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Rabat – The Moroccan-born Israeli singer Maya Casabianca 78, died on Sunday, December 31, in the village of Kfar Tavorv village in Israel.
Casabianca was born in 1941 in Casablanca, Morocco, as Margalit Azran. Her birth city inspired her stage name.
She moved to France with her family in the 1950s where she became a famous singer after she signed a contract with the Philips record company.
Casabianca performed with renowned French singers like Yves Montand and Georges Brassens.
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Casabianca’s music was popular in the Arab world, especially in Syria and Lebanon, and even in the Soviet Union.
The singer had kept her Jewish identity concealed from the general public and her fans in Russia and the Arab world.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that some of Casabianca’s most memorable performances were in Moscow when she sang the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, back when Israel and the Soviet Union did not have diplomatic relations.
“The Russians of course didn’t know that I was Israeli; for them I was the French star,” she told Haaretz in 2001.
Casabianca later moved with her family to Israel and left her singing career and fame behind.
