Izhar Cohen & Alpha Beta

Izhar Cohen (born March 13, 1951, Giv'atayim, Israel) is an Israeli singer who won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest.
Cohen was born in Tel Aviv and raised in Giv'atayim in a Yemeni singers' family - Shlomo Cohen (the Great Soliman), Sarah Cohen, and Hofni, Pini, and Vardina Cohen.
Cohen started to sing when he was a young child and joined his father in his performances. At 18, Cohen joined the IDF's "Nachal" singers group. During the 70's Cohen was one of the most played singers in Israel. Representing Israel, he won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest with the group Alphabeta performing "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" with music by Nurit Hirsh and words by Ehud Manor. The title of the song is the Hebrew word "ani" (first person singular pronoun) expressed in the popular children's code "Bet language".

Cohen later represented Israel again (this time with an unnamed group of backing singers) at the 1985 contest performing "Olé, Olé" (music - Kobi Oshrat, words - Hamutal Ben-Ze'ev) where he finished 5th. He attempted to represent Israel again in 1987 and 1996 but did not win the national final.

Cohen was an actor in the Haifa Theater, and has also practiced the art of jewelry.


Alphabeta were a group of Israeli singers who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978 with Izhar Cohen.

The group consisted of Reuven Erez, Lisa Gold-Rubin, Nehama Shutan, Ester Tzuberi, and Itzhak Okev.

The winning song was called A-Ba-Ni-Bi.

Discography: