Rock's first lady in Israel!
The woman with the amazing and powerful voice, Orit Shahaf known as TT !!!
During our podcasts, we gave her the nicknames "Lioness", "Hippolyta" - Queen of the Amazons, but no nickname can describe her mighty and unique voice, so here are some facts about one of the greatest singers we have in Israel:
(Photo: Pini Siluk)
1. She was born on April 9th, 1971 in Eilat as "Orit Ben Issachar", later she changed her last name to "Shahaf" and left "Ashkelon" for her enlistment in the IDF in 1989.
2. Her singing talent was discovered at an early age. In the years 1981-1989 she was part of an "Ashkelon" youth band called the "The Bells Band".
3. On this occasion we are proud to share that we were part of this period when the band used to hold rehearsals at the "Beit Vosk" community center in "Ashkelon" and this is the first time we saw the Queen of the Amazons live. We will never forget the moment as children, sitting in the front row on the blue cover chair and were blown away by Orit's voice.
4. In 1982 she took part with the band in a local music competition called "Pastilon" and won first place with the song "Little Boat".
5. In 1989 she enlisted in the IDF, where she served in the Gadna Band, where she met Tom Petrover.
(Photo: Reoven Castro)
6. After being released from the army, the two formed the cover band "Tom and the Bomb", with which they performed songs by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and more.
7. In 1992, the two formed the band "Hayehudim".
(Photo: Ronen Lalena)
In addition to Orit's singing and writing roles in the band, she is also responsible for designing some of the band's albums and often plays guitar in shows. She also designs her clothes for the band's performances.
9. In 1993 Orit and Tom married and in 2007 their son "Hedi" was born.
10. In August 1995, the band's debut album "Separate Reality" (Metsiot Nifredet) was released, which in addition to Orit and Tom co-created: Avi Yifrach on bass, Eran Mittelman on keyboards, Shmulik Budgov on guitar and Asher Pedi on drums.
11. On the same day of the album's release, a special performance was held at the "12th Night" club, which was attended by less than 20 people. Tom and Orit tend to mention this show in their shows when they share the hard time believing where they are today.
12. The significant exposure the album received was when 6 songs from the album were part of the soundtrack of the dramatic and tragic film "Youngs Forever" which was broadcast in December 1995 on Channel 2.
13. Three years later the band's second album was released and was named after the band.
14. The first time the band received significant media exposure on the radio was in 1999 when it won the title of "Band of the Year" by Gali Tzahal radio station.
15. In July 2002, the band's third album, "Deep Fear" (Pahad Mavet), was released.
16. In the same year, Orit took part in the re-production of the rock opera "Mami" as a soloist and in fact as the star of the play. She fit perfectly into the big shoes of "Mazi Cohen" who played and sang in the original show in the 1980s. This is the best rock opera that has come up in the country (maybe even the only one).
17. In August 2003, the band released a double album and a DVD of a live performance at the "The Theater Club", a club that is officially considered the home of the band. In 2021 the club was closed due to the severe economic damage caused by the COVID-19.
18. In July 2004 the band released an "Unplugged" double album of acoustic performance, the single from the album "If Already" (Im Kvar) which was not released or recorded in any other version was widely played on radio stations.
19. In the period after the third album, the band went on tour in the USA. They wanted to try to live abroad as a band while performing and writing. Due to the problematic name "The Jews", the band changed its name to "I.U.D.M". The experience was crowned a relative failure and the band members returned to Israel.
20. In 2009 the band started working on a complete English album but it did not materialize.
21. Five years after the third album, the band's fourth album "Forte" was released, the album won the title of "Album of the Year" at the AMI Awards Ceremony.
22. The song "Here It Comes" (Hene Ze Ba) from the album was a commercial soundtrack by "Fiat" in the US.
23. Orit and Tom also participated in the advertisement of the cellular company "Cellcom" with the song "You have no place" (Ein Lah Makom).
24. After the release of the album and until 2015, 8 years, the band spent most of their time in non-stop touring while at the same time Tom and Orit were building their family cell.
(Photo: Ben Mizrahi)
25. At that time, the band performed an acoustic show that was very successful, following which they went on a long tour called "Hayehudim Beyeshiva". Out of the tour came the cover version of Meir Banai's song "With You in the World" (Itah Baolam), a song that also received many plays on popular radio stations.
26. In 2014, there were rumors that Orit and Tom would be part of the judging panel on the "Hacohav Haba" tv show, but this did not materialize.
27. In August 2015, the band's last album "No More" (Yoter Lo) was released. Orit recorded the album when her son Hedi was on her knees.
28. The song "Son" from the album was written about him.
29. The song "Sister" from the same album was written about her step-sister whom she did not know for many years. She first met her a few minutes before one of the band's shows and told her she was her sister. Orit was so shocked that Tom and the band asked her if she was interested in canceling the show. Orit took the stage, performed, and later wrote the song about the story.
30. To promote the album, the band performed the entire album in a live streaming broadcast through the Walla! portal.
31. In the same year, Orit participated as a model at the Tel Aviv Fashion Week. Fashion designer "Inga", who adores Orit, took Orit to her show session with models such as: Bar Refaeli, Michal Ansky, Tahonia Rubel, and more...
(Photo: Avi Valdman)
32. The band was the opening act to a large number of rock bands from abroad, such as Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, and more ...
33. The band appeared four times in "Caesarea", in 2010, 2011, in 2019 and 2022.
34. Orit played the character "Nicole" in the crime comedy TV series "The Fraud" by Yael Polyakov.
35. In 2017, Orit participated in Aviv Geffen's song "Ba Eli", it came out as the second single from the album and was played frequently on radio stations. For Aviv this was closure, he supported the band on their tour with the release of their debut album.
36. Tom and Orit recently participated in an advertisement for the "Quik" shopping app with an adaptation of the song "Looking for an Answer" (Mehapes Tshova).
37. Orit has a store on eBay where she sells clothing line of her design. https://www.ebay.com/str/oritttshahaf
38. In 2020 Orit surprised us with an electronic remix she did for the band's song "Screaming You".
39. On the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8, 2022, Orit participated in an exhibition by the photographer "Ido Isaac" entitled "Muse Moments" which documents the "behind the scenes" of 30 of the greatest singers in Israeli music - just before they take the stage.
(Photo: Micha Lovton)
40. In 2024, Orit appeared together with Tom in the reality food show "Oto Ochel: VIP". Here we must point out that it was very exciting and surprising to see our much-admired duo on TV prime time and even in a reality show, in our humble opinion the two have never appeared in any prime time TV show, great fun!!
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