Noam Kaniel
I was born on August 18, 1962 in Tel Aviv, Israel. I became an overnight child singing sensation at the age of 8 in Israel, taking second place in a children's singing contest organized by my future mentor and producer Haim Saban, in partnership with Yuda Talit. While in Israel, I went on to record such major hit songs as "Gali" and "Ima Sheli"; during this period, I performed continuously while continuing to live a normal childhood and going to school.
In 1972, at the height of the Yom Kippur war, I was spotted singing in front of soldiers by Mike Brant who was France's biggest selling artist at the time. Brant believed that I could have a successful career in France, and had convinced Haim Saban to move there to look for, potential hit songs.
My first release in France, "Difficile de Choisir", went straight to the top of the charts, and from 1972 to 1978 I was fortunate to have continued succes with such hits as "Viens Maman on Va Danser", "Une Maman", "Lollipop", and other singles. Two subsequent albums followed resulting in the sales of 4 million records.
In 1975, I released an album in Japan in which I sang all 12 tracks in Japanese. This resulted in me headlining a concert tour, first in Tokyo, then in Johannesburg, South Africa.
GOLDORAK
Three years later I recorded France's first-ever major theme song for an animated cartoon show. The 1978 production "Goldorak" was the first ever Manga animated series to be telecast in France. This show and my interpertation of the opening song became a culture phenomenon in France; by the time Goldorak had ended its original run on French TV, its theme song had sold some 4 million records!!
InAugust 1978, I moved to Los Angeles, following Haim Saban and his partner Shuki Levy. Together, with Saban and Levy as composer/producers or handling lead vocals, the three of us recorded theme music and/or songs for some of the most popular international animated series of the 1980s --- notably, "Heathcliff", "The Fantastic Four", "Superman", "The Incredible Hulk", The A Team , Duke of hazzard, Spiderman and, most famously of all, "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and its spin-off, "She-Ra: Princess of Power". Levy and Saban later brought me together with Filmation founder Lou Scheimer and his daughter Erika to record "I Have the Power," title song from the 1985 series pilot "The Secret of the Sword", which subsequently received U.S. theatrical distribution.
In 1988 I recorded and released "My Butterfly," which I wrote with my friend Alain Garcia. The song was a tribute to my wife Kira, who had died of terminal cancer at the age of 23.
In the US, as a song writer, I was fortunate to have such acts as The temptations and Howard Hewit release my songs "Celebrate" and "This Love’s Forever".
In France I was fortunate to write songs for such great artists as Mireille Mathieu, Patricia Kaas, Tina Arena, Hélène Ségara, Patrick Fiori, Lorie, Julie Zenatti, and Lâam.
In 1998, I teamed up with Johnny Williams and Louis Element to create MIRANDA, a mix of technopop and dance fusion that took the European charts by storm. Miranda's first single, "Vamos A La Playa" was sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide, and was honored as Best Italian Artist of the Year.
In 2011 Loona released the same song "Vamos a la playa" again, and It became one of the biggest summer hits of 2011 on all the Europen sales and dance charts!
Today I continue doing what I love most, and that is composing music for television’s most popular live and animated series.