Biography

Shlomi Shabat was born on the 30th of August 1954. His beginning as a musician was humble, he started as a back up singer and later as a singer at local clubs in the United States. Clubs that were mostly visited by Jews and Jews that left Israel and immigrated to the USA.
His first album came out rather late for a singer. It was in August 1987 and Shlomi was almost 34 years old. The album had a more oriental sound with the familiar Mediterranean and pop sound that’s so familiar with him. The album was named I’ve Returned From The Dark. This album made the people in Israel notice his talent for the first time.

His second album came out in late 1989 and was named Because Of The Wind, which was also the name of the first single from this album. The single is probably the most recognizable song by Shlomi Shabat. The album was a big hit in all of Israel and second single called A New Year followed. Both songs and actually a big part of the album was composed, written and even the instruments were played by Micha Shitrit and Arkadi Duchin, who were the band members of the famous band Friends Of Natasha.

Leah Shabat, Shlomi’s sister, was Arkadi’s girlfriend for a long time and Arkadi use to call Shlomi: “my big brother”. They were all very close and worked together a lot. Another part of the album was composed and written by Yoni Roay and Nancy Brandes. Both are very famous writers, composers and music producers in the Israeli music industry for over 2 decades now. They wrote, composed and produced more hits like Free And Happy, Tunes Of My Life and Margarita. This all led to a wonderful album that made Shlomi Shabat a big and famous star in the Israeli music industry in no time.

After becoming one of the most popular singers in Israel and participating in all kinds of musical event all over the country, he started working on his 3rd album which was released in 1991. The album was named Don’t Go To Far, just as the first single from it which became a big hit. The song was a melodic slow song that combined oriental and pop music and marked the success of this album. This song was followed by more hits like Hilula, Al Sal Salim, On The Dock and Mika, the latter one was a cover version to a famous hit from the past. The songs on this album which again became a big hit, were also composed and written by some of the best musicians in Israel that worked with him on his previous album. Even more famous musician worked with him on his 3rd album like Zayev Nekhama, the vocalist of Ethnix and Ehud Manor the famous writer and composer that wrote With Gratitude Of Salsa. This album to like the previous one had a mixture of sounds. It had oriental music, Spanish music, pop/rock music and even had south American salsa music in songs like Al Sal Salim and Yom Sababa (another cover version).

In 1993 Shlomi released his 4th album. It was an album everyone expected because of the high quality of his previous albums and because on this album he worked again extensively with the people that worked on his 2nd and 3rd album, and which were a wonderful blend between western and eastern music and of course had lots of success. The album that came out was named An Hour Together, and like the 2nd and 3rd albums, Arkadi Duchin, Micha Shitrit and other members of the band Natashas Friend worked on his album. So did Yoni Roay, Leah Shabat (the sister of Shlomi that worked on the precious album), and Izhar Ashdot, a very popular musician, writer and composer that worked and mixed one of the hits on the album. The album had several hits like Oliya, Don’t Lose The Child, Stallala and there was even a cover version to one of the most popular songs of Zohar Argov called What’s With You Girl. The album, like the previous ones, had a mixture of sounds from east to west, and was considered by the music critics as a very high quality album. The album did well in the charts and selling, but didn’t top the previous 2 albums.

In the years ahead Shlomi participated in many projects, he sang at the children/adults song festival (festigal), he sang on the albums of his sister, Leah Shabat and in the album of Gidi Gov, and performed all over the country as he had become one of the most popular singers in Israel.

In 1998, 5 years after his previous album he took out his 5th album which was named after himself Shlomi Shabat. The album had moderate success, but had several hits like Where Are You My Love and Shadow Of The Reed (Cane). The album had the usual Shlomi Shabat sound, meaning oriental mixed with pop, rock, Spanish, salsa and Greek music. This album, not like the previous ones, wasn’t composed and written by the his most successful musicians, but the album was also considered as an album with high qualities.

After this album Shlomi continued his work on various projects, like producing albums for other artists and composing songs for them. One of Shlomi Shabat’s trade marks is his songs sung in duets. He has done plenty of them during his musical career, with a variety of singers like Lior Narkis, Gidi Gov and Yoav Itzchak. This led him eventually to the next natural step in his musical career and that was taking out an album of duets.

His 6th album came out in 2001 and it was named Friends. It was named so, because all the songs on the album were duets he sang with various artists that are his friends. He even sang a duet with his sister. The album had success in the charts and in selling figures as it had some big hits. The most familiar from them was with Lior Narkis, the song Each Person Has.
The same year Shlomi released a compilation with his best songs during the years. The album was named Golden Hits and it introduced him to the younger generation that didn’t hear the songs from the early stage of his musical career.

In 2003 Shlomi released his 8th album, which was named Time Of Love. The album had one big hit, it was called At Trapatonis Beach. The song was one of the biggest hits of Summer 2003, had lots of success in the charts and was played non stop on the radio stations.

In the summer of 2005 Shlomi had a big hit with the song Who Loves You More Than Me. The song was originally of Arkadi Duchin and when Shlomi Shabat sang it, it became a big hit. It was also chosen by Israel’s biggest cell phone company as their leading song for their TV and radio campaign and adds. The song had so much success that Arkadi Duchin and Shlomi Shabat won the first prize in Israel’s first ever ring tones contest The Israeli Golden Ringtone. They won a double platinum for the sales of the ringtones.

In 2006 Shlomi Shabat has released his latest album, which contains also only out of duets and is named Friends 2. It’s his 9th solo album and is made in the same concept as the first Friends duets album from 2001. Shlomi was talking about releasing another duet album since his previous album and was very pleased with the results.

Shlomi Shabat is divorced and has one son, Avihu (20 years old). Shlomi is known to be a Beitar Jerusalem soccer fan and left winged in his political opinions. He has performed and sang on countless other artists albums and his hits appear in countless musical compilation albums.