Hofni Cohen

Origins and early life

Hofni Cohen was the eldest son of the singers Shlomo Cohen — Suleiman the Great — and Sara Cohen, and grew up among the campfire evenings his parents organised; because he sang like his father he was called Suleiman the Little, and he became a singer and an entertainer.

Work and career

In 1976 he sang at the Mizrahi song festival Lamnatzeach Shir Mizmor, performing Bat HaZman by Eliezer Rabin and Jo Amar — his first hit as a soloist and the song that made his name — and his first album followed in 1978. He took the lead in Haim Gil's 1984 film Kasach, where he and Daklon sang Avihu Medina's Lashir BeKol Arev, another great success; his 1993 album carried Al El Yisrael, the official anthem of the Israel national football team, and for years he was the master of ceremonies at its matches, singing Hatikvah before kick-off from 1989 to 2008.

He sang on the family record of 1994 with his parents and his three siblings, duetted with Kochava Harari and Oren Chen, and in 1998 recorded a Zohar Argov song for the album made in Argov's memory. Israel's artists' union gave him its lifetime achievement award in 2015. Complications of diabetes led to a kidney transplant in 2017, which went well, but the medical procedures damaged his vocal cords and he could no longer sing.

He died on 3 July 2023, at seventy-six, of a rare complication of a throat infection; his mother followed him two months later.