Ella-Lee Lahav (; born 2 June 2003), known as Ella-Lee, is an Israeli singer. In 2019 she became famous following her second place at the seventh season of Israel's '' HaKokhav HaBa LaErovizion'' (''Rising Star to the Eurovision''), the Israeli national selection for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song " Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. This w ...

. In June 2020, on her 17th birthday, she released her debut single "Zot Ani", the single was ranking high on the Apple UK playlist and topped the

Media Forest Media Forest is an Israeli service provider of monitoring and media research for the Music and Advertisement Industries, founded in 2005 in Netanya, Israel. The company monitors broadcasting tracks and channels such as radio stations and TV chan ...

airplay chart.

Early life

Ella Lahav was born and raised in

Shoham Shoham () is a town in the Central District of Israel. The name relates to one of the 12 stones on the Hoshen, the sacred breastplate worn by a Jewish high priest (Exodus 28:20), similar to other nearby towns: Nofekh, Bareket, Leshem and Ahlam ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, to a family of

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

descent. Her parents are Yannai and Hagit, and she has two sisters. Towards an appearance in television singing competition she changed her first name from Ella to Ella-Lee, after consultation with a

numerologist Numerology (known before the 20th century as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, ...

. In February 2022, she was enlisted to the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

. In February 2024, she had completed her military service and posted the celebration on Instagram.

Career

2019–2020: ''HaKokhav HaBa LaErovizion'' (''Rising Star to the Eurovision'')

In 2019, she auditioned for the seventh season of the Israeli singing competition '' Rising Star to the Eurovision'' (''HaKokhav HaBa LaErovizion''), Israel's national selection for the European

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

, with "

You Don't Own Me "You Don't Own Me" is a pop song written by Philadelphia songwriters John Madara and David White and recorded by Lesley Gore in 1963, when she was 17 years old. The song was Gore's second most successful recording and her last top-ten single ...

" by

Saygrace Grace Sewell (born 8 April 1997), known professionally as Saygrace (also written as SayGrace and stylised in all caps; formerly Grace), is an Australian singer. She is best known for "You Don't Own Me", a cover version of the 1963 Lesley Gore son ...

. After receiving 96% of the votes, she advanced to the second stage of the competition in which she sang " Into You" by

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...

. In January 2020, she performed " Hey Mama" by

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta (; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 30 billion streams on Spotify. Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag ...

and won a duel with Nicky Goldstein. After that, she performed a duet with Orr Amrami Brockman to "

Señorita Señorita or Senorita may refer to: Biology * Señorita banana, a banana cultivar from the Philippines * '' Oxyjulis'' (Spanish common name: ), a species of fish Film * ''Senorita'' (film), a 1927 American silent film * ''Señorita'', a 2011 fi ...

" by

Shawn Mendes Shawn Peter Raul Mendes ( , ; born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian singer. He gained a following in 2013 when he posted song covers on the video-sharing platform Vine (software), Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manage ...

and

Camila Cabello Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao (; ; born March 3, 1997) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence as a member of the Pop music, pop girl group Fifth Harmony, one of the List of best-selling girl groups, best-selling girl gro ...

and got many praises from the judges and audience. In semi-final she performed " Only Girl (In the World)" and " Royals". The last song Lahav performed in the competition was "

Roar A roar is a type of animal vocalization that is loud, deep and resonating. Many mammals have evolved to produce roars and other roar-like vocals for purposes such as long-distance communication and intimidation. These include various species of ...

" by

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

. After receiving 182 points from the judges and audience, Lahav won the second place, losing to

Eden Alene Eden Alene (, ; ; born 7 May 2000) is an Israeli singer. Having won the seventh season of the singing competition ''Rising Star (Israeli TV series), HaKokhav HaBa'', she represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, Israel in the Euro ...

2020: Debut single and other projects

In March 2020, she appeared with fellow runner up of ''HaKokhav HaBa'' Orr Amrami Brockman in an advertising to Israeli telecommunications company

Bezeq Bezeq () is an Israeli telecommunications company. Bezeq and its subsidiaries offer a range of telecom services, including fixed-line, mobile telephony, high-speed Internet, transmission, and pay TV (via Yes (Israel), Yes). The company is tra ...

, along with the presenter of the company commercials, Israeli singer

Gidi Gov Gideon "Gidi" Gov (; 4 August 1950) is an Israeli singer, TV host, entertainer, and actor. He was married to Anat Gov before her death in 2012 and they had three children. Biography Early life Gov was born in Rehovot to Daniel and Tzipora ...

. In April she performed with Amrami Brockman in Israel Independence national ceremony, held in

Mount Herzl Mount Herzl ( ''Har Hertsl''), also ''Har ha-Zikaron'' ( lit. "Mount of Remembrance"), is the site of Israel's national cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities, found on the west side of Jerusalem beside the Jerusalem Forest. I ...

. On 2 June 2020, her 17th birthday, she released her debut single "Zot Ani", produced by Johnny Goldstein. Just days after its release, the single became hit by reaching the top of

's airplay chart and ranking high on the

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

UK playlist ''Glitch.'' On 15 November 2020, she released a second single titled "Ma Atta Rotse?". In 2022 she played at the teeen Israeli series " שומקום (סדרת טלוויזיה)" on TeenNick. There she met Philip Shaolov, her ex-boyfriend.

Personal life

In October 2020, she said in an interview about her sexual orientation: "I don't define myself, I can fall in love with a woman, I can fall in love with a man". In 2021, she was in a relationship with Maya Geris, a female Israeli-Dutch social media celebrity of Arab and Jewish descent. From 2022 to 2024, she was in a relationship with make Israeli actor Philipp Shaulov.

Discography

Charted singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lahav, Ella-Lee 2003 births Living people 21st-century Israeli women singers Jewish Israeli singers Jewish women singers 21st-century Israeli Jews Israeli women pop singers K-pop singers Israeli Ashkenazi Jews English-language singers from Israel Israeli LGBTQ singers Jewish LGBTQ women