Noam Kaniel - Biography

Biography

Noam began singing at the age of 8 in Israel, taking second place in a children's singing contest organized by his future most frequent collaborator, producer Haim Saban, in partnership with Yuda Talit.

While in Israel, he went on to record such major hit songs as "Gali" and "Ima Sheli"; during this period, he performed continuously.

By 1972, at the height of the Yom Kippur war, young Noam was spotted singing in front of soldiers by Mike Brant who was France's biggest selling artist at the time. Brant believed that Noam could have a successful career in France, and had convinced Haim Saban to move there to look for, record, produce and supervise potential hit songs.

Noam's first release, "Difficile de Choisir", went straight to the top of the charts. From 1972 to 1978, this was followed in succession by such hits as "Viens Maman on Va Danser", "Une Maman", "Lollipop" and other singles. Two subsequent albums followed.

In 1975, Kaniel released an album in Japan in which he sang all 12 tracks in Japanese. This resulted in his headlining a concert tour, first in Tokyo, then in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Three years later, Noam recorded France's first-ever major theme song for an animated cartoon show. The 1978 production Goldorak was the first anime series to be telecast in France. Noam's performance earned him unprecedented celebrity status in France; by the time Goldorak had ended its original run on French TV, its theme song had sold over 1.3 million copies.

At the end of 1978, Noam Kaniel moved to Los Angeles, following Haim Saban and his partner Shuki Levy. Together, with Saban and Levy as composer/producers, and Noam usually handling lead vocals, the three artists recorded theme music and/or songs for some of the most popular international animated series of the 1980s --- notably, Entrechats, The Fantastic Four, Superman, The Incredible Hulk, 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 Noam 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 1980, Kaniel made his acting debut in an Israeli film, Kohav Hashahar (Morning Star), in which he portrayed an aspiring teen singer who tries to help his fisherman father out of ruin.

In 1988 he recorded and released "My Butterfly," which he wrote with his friend Alain Garcia. The song was a tribute to Noam's wife Kira, who had died of terminal cancer, at the age of 23. Shortly after "My Butterfly" was released, Kaniel abandoned his acting career, making scant appearances on French and Israeli TV.

In 1995, he took a sabbatical to return to his first real love, songwriting. To date, he has written and/or produced material for such French music stars as Mireille Mathieu, Patricia Kaas, Ophelie Winter, Hélène Ségara, Patrick Fiori, Lorie, Julie Zenatti and Lâam.

In 1998, Noam 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 the next decade, Noam Kaniel returned to writing music for animated television and theatrical films.

Kaniel's theatrical film scores include:

• Touch of a Panda (2009)
• Shattered Image (1994) (TV)
• Under Investigation (1993) (V)
• Til Death Do Us Part: Part 1 (1993)
• Round Trip to Heaven (1992)