Biography

Ester Rada (Hebrew: אסתר רָדָא, born March 7, 1985) is an Israeli actress and singer. Rada was born in Kiryat Arba, Israel, to a religious Ethiopian-Jewish family. Her parents, originally from a village near Gondar, were rescued by Israel from a refugee camp in Sudan during Operation Moses, in 1984.She grew up speaking Amharic at home and Hebrew in school. Her father was known as a cantor in the Ethiopian community in Kiryat Arba. Her parents divorced when she was a child and later on, she moved with her mother and older brother to Netanya in 1996, when Rada was 11 years old, which she considers a turning point in her life, since the family moved to a less observant neighbourhood where the majority were Ethiopian Jews, and also started to interact with French olim, who were familiar with funk and rap, something unheard of in a religious Jewish settlement like Kiryat Arba.She began working on her second album, after releasing her acclaimed first self-written and composed solo EP Life Happens, which was produced by Israeli producers Kuti (Kutiman/Thru-You) and Sabbo (Soulico), at the beginning of 2013, as well as her first full album, Ester Rada, in 2014.

Rada performed at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2017 Maccabiah Games on July 6, 2017.