Sarit Hadad, Israeli representative to Eurovision Song Contest 2002, has been crowned as Israel's “female singer of the decade” by Channel 24, the Israeli music channel, in a big music concert organized last week by the station. The results were counted through SMS and televote.

The result of the music channel's vote comes as no suprise. Although there were many possible contenders (including Shiri Maimon), it seems logic she had won the title.

Sarit Hadad released her first album ineastern-Mediterranean style in 1995, to a respectabe degree of success, however her breakthrough into the commercial market came after a collaberation with Tipex in 1997. Since then her career has seen her regularly top of the Israeli charts.

In late 2001, it seemed only natural that IBA would select her to represent Israel in Eurovision Song Contest 2002. The song chosen by an internal IBA committee was Light A Candle" which seemed to be very contrasted to the Mediterranean style that defined her early career. She would later admit she didn'twant to sing that song. Despite low expectations, she finished 12th of 24, and garanteed Israel's participation in 2003.

As Sarit was the top Israeli singer at the time, she brought in a huge TV audience that watched her performance from Tallinn (in comparing to previous or later years). The song was runner-up as song of the year 2002 in Israel.

Since Eurovision, Sarit's career kept progressing, and over the years she moved away from the oriental genre towards mainstream pop. During the same concert gala, which charted the best Israeli songs of the decade, the 2005 eurovision entry Hasheket She'Nish'ar (The Silence That Remains) – in it's full hebrew version by Shiri Maimon placed 15th.

On first page of Sarit’s website, enjoy one of her latest songs, Ahava betohi, as well as many other videos at different steps of her career