Biography

Rita was born on the 24th of March 1962 in Teheran, Iran. Her maiden name was Rita Yahan Faruz. She lived in Iran till the age of 8 and also as a small girl she loved to write songs and to sing. In the kinder garden and later at elementary school, her teachers use to ask her to participate in the musical shows.

When Rita was 8 years old her sister returned from school one day and was crying. She complained that she was forced to read from the Holy Muslim Koran. The father decided at that same moment that he couldn’t allow it to continue. They told their neighbors in their neighborhood that they are emigrating to England, but of course they came to the Holy Land, to Israel.

Also after becoming one of the most popular singers in Israel after her debut album, Rita decided not to rush on with her musical career and instead did background vocals for her husbands (Rami Kleinstein’s) album called The Day Of The Bomb. Also this album turned out to be a huge success. Further more Rita participated in that years Festigal, a Children’s and Adults song contest, and turned to theater as she portrayed the main role in the ever successful play called My Fair Lady.

In the following year, 1987, Rita started focusing on the international market. She went to Europe and produced an English album which was called Breaking Those Walls. From the songs on the album, nice were English cover versions to songs she and her husband had already produced for her Hebrew album. The album didn’t catch up at all, and went unnoticed although lots of effort and marketing was put into it.

She returned to Israel and started working on her second Hebrew album, which came out in 1988. The album was called Days Of Innocence from which Rami Kleinstein, her husband, was of course the musical producer. Just like the previous album, also for this album some of Israel’s best lyric writers and composers gave Rita their songs. People like Khanock Levin, Ehud Banai, Tzruya Lahav and Pinkhas Saday. The album had huge success and has sold so far around 110,000 albums. The most popular hits from the album were Covered With Mercy, Days Of Innocence, Come and I Live Day By Day.

After collecting enough musical material Rita also decided to go on a tour, which was called Rita In Concert, and she performed over 260 times throughout Israel. She didn’t want to give up her acting career and later that year also acted in the movie The Thousand Wife’s Of Naftaly Simantov. She had the lead female part in the movie, which came out in 1989 and had fair success in the box offices.

In early 1990 Rita spoke to the IBA, Israel’s first and main broadcasting channel at that time. It was also the channel that was in charge of selecting the Israeli competitor for the Eurovision. She asked them to select her to represent Israel in 1990, and IBA accepted. Rita sang the song called Singing In The Streets. The song was a success in Israel, but didn’t catch the European taste and Israel ended up at the 18th place with 16 points.

In late 1990 and the beginning of 1991 Rita participated again in the Festigal song contest, this time with a song she sang with Ethnix, who also composed the song. It was called The Legend Of The Sun And The Moon. Ethnix, together with her husband, also composed and wrote for her another song that became a huge hit, which was called Going To You. In the same year, 1991, she had again the main lead role of a popular play called A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

In early 1992 Rita’s first single called A Station Of Time, from her upcoming third album was released. But Rita was pregnant and gave birth to her first daughter in February. The baby was named Meshi (Silk) and of course taking care of their first born child caused the album to be postponed.

In 1994, 6 years after her previous album, Rita’s 3rd album came out and was named A Big Love. This album, like the previous two, was also well invested as some of the best writers and composers took part in it. And again like the previous albums, also this album had many hits like A Big Love, A Deep Blue Evening, Are You Happy, A Foreign Bird, To Late and White Wings.

The album was her most successful album ever and has sold so far over 150,000 copies.

Rita, together with a huge crew, toured through Israel and also abroad for 4 years and with more than 400 concerts! The amount of concerts was of course amazing.

In the same year, 1994, Rita also sang the theme song of the movie The Sirens Singing. The song was called Don’t Be Afraid. Later that year she participated in the Festigal again, but this time didn’t compete in it but sang a cover version of the popular song of Juzi Katz called Let Me Decide. She sang the song at the ending entertainment section of the show.

In 1996 Rita decided together with her recording company to take out an album of her songs that didn’t appear on any of her albums. It was a collection album but most of the songs were songs that didn’t appear previously on an official album Rita had many hits during the years that came out as singles, songs she sang at live shows, special songs she sang for movies etc and it was all gathered into one album.

The album was named Stations In Time, and of course it became a successful album too. It included hits like A Private Moment, Legends Of The Sun And The Moon, A Magic Hat and Coming To You.

In 1998 Rita was elected to sing the national anthem for Israel’s 50th year anniversary celebration, which was of course a mile stone and a recognition of her unique talent and the status she had reached in Israel. There was also some controversy for her election, not because of her singing skills or that she deserved to sing it, but it was the fact that she asked and was offered a big sum of money to perform. A thing that turned many people and the media against her, as everyone felt she should perform for free. Eventually after the prime minister himself convinced her to sing, she agreed and gave a brilliant performance and later donated the money to charity.

Rita released her fifth album in 1999. A sum of around a million US dollars was invested to make the album a unique one, an album that will also appeal the international market although being in Hebrew. The albums name was Open A Window and contained two CD’s. This was also done with special means to try and fight the piracy copying of it. One of the musical directors of the album was again Yakov Gilad, who was now working with the Kleinstein couple for more than 10 years. Again many top name writers and composers contributed to the album. The album itself was a bit more melodic and solid than her previous albums, but also more invested in terms of the musical instruments that were played in it. The songs Open A Window, The Rain Song and Your Secret, were all played a lot on the radio and TV stations. The album reached a gold album status in just 24 hours after selling over 20,000. In all the album has sold so far over 70,000 copies. With this album Rita decided in advance not to have to many concerts and all 15 concerts she did were sold out.

That same year Rita a special documentary was made on her and broadcasted on the Israeli 2nd channel. It was an intimate documentary which got many praises.
In the following year, the year 2000, Rita had a busy year. At first she participated in her husbands successful album called Say It. She sang with him the theme song of the album and later that year she also entered the studios and her 2nd international English album was made. The name of the album was Time For Peace and was produced by Corado Rostizi and her husband. Rostizi was chosen cause he has worked in the past with famous artists and helped producing albums for Elton John and Whitney Houston. The album was distributed first only in France and later on also in Israel, again like her previous English album this one also didn’t make it through the international music market.

This was an important year for Rita as she gave birth to her and Rami’s second daughter, Noam.

In the following year 2002, Rita went on a small tour of intimate concerts which were mostly for small crowds. The show was named Rita And The Piano, which of course also explains the way the show was performed. Again the shows were all sold out and got good critics, especially cause her special voice stood out even more without having an entire band behind her.

Rita released her album called Oxygen in 2003. The album was like all her albums full with songs that were composed and written by some of Israel’s best writers and composers. This album didn’t have as much success in the charts and didn’t become a mega hit selling album. There are some songs that didn’t go unnoticed of course, like Oxygen and To Tamr A Tiger.

Following the album, Rita went on tour with the songs of this album and had lots of success with it. Later that year Rita and Rami went on a tour in the USA and she sang songs from her new album as well as songs from her older albums.

In 2004 Rita also released a DVD of the very popular show she had, called A Big Love, a show that ran for over 4 years and 400 shows. The DVD was focused on one of the shows from 1998 and had many extras.
In late 2004 Rita was selected to perform at one of the main roles in the show play Chicago which had also become a successful movie. The play was performed only 40 times and was a big hit. Rita also got lots of compliments for her performance.

Together with the mobile phone company Cellcom, Rita participated on the show called One. It’s a spectacle show with many dancers, acrobats, and outstanding sets that have never been seen in Israel before.

Rita is married to the person she works with throughout her entire career, Rami Kleinstein. She also says they talk endlessly about music and consult each another a lot. They have two daughters, and her older daughter has already started showing interest in becoming a singer herself.

In Rita’s musical career she has won countless titles, she has been the singer of the year in Israel of Reshet Gimel 3 times, in the years 1986,1988,1989. She has also won the title The Actress of the Year in 1989. In 1992 and 1994 she won the title Golden Apple, which was given by IBA, Israel’s first TV station. She has sold throughout her career over half a million albums and many more titles.

Rita also says that she hopes one day to make a duet with Arik Einstein. She recently released the first single from her new album Clues (2007).
 

Discography

News

1. Rita And Rami Separated
2. Celebrate Independence Day
3. Rita Kleinstein Still A Star

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