Rita ( Yahan-Farouz) (part 0)

You would think that having a simple, one word name a simple matter to find everything about a celebrity... It might be true, sometimes, but not so when the simple name is Rita - a very common first name for so many actresses and singers that search engines on online merchants yield massive thousands of results. 


Let me present to you, Rita, alternatively know as Rita Farouz (for one album), Rita Kleinstein (she was married with Rami K. from 1988 to 2007 ), and who officially goes by her birth-name Yahan-Farouz ever since her divorce. 

Rita was born March 24, 1962, in Teheran, in Iran. She emigrated with her parents to Israel when she was 8 years old, where she remains and lives. She retained her cultural identity and sings in Persian as well as Hebrew, and English - either mixed up in albums, or only one of these languages in a whole album. 

Her musical styles are pop-rock, adding occasional Persian songs with traditional music on some of the albums, and have also released (in 2011) an album solely in Persian. She alternates between very rhythmic songs to heart-felt ballads, and shifts between intimate performances to diva and back again to more intimate exchange with the public in very emotional concerts. 

I'll indicate which are present on each album, as well as the various titles you can use and album covers, to help finding and distinguishing.

Rita's early 1980's music was in bands formed by various soldiers (a very common thing in Israel), before her solo album in 1986 and ever since, she hasn't stopped. 

She participated in the Eurovision and other smaller scaled song contests, as well as having a side carrer as an actress (very occasional, though). 

I love and enjoy almost all her songs, very rarely skipping any and own all but 2 of her studio albums (I just ordered her second album which I learned about only last week). 

I love the poetry, present in most of her songs, and the intensity that comes through her powerful voice in which I get lost, as I try singing along - but I often fail because I cannot reach her high octaves... I can follow only on her ballads... 


Her discography is as follows :

• 1986 first album simply called Rita. All songs are in Hebrew, and pop music, she wrote the lyrics to 3 of the 10 and her husband-to-be Rami Kleinstein composed 9 of the melodies (the last being a traditional). He also produced this and many of the following albums. 
• 1987 Breaking those walls is her first fully English album, which seems to have been released only in Germany, both on LP and CD. Its 10 tracks in pop style as far as I can tell (I'll know better once I receive the CD). One of them is a cover of Police's Roxanne, a cover which I prefer and by far to the original. 
• 1988 third studio album, 'yemei hatom' or 'days of innoncence', with 12 tracks, all in Hebrew, and pop styled. Rita wrote 2 of the song lyrics, and Rami K. composed once again all but one of the melodies
• 1994 'Ahava Gdola', or great love is her fourth album, after 6 year break. It's my second favorite. All 13 tracks are in Hebrew, pop but adding some quirky elements both to music and lyrics. 
• 1995 Rita sang the Hebrew versions of soundtrack for Disney's movie Pocahontas
• 1996 'tahanot bazman', literally stations in time, usually translated in English as 'milestones' is a mix best-off and songs which weren't on albums before... At first glance, It doesn't appear chronological at all and includes 16 tracks, all in Hebrew, pop and ballads.  
• 1999's ''tiftah halon'', meaning 'open the window' is my favorite Rita album (her 5th). It proposes 2 CD with 10 songs each. All songs are in Hebrew, except for 2 songs (1 on each CD, toward the end), which are in Persian and are the most rhythmic of them all. CD 2 also has a hidden, short bonus track. After listening to it for 100's & 100's of times, I discovered new sounds just a couple days ago, sounds that I'd never noticed...  
• 2000 album number 8 is her first international almost fully English album (12 out of 13 tracks), the last being Mahawal, in Persian. This album like the others is mostly pop, but also a bit of folk and world music (except in Israel itself where it's the local thing, off course).
• 2001 Rita Rami is a double CD with 24 songs Rita sings with her Rami, quite moving and intimate - I found a few videos on youtube. 
• 2003 'hamtzan' or 'chamtzan' meaning oxygen, the ninth studio album overall offers 13 songs in Hebrew, pop with some overtones of electronica I would say 
• 2007 One is a cd with a selection of the live concert of the same title, available on DVD in fuller. (will compare both in an entry)
• 2008 'remazim', which means Hints, is her 10th studio album, and the first released after her divorce. Hence, it offers a more introspective Rita, about her as a woman, and her quest for independence and healing after this turn of life. Some of its track melodies, were, however, still written by Rami K. All 11 tracks are in Hebrew, and Rita invites a fellow artist called Ivri Lider, who composed some of the lyrics, melodies and produced everything, whilst also playing the keyboard. 
• in 2011 Rita answers a lifelong dream of her mother's and records an album mostly in Persian (9 songs), with another 3 in Hebrew. This album is called 'hasmachot sheli' which means ''my joys'' but is also sold under the title ''my joyful occasions''. 
• 2015 'Rita ossef' is a second best-off collection, with 34 songs spread on 2 cds, including 1 new song, and some of the other ones are alternate versions and not necessarily the same as the album ones. All songs are in Hebrew, but one in Persian (from ''my joys''). 

Her videography : 

• 1998 (VHS) & 2004 (DVD) 'Ahava gdola', a great love, the same title as album from 1994. The dvd edition offers a 14 song live concert (75 minutes), a documentary (51 mins), 4 clips and a behind the scene for one of them. 
• 2006 One, on DVD (see above for 2007's cd edition). As I said, I'll compare both editions in one post. 

I found on youtube some remixes, that I cannot find on CD anywhere. I don't know if maxi singles are something at all in Israel, nor if these remixes are official or not.