Haim Moshe

Haim Moshe
Haim Moshe at the Independence Day concert in Eilat on May 6, 2003
Background information
Born	(1955-09-20) September 20, 1955 (age 61) Israel
Origin	Israeli with Yemeni Jewish origins
Genres	Mizrahi, Pop, Music of Israel
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1975 – present

Haim Moshe (Hebrew: חיים משה‎‎, sometimes Chaim Moshe on recordings), born 20 September 1955 is an Israeli singer whose musical style has crossed over from Yemenite and Mediterranean "ethnic" music to include mainstream Israeli and western pop elements. He has helped Mizrahi music achieve wide popularity both in Israel and in Arab countries.

Haim Moshe was born in 1956 in Ramat HaSharon, Israel. His parents were Yemenite Jews who immigrated to Israel after World War II; as Mizrahi, or Eastern, Jews they had a distinct culture and background from the Ashkenazi (European) Jews who played the major role in establishing the modern state and culture of Israel. As a child he learned to sing not only Israeli and Jewish religious music in the synagogue, but also Greek, Turkish, and Arabic songs, which he performed for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. As a young man, Moshe worked in a print shop, and he served in the Israeli military in the mid-1970s.

Moshe began his professional music career as a member of the band "Sounds of the Vineyard" (Hebrew: צלילי הכרם‎‎, Tzliley Ha-Kerem) along with Daklon and Moshe Ben-Mosh, playing in clubs and at weddings. Their music was distributed by the brothers Asher and Meir Reuveni, who had started informally selling cassette-tape recordings of wedding performances by Daklon and others. This Mediterranean or Oriental style, which had been neglected by the established Israeli music industry, became known as "cassette tape music" or "central bus station music" (after the stalls in the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station where many of the tapes were sold). Many of the songs were taken from Greek and Turkish pop, with the words translated or entirely rewritten in Hebrew by specialist lyricists, and the music reworked into Yemeni style. Mediterranean music grew in popularity after 1980 and eventually became a profitable business for the Reuveni brothers.