Harel Moyal

Early life

Harel Moyal (stage name ) was born in Gilo, Jerusalem.When he was a year and a half old his family moved to Ma'ale Adumim in the suburbs of Jerusalem, where he grew up with his brother. As a child, Moyal listened a lot to his father who used to play the guitar and perform occasionally in the Andalusian Music Band (Spanish orchestra), and also compose songs. Moyal grew up in a musical house but what was unique about him was that, even though he grew up in a musical house as a kid and as a teenager he did not plan to pursue a musical career. At school he was a smart kid that had many friends and he used to participate in many after school activities which became his hobbies and mostly various lessons and studies in dancing. Of course as a kid he loved music and used to listen a lot to it, when he grew up he also learned to play the guitar just like his dad. After graduating from the high school all that time he kept on working on his passion for music by playing his guitar and writing songs.

Kokhav Nolad

When the auditioning for the second season of Kokhav Nolad began, Moyal’s friend registered him for the trials. At the beginning Moyal was not too anxious about going to the trials, but then he decided to go and check out his abilities. In a short while everyone at the production told him that they loved him and he was invited to participate in the show. At the second season of Kokhav Nolad, Moyal won the competition. The final of the second season was broadcast on August 15, 2004 from the Coca Cola Music Village on the coast of Nitzanim, in front of an audience of 7,500 people. Harel Moyal won the contest with 862,368 votes, Harel Skaat took second place with 806,292 votes, and Adi Cohen took third place with 254,926 votes. Almost 2 million votes were cast during the final.

Since Skaat won first place and Moyal second in the first semi-final against Harel Moyal, and since polls held at certain sites indicated that Harel Skaat would win, many were surprised when he did not. A controversy arose about the voting in the final, beginning with claims that the production company had forged the results and ending with claims that voters had used software to send in more votes for their candidate than was allowed by program regulations (250 votes per apparatus). The production staff denied all of these allegations. On Thursday, August 19, a small demonstration of about 20 Harel Skaat fans was held in front of the offices of Shidurey Keshet. The demonstrators demanded that they investigate the claims and retabulate the votes. Shidurey Keshet reported that the matter was investigated and that disruptions in the voting were not found.

2004 Chanukah Song Festival

Moyal's success made him very famous and he got many offers from the music industry. The first challenge he took on himself was participating in the 2004 Chanukah Song Festival. He sang the song Zorro, which was written by Uzi Khitman and composed by Shlomi Shabat Moyal again won the contest .

2004–2005: Harel Moyal

Moyal started working on his debut album. He went through material he had written during the years and material he was offered to sing. From all the songs, he chose 12 songs and the self-titled album was released in September 2005.

The first single released from the album is called Middle Of The Night In The Village. The song was written by Moyal and is about the confusion and tough time at the military service. The song had lots of success in the local charts and it was also played endlessly on the music TV channel. The album sold very well and turned into a gold album by selling over 20,000 copies of it just a bit over a week after its release.

2005–2006: Like in a Movie

After taking out the successful album Moyal was asked to perform in a musical called Like in A Movie. The play started to be shown in February 2006. Moyal had the lead role in it and portrayed the character of a young teenager who is rebellious and is discovered for his musical talent. In the musical play many well known artists and actors performed and it had success throughout Israel.

2007: Levadi

Moyal's second album, Levadi, was released in 2007.

Albums