October 21: Israeli-pop rock singer and actress Ninet Tayeb – AKA Ninette or Nina – is 30-years-old today.

-----

Ninet Tayeb is of Tunisian and Moroccan Sephardic Jewish descent. She was raised in Kiryat Gat, where she started to sing in the local youth center. She was nicknamed Nina by her friends and family.

During her IDF service, Tayeb auditioned for the first season of "Lo Nafsik Lashir – Kokhav Nolad, (the Israeli version of Pop Idol.) The Israeli media embraced her as a Cinderella story and named her the star, and she was in the lead all throughout the season. In the final, she performed Zohar Argov's classic Mizrahi song "Yam Shel Dma'ot" (A Sea of Tears), and won with almost half of the votes. 

After winning Kokhav Nolad, Teddy productions, the production company behind the show, created a daily drama to capitalize on Tayeb's popularity. The show, HaShir Shelanu ("Our Song"), was loosely based on Tayeb's life, became a hit and ran for four seasons, with Tayeb starring as Ninet Levi for two seasons, and as herself for the remaining two.

In 2009 the movie Kirot, a thriller directed by Dani Lerner, was released to theaters with Ninet in the lead as a beaten woman avenging her abusing husband. In the United States this movie is known as The Assassin Next Door in the summer of 2010, Ninet played the roll of Wendla Bergman on the Hebrew vesion of the rock musical "Spring Awakening" written by Frank Wedekind. Ninet was nominated for the Israeli Theatre Awards for best female actress of 2010.

Three years after winning Kokhav Nolad, Tayeb began work on her first album, Barefoot (Yechefa.) The album was released on September 7, 2006, and was later certified gold, selling more than 20,000 copies. On November 17, 2009, Tayeb released her second album, Communicativi (communicative.) Tayeb wrote all the lyrics in the album, composed most of it, and produced and arranged the album with Rockfour.

The album represented a major shift in Tayeb's image from "the national sweetheart" of Israel to a darker image of a rocker. In early 2012, Ninet released her third album, the first in English, entitled Sympathetic Nervous System, which was produced in Liverpool, England, by British producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Blood Red Shoes.)

 

In December 2012, Ninet released the single "All the Alone," the first from her fourth album, All the Animals Knew.  Ninet released four singles from the album, and all reached great success in radio Playlists and charts.

 

Ninet is now touring with her fourth album all over Israel - as well as working on the 5th album, which will be in English.

-----

For more about Ninet, visit her Website at –

http://www.ninetayeb.com/en/home

####