Harel Skaat

Harel Skaat (Hebrew הראל סקעת; born August 8, 1981 in Kfar Saba near Tel Aviv) is an Israeli singer and musician. He finished the 2004 2nd place in the popular Israeli TV talent show Kochav Nolad. His first album reached platinum status in Israel. In May 2010 he represented Israel in the Euro Vision Song Contest in Oslo.

Biography

Even as a child Harel Skaat won a singing contest; later, he was active in both the official musical group of his school and his home town. In 2002 he began studies at Beit Zvi ( College of Fine Arts ) in Ramat Gan. During his second year of study, he applied for the Israeli TV show Kochav Nolad.

Career

The TV program Kochav Nolad ( dt, "A Star is Born" ) is comparable to the German counterpart Germany Idol or American Idol and already brought success singers like referee Maimon forth. Harel Skaat quickly became the clear favorite, but lost the final Harel Moyal. However, he has since become one of the most successful musicians of Israel, platinum received for his first album, Harel Skaat and won several major national awards, for example, the Israel Music Award. In the choice of the singer and song of the decade 2000 - 2009 he won 2nd place, " ואת " ( Ve'at, dt: "And you " ) from his first album came in at number 4, 2009, he released his second album " דמויות " ( Dmuiot, dt: " figures " ), which received gold status. In 2012, he released his third album titled " שוב מאושר " ( Shuv me'ushar, dt: " Happy again ").

Euro Vision Song Contest

The end of December, 2009, the IBA, the Israeli state broadcasting organization, announced that Harel Skaat Israel would represent the Euro Vision Song Contest. The Israeli television audience and several juries selected on 15 March 2010 of four songs the song " מילים " ( Milim, dt: words) from the Harel Skaat represented his country in the second semi-final on 27 May 2010 and two days later held -finals. There he took a 14th place. Furthermore, Harel Skaat won in Oslo the Marcel Bezençon Awards in the category " Press Award " ( best song, and elected by all accredited journalists ) and the category "Artistic Award" (Best performance; elected by European commentators ). Moreover, the two composers of his songs Milim the " Composer Award " ( voted by all the participating composers ) have won. This went 2010 for the first and only time all awards of Marcel Bezençon Awards to one and the same country.

Private life

In October 2010, Skaat has been outed as a homosexual.