Chen Aharoni

Chen Aharoni (חן אהרוני; also known as Chen and also transliterated as Hen Aharoni; born in Holon, Israel on 12 April 1990) is an Israeli singer-songwriter, musician and television presenter.

He came into fame after taking part in 2007 in season 5 of Kokhav Nolad (כוכב נולד meaning A Star Is Born) structured on the international Idol series.

He was eliminated after a showdown with Shlomi Bar'el before the finals.

Aharoni finished 4th overall, with Bar'el ending up third.

The 2007 title was won by Bo'az Ma'uda with Marina Maximilian Blumin as runner-up.

After Kokhav Nolad, Chen Aharoni went on to sign a deal with the Israeli record label NMC Music and gaining popularity.

While Chen made musical performances throughout Israel, he started hosting TV show called "Ra'ash" (meaning noise in Hebrew) on the Israeli music channel Music 24 for 2 seasons.

In August 2008 he was drafted into the Israeli army (IDF).

In 2009, he started to release singles from his forthcoming debut album.

The self-titled debut album Chen Aharoni (חן אהרוני) was released on 23 December 2010 and received critical acclaim.

Yedioth Ahronoth in its Entertainment Plus special supplement published on the occasion of the Hebrew New Year picked the album as one of the Top 10 best albums of the year 2010–2011 alongside names like Dudu Tasa, Berry Sakharof and Noam Rotem.

He has had many successful hits including No.1 on the Israeli singles chart with "Neshima" (נשימה) a duet with Israeli singer Esti Ginzburg.

He reached No. 2 with his co-authored song "Kol ma SheRatziti" (כל מה שרציתי) and scored a second No. 1 hit in his career with "Mami" (מאמי), from the Israeli rock opera Mami.

On 26 June 2011, Chen's first single from his upcoming album was released.

On 8 March 2011, Chen Aharoni took part in the Kdam Eurovision selection contest finals for the Israeli entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany with the song "Or" (אור meaning Light) written by Sahar Hagai and Nitzan Kaykov finishing fourth with 142 points, with Dana International winning the contest with 270 points with "Ding Dong".

It was entitled "Holech Le'sham" (הולך לשם meaning: Go there) Chen's second album Nosea Rahok (נוסע רחוק) was released in October 2012 and got positive reviews.

Three songs from this record have topped the 10 Israeli music charts.

On 17 October 2012, Chen opened his official "Nosea Rachok Tour" that will tour all around Israel.

In 2013 he entered the tenth series of the United Kingdom version of The X Factor.

In the room auditions of X Factor, he sang Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble", got 4 yeses and reaching the Arena stage of live auditions, where he sang Take That song "Back for Good" mixed with Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back" as back track.

He got 3 yes votes from Nicole Scherzinger, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, with Gary Barlow from Take That being the only dissenting vote.

Aharoni reached the bootcamp stage, where he sang "Drive By" alongside candidates Lee Lambert and Ryan Davies.

All including Aharoni were sent home by their mentor Louis Walsh.

He failed to make it to "judges' houses" (final 24) with Walsh claiming that he was just OK, but not sufficient to be included in his category.

Following his elimination in the UK competition, it was announced later in 2013 that Chen will be hosting the Israeli version of The Xtra Factor (in Hebrew: מבזק האקס) on an Israeli channel.

On 14 October 2013 Chen released his first English-language single "Crazy" for Pre-order on iTunes.

The song picked to No. 3 on the Israeli songs chart and officially released on 20 October 2013.

The follow-up single from the EP was "Love Suicide" that topped the iTunes downloads chart for a full week.

The qualification show started in October 2017 and hosted by Assi Azar and Rotem Sela and a judging panel composed of Asaf Amdursky, Keren Peles, Harel Skaat (2010 Israeli Eurovision entrant) and Static & Ben-El Tavori.

All shows in the competition are broadcast on Channel 2 and Keshet 12 as well as online via mako.co.il.

Chen Aharoni auditioned to episode 2 of the show broadcast on 31 October 2017 with an interpretation of the Miley Cyrus song "Wrecking Ball".

He got approval of all four judges and an approval rating of 94% being the second highest approval rate among the 25 candidates with only Yafit Casay exceeding him with a 95% score.

Aharoni moved to the promotion round as part of final 20 contestants.

Aharoni is competing in the fifth season of the show HaKokhav HaBa L'Eurovizion (meaning "The Next Star for Eurovision"), in a bid to represent Israel in 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

In Heat 2, broadcast on 7 and 8 January 2018, he sang "Can't Feel My Face" from The Weeknd.

He again got approval of all five judges and an approval rating of 80% advancing to Heat 5 broadcast on 22 January 2018 where he was coupled with Jonathan Mergui singing "Locked Out of Heaven" from Bruno Mars again getting approval from all four judges and a 92% score advancing to the quarter finals

In the quarter finals on 4 and 7 February, he sang "Rokedet" getting approval of three of the four judges with Assaf Amdursky abstaining.

However he got 71% approval advancing to the semi-final where he sang "Bang Bang" from Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj on 8 and 11 February, with all four judges approving and a public vote of 86%, the second highest rate for the semi-final.

Reaching the final alongside three other finalists Jonathan Mergui, Riki Ben Ari and Netta Barzilai on 13 February 2018, he sang his own hit "Neshima" getting approval of all four judges.

But his public vote was 72%, the lowest of the finalists plus he got positive endorsement from only one judge (Ben El Tavori) and was eliminated.