Avi Peretz sometimes transliterated Avi Perez is an Israeli singer of Jewish Mizrahi music.
Biography
Perez grew up in Bat Yam, Israel. His grandfather was a famous poet in Morocco. From a young age Peretz learned to play the keyboard, and began his music career at age 13. In 1992, he had his great break with "קשה לי" which became an immediate hit. Based on that success, he released his debut album "גלגל הזמן" and even a bigger hit with tens of thousands of albums sold and a big launch through Israeli radio. It also resulted in a new hit for Peretz, a cover interpretation of Natan Yonatan song "שיר אהבה ישן". In 1993, he released his follow-up album, "אליך". The most famous single from the album was yet another cover interpretation version of the song "ערב ערב" a song by Aris San, a Greek singer with huge popularity in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1995 came the third album "לך שרתי", an album successful due to the iconic rendition "אוריאנה" by prominent Israeli singer Rivka Zohar and "שיר של יום חולין" as a duo with Yardena Arazi. In 1997, Peretz released the album "שלווה", which included cover versions of songs composed by Yair Rosenblum. Successful tracks from the album included "אוריאנה" and the duet "שיר של יום חולין" as a return hit of the duet with Arazi. Other famous tracks included "היה לי חבר היה לי אח" and "מיכלי", a song written by Rosenblum's companion shortly before the artist's death. In 1998, came a double CD collection album including his best songs with a bonus of four new songs: "בך מאוהב" and "אור שבעת הימים" as well as duet "זה הלילה" and "התחנה המרכזית", the latter performed with Margalit Tzan'ani. The album also contained bonus videos, and a remixed new performances of his debut hit "קשה לי". In 2001 came the studio album "כל פעם מחדש", an album that brought the hits "שוב לשוב" wrote by Yossi Gispan, and a duet with singer Uriel Shlomi called "אהובה" and "כל פעם מחדש", a song that won the second place in the Israel Song Festival. The distinction of this album was that unlike most previous albums, it was self-composed in nine of the ten tracks included. Peretz in addition to being a successful Mizrahi artist has written songs for many artists, including Margalit Tzan'ani and Eli Luzon. After a hiatus of five years, amidst speculations he released in 2006 his new album "קטנטנה" that has kept his popularity live. In 2012, he returned to celebrate his 20-year career.
