Noam Kaniel

Noam Kaniel (born August 18, 1962 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a singer and composer, who has sold over 8 million records, and is known for composing or performing the theme songs of many animated series including X-Men, Goldorak, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Heathcliff and Code Lyoko. 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) Discography: 1974 Dessine-moi le bonheur 1974 Difficile de choisir 1975 Une maman 1975 Viens maman on va danser 1976 Lollipop 1976 Prends cette rose 1977 Rien ne vaut le mercredi 1978 Goldorak 1978 Le Retour de Goldorak 1979 Albator 78 1979 The Incredible Hulk 1979 Spider-Man, l'araignée 1979 Superman 1980 Aime (French version of Fame) 1980 The Fantastic Four 1980 Shérif... Fais-moi peur ! 1982 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 1983 The Mysterious Cities of Gold 1985 La Chanson des entrechats 1985 Les Entrechats sont là 1986 Popples 1986 M.A.S.K. 1988 My Butterfly (song dedicated to Kira Kaniel, who died of terminal cancer) 1992 X-Men Dare-dare Motus la Vie des Botes BéCéBéGé Diplodo La lucarne d'Amilcar Music composition for series: Pig City (2001) - Theme and original score L'odyssee (2001) - Theme and original score Sacre Andy (2002) - Theme and original score W.I.T.C.H. (2003-2005) - Theme and original score Gadget and the Gadgetinis - French Theme Les Tofous (2004) - Theme and original score Alien Bazar (2004) - Theme and original score Code Lyoko (2004) - Interprete of the English version (Canal J / France 3, titre: A World without Danger) Martin Mystery (2004) - Theme Action Man A.T.O.M. (2005) - Theme and original score POP Secret (2006) - Theme and original score Les 4 Fantastiques (2006) - original score Combo Niños (2007) - Theme and original score Monster Buster Club (2007) - generique In Ze Boite (2008-2011) - Theme and original score Gormiti (2008-2011) - original score Casper's Scare School (2009) - Theme and original score TARA DUNCAN (2010) - original score Rekkit Rabbit (2010) - Theme and original score Power Rangers Samurai (2011) - Theme and original score - Nickelodeon US (Canal J/ Gulli) The Mysterious Cities of Gold (2012) - Original background music (TF1) Power Rangers Megaforce (2013) Digimon Fusion (2013) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.