Spanish music. At the same time, he continued releasing Hebrew albums such as Neshika Gnuva, HaHomerim SheMehem Asuya HaAhava, Sodot Gdolim and Ze Hakol O Klum. He set poems and lyrics by Israeli writers including Meir Ariel, Yehonatan Geffen and Yaakov Rotblit, linking the country’s songwriting tradition with his personal, internationally informed performance style.

One of his most unusual collaborations followed a meeting with American singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt at a Writers in the Round concert in Houston in 1994. After Van Zandt’s death, he left Broza a collection of unpublished poems and lyrics with a request that Broza set them to music. The result was the 2010 album Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt, transforming a brief encounter into a lasting artistic tribute.

Resilience and public connection

In 1998, Broza was seriously injured in a car accident while returning from a performance. Damage to the fingers of his left hand raised fears that he might no longer be able to play. After a long rehabilitation, he returned to the guitar and to the stage, continuing a career that many had feared was over.

His relationship with Israeli audiences has also been expressed through direct service in difficult moments. During the First Lebanon War he performed for soldiers. During the Second Lebanon War he visited shelters in communities under fire in northern Israel, and during Operation Cast Lead he performed for small audiences in shelters in the south. These appearances offered music, human contact and a sense of continuity during periods of fear.

In 2011, he released Third Language, his first Hebrew album in almost a decade. He also began writing more of his own material. The album was recorded in two days with a budget raised through Kickstarter; approximately 80 percent of the backers were outside Israel. The project showed how a global audience could support Israeli music directly while preserving its Hebrew character.

Music as a meeting place

Broza’s belief in musical encounter reached a central expression in East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem, released in 2014. Recorded at a studio in Sheikh Jarrah, the album brought together Israeli, Palestinian and American musicians, including Wyclef Jean. Produced by Steve Earle and Steve Greenberg, it combined different languages and musical styles. A documentary film about the recording process premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival.

The project was more than a collection of songs. It created a working environment in which musicians from different backgrounds listened to one another and built a shared work. In this respect, Broza joined a long Jewish and Israeli cultural tradition of using art to create human connection, even when political and social realities make such connection difficult.

His public work has included appointment as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2012. His song “Together,” co-written with Ramsey McLean, served as the theme song for UNICEF’s fiftieth-anniversary celebrations in more than 148 countries. In 2009 he also participated in the international Playing for Change project. Spain honored him with the Civil Order of Merit for his contribution to Spanish music and peace efforts, and in 2019 he received Israel’s Presidential Volunteer Medal.

A continuing creative life

Broza has continued to move among traditions and formats. His album The Golden Ring set songs by poet Tzruya Lahav; in 2020 he performed with the Jerusalem Orchestra East and West in Timna Park in a concert broadcast simultaneously in Israel and the United Arab Emirates; and he has continued to record in Hebrew, English and Spanish. His later work includes Tefila, released in 2022, and the Spanish album La Mujer Que Yo Quiero, released in 2023.

These projects reflect an artist who treats musical identity as an open, evolving field. Hebrew remains a central home for his work, but it exists alongside Spanish guitar, English-language collaboration, Jewish prayer, Middle Eastern orchestral traditions and international songwriting.

Why David Broza’s legacy belongs in Moreshet

David Broza merits inclusion in the archive because his career documents and shapes a major chapter in Israeli cultural life: the movement from locally rooted popular music toward an Israeli music that is confidently connected to the wider world. His songs, albums and collaborations show how Hebrew creativity can absorb outside influences while retaining a clear sense of place and identity.

His lasting impact can be seen in albums that became part of Israel’s shared musical memory, in his contribution to children’s culture through The Sixteenth Sheep, in his perseverance after a potentially career-ending injury, and in his appearances for soldiers and civilians during wartime. His international collaborations also introduced Israeli music to listeners who might otherwise never have encountered it.

Broza’s work belongs in Moreshet because it brings together Jewish and Israeli cultural memory, artistic innovation, public responsibility and the belief that music can open a space for human contact. Moreshet.com preserves a place for the story of an artist who expanded the sound of Israeli music and made cultural connection one of the defining themes of his life’s work.