The King of Mizrahi Music in 1970s Israel

Zohar Argov was an influential Israeli popular musician. Born Zohar Orkabi in Rishon Le-Zion to a Yemenite Jewish family, he rose from a difficult childhood marked by poverty and instability to become a formative voice of Mizrahi music. In 1982, he won first prize at the Mizrahi Song Festival with “Ha-peraḥ be-gani” (The Flower in My Garden), a song that established him as a national star. Argov blended traditional Middle Eastern melodies with modern Israeli pop and helped transform the genre of Mizrahi music from a marginalized style into a central part of modern Israeli musical culture. Over a few years, he released a string of popular albums, but he struggled with drug addiction, legal troubles, and repeated imprisonment, including for rape. In 1987, in prison awaiting trial on a second rape charge, he died by apparent suicide. After his death, his reputation grew and his misdeeds were largely forgotten; he remains a tragic figure in Israeli music history.