Margalit Tzna'ani

Margalit “Margol” Tzna'ani, born on December 19, 1948, is an Israeli singer, composer, television host, and media personality. Across more than five decades, she has worked at the meeting point of Mediterranean music, Israeli pop, blues, rock, funk, and soul. Her forceful voice and direct stage presence helped bring musical traditions associated with Yemenite and Mizrahi Jewish communities into the center of Israeli popular culture. Alongside her recording career, she became a familiar television and radio figure, a judge and mentor on talent programs, and an artist whose work reached audiences in Israel and Jewish communities abroad.

Yemenite roots and first appearances

Tzna'ani was born in Yemen in 1948, the eldest of seven children of Shalom and Lola, members of Yemenite Jewry. When she was one year old, she immigrated to Israel with her family, which settled in Netanya. Her Yemenite background and the experience of growing up in an immigrant family remained important dimensions of her public identity and artistic voice.

She began her stage career as a dancer in the Israeli production of Hair in 1970. In 1973 she appeared as an extra in the film Casablan and performed in the musical Lily Gam, alongside Izhar Cohen and Roman Sharon. That same year she joined the vocal quartet HaGang with Izhar Cohen, Razi Amitai, and Esti Katz. The group performed blues and soul influenced by African-American music, a distinctive sound in Israel at the time, and appeared before soldiers during the Yom Kippur War. Although the quartet never completed an album, its recording of Ashlայot (“Illusions”) became an early example of Tzna'ani's ability to connect international musical influences with Israeli performance.

From 1970 to 1980 she performed with the successful wedding band Shokolada. This period gave her extensive experience in live performance and taught her to respond directly to an audience—skills that later became central to her work as a singer and television host.

Breakthrough and the rise of a Mediterranean star

Tzna'ani's major breakthrough as a solo singer came in 1986, when she appeared on the popular Friday-night entertainment program Siba LaMesiba on Israel's sole television channel. Her performance of Na'ari Shuva Elai (“Young Man, Return to Me”), written and composed for her by Danny Shushan, became a major hit and one of the songs most closely identified with her. That year she released her debut album under the same title, featuring Na'ari Shuva Elai, Elem Hamudot, and Roberto. Yehuda Keisar, Haim Hadad, producer Nissim Ben Haim, and manager Asher Raubani were involved in the album's early production and release.

Her second album, Shmor Oti (“Keep Me,” 1987), included the title track, Malka Bli Melech (“Queen Without a King”), Kmo SheAta Yode'a by Uzi Hitman, and a new version of Nigunim. That year she composed and sang Asaf Sheli (“My Asaf”) at the Israeli Children's Song Festival, a song written for her son. Her 1988 album Ahava Avuda (“Lost Love”) demonstrated the breadth of her musical range. It combined Hebrew songs with a medley of well-known Arabic hits and included the title song, the duet Shalom Tevarechenu with Avihu Medina, a version of Bikarmey Teiman, and songs influenced by Greek and Mediterranean music.

In 1989 she released Menta, produced and arranged with Yaroslav Yakobovitz in a jazz-blues style. The album included Od Yihiye Li, Kol Kach Mukar, her performance of Naomi Shemer's Yeled Ra Tel Aviv, and Yarok, Hum VeTechelet. By combining Mediterranean singing with blues, jazz, rock, and mainstream Hebrew songwriting, Tzna'ani helped expand the musical vocabulary available to Israeli popular culture.

Composition and cultural work in the 1990s

On Homot Himer (“Clay Walls,” 1990), Tzna'ani composed many of the songs, including the title track, Tzel Al Pnei HaEsev, and Shachor Hu HaTzeva. That year she also appeared in a renewed production of Aliza Mizrahi, performed with Gary Eckstein at the Dead Sea Blues Festival, and composed Gan Eden for the Israeli Festigal. Her 1991 album Pgisha (“Meeting”) continued her work as a composer and included Habib Zacharia, an extended Yemenite folk song lasting more than eleven minutes. She also recorded Yemei HaRadio with Hanan Yovel, a song written in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

In 1992 she appeared with Shlomo Gronich at the Arad Hebrew Song celebrations. Together they recorded BaMa'agal and Bo'u Nit'arbev, the latter chosen as that year's charity telethon song. Her 1993 album Margol consisted largely of songs she composed, and that year she recorded HaTachana HaMerkazit with Avi Peretz. Her albums and performances connected Yemenite and Mediterranean traditions with Hebrew pop, personal songwriting, and music designed for a broad national audience.

Her 1995 album Eretz Esh VeEretz Yam (“Land of Fire and Land of Sea”) included the title track, co-composed with Yakobovitz, and Ela Ela. In 1997 she released (“Free”). In 1998 she contributed Pizmon HaAguda to the album Avoda Ivrit, issued for Israel's fiftieth anniversary, and recorded Kmo Shikor for a tribute album to the singer Zohar Argov. In 1999 she appeared on Israeli Darbuka—Israeli Classics with a Mediterranean Inflection with a Mizrahi version of Bati At Bocheh O Tzocheket.

Television, radio, and a direct relationship with audiences

From late 1993 through 1995, Tzna'ani hosted the Channel 2 talk and entertainment program Margol. Her move from the stage to a prime-time television format reflected her status as more than a recording artist. She brought the immediacy, humor, and candor of a live performance into the mainstream broadcast environment, helping make Mediterranean and Mizrahi voices a normal and visible part of Israeli television.

During the 2000s she continued working across several media. She hosted the cooking program Cooking with Margol on the Breeze channel, took part in a discussion panel, and presented radio programs, including a daily show on Radio Without a Break in which she spoke with listeners, offered advice, and helped resolve personal disputes. In 2006 she became a judge on the fourth season of Kokhav Nolad and remained in the role for five seasons. She later hosted Margol Shoftet, Gal and Margol with Gal Uchovsky, and Live in the Morning with Margol and Alon Gal.

These television roles introduced Tzna'ani to younger and wider audiences not only as a performer but also as a mentor and arbiter of talent. In 2006 she joined Yardena Arazi, Ilanit, Shlomit Aharon, and Ruti Navon for the Five Divas concert tour before Jewish communities in Canada and the United States. The tour carried Israeli popular music into Jewish communal settings abroad and strengthened cultural ties between Israel and Jewish audiences in the Diaspora.

Later recordings and collaborations

Her 2003 album LeOlam (“Forever”) featured many songs composed by Tzna'ani. In 2005 she released Gale Li, whose major hit was Az Ma (“So What”), and much of the album was written, composed, and musically produced by her son, Asaf Lavi Tzna'ani. In the following years she released Davka Hayom, Etz Yarok MiPlastik, Seret Yashan, and Tzo'eket Elecha, while continuing to record singles, reinterpret established songs, and collaborate with artists from different generations.

In 2011 she released the covers album Shnei Tzadim LaMatbea (“Two Sides of the Coin”), including her version of Miki Shitrit's Inta Omri. In 2013 she recorded Kol HaOlam with Zehava Ben, toured with her, and released Ahava Gedola and additional reworkings of familiar songs. In 2014 she performed Po Ze Lo Europa with the Arisa party line, and in 2015 she co-hosted a radio program with Hani Zubida under the same title. In 2018 she released Yama, with lyrics by Amos Noy, music by Dudu Tassa, and production by Tassa and Nir Maimon. She also began a joint concert tour with Avner Gadassi.

Beginning in July 2021, Tzna'ani served as a judge on The X Factor Israel, which sought Israel's representative for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest. She mentored the adult and bands team alongside Miri Mesika. The role continued her long involvement in identifying singers, shaping public taste, and passing professional experience to a new generation.

Why Margalit Tzna'ani belongs in Moreshet

Margalit Tzna'ani merits a place in the archive because of her lasting influence on Israeli song and on the way Mediterranean, Mizrahi, and Yemenite Jewish musical traditions are heard within Israeli culture. She did not merely perform popular hits: she composed much of her own repertoire, brought together Yemenite and Arabic traditions with blues, rock, pop, and jazz, reinterpreted important Hebrew songs, and maintained a direct relationship with audiences in Israel and abroad.

Her movement from wedding bands and live entertainment to the center of television, radio, and talent programming reflects a broader transformation in Israeli culture—the growing recognition of Mediterranean and Mizrahi voices as central rather than peripheral to the national story. Her songs, albums, collaborations, and mentorship have shaped the memories of generations of listeners. For these reasons, Moreshet and Moreshet.com present her life and work as part of the heritage of people who have actively shaped Israeli culture and the connections between Israel, Jewish communities worldwide, and the wider cultural world.