Noam Kaniel

Noam was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He began singing at the age of eight, taking second place in a children's singing contest organized by his future most frequent collaborator, producer Haim Saban, in partnership with Yuda Talit.

While in Israel, he went on to record such major hit songs as "Gali" and "Ima Sheli"; during this period, he performed continuously.

By 1973, at the height of the Yom Kippur war, young Noam was spotted singing in front of soldiers by Mike Brant who was France's biggest selling artist at the time. Brant believed that Noam could have a successful career in France, and had convinced Haim Saban to move there to look for, record, produce and supervise potential hit songs.

Noam's first release, "Difficile de Choisir", went straight to the top of the charts. From 1972 to 1978, this was followed in succession by such hits as "Viens Maman on Va Danser", "Une Maman", "Lollipop" and other singles. Two subsequent albums followed.

In 1975, Kaniel released an album in Japan in which he sang all 12 tracks in Japanese. This resulted in his headlining a concert tour, first in Tokyo, then in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Three years later, Noam recorded France's first-ever major theme song for an animated cartoon show. The 1978 production Goldorak, a French dubbed version of UFO Robot Grendizer, was the first anime series to be telecast in France. Noam's performance earned him unprecedented celebrity status in France.

At the end of 1978, Noam Kaniel moved to Los Angeles, following Haim Saban and his partner Shuki Levy. Together, with Saban and Levy as composer/producers, and Noam usually handling lead vocals, the three artists recorded theme music and/or songs for some notable animated series during the 1980s. Notably, Les Entrechats, Popples (1986 TV series),The Fantastic Four, Superman, The Incredible Hulk, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and its spin-off, She-Ra: Princess of Power. Levy and Saban later brought Noam together with Filmation founder Lou Scheimer and his daughter Erika to record "I Have the Power," the theme song from the 1985 series pilot The Secret of the Sword, which subsequently received U.S. theatrical distribution. He also co-performed with Ciro Dammicco for the theme song of the Italian dub of Urusei Yatsura in the 1980s.

In 1980, Kaniel made his acting debut in an Israeli film, Kohav Hashahar (Morning Star), in which he portrayed an aspiring teen singer who tries to help his fisherman father out of ruin.

In 1988 he recorded and released "My Butterfly," which he wrote with his friend Alain Garcia. The song was a tribute to Noam's wife Kira, who had died of terminal cancer, at the age of 23. Shortly after "My Butterfly" was released, Kaniel abandoned his acting career, making scant appearances on French and Israeli TV. ...

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