Israeli Annual Hebrew Song Charts

The first annual Israeli song chart aired on 18 September 1963, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, when Kol Yisrael's "Hagal Hakol" service (Reshet Bet) broadcast a combined Hebrew and foreign-language ranking.[1] The format mixed languages because, at that time, there were not yet enough Hebrew hit songs to fill a Hebrew-only chart.[1] "Shir HaShchuna" by the Roosters (HaTarnegolim) became the first Hebrew song to receive the Song of the Year title, with presenter Rivka Michaeli hosting the broadcast.[1]

The song's selection was immediately contentious. Critics regarded "Shir HaShchuna" as sexually suggestive, coarse, and full of street language that had not previously been accepted in that context; despite the controversy, it became a major hit and had been chosen before the Roosters' long-playing record was even released.[1]

A parallel chart tradition had already been developing on Galei Tzahal. The station had broadcast a foreign-language chart from the late 1950s, and radio editor Haim Kinan proposed adding Hebrew songs after joining in 1961.[1] By 1962 Galei Tzahal launched a monthly Hebrew chart — monthly rather than weekly because too few singles were being released for a weekly countdown — with ten songs per chart and separate Artist of the Month and Song of the Month titles.[1] Though listeners sent postcards, Kinan himself selected the monthly winners. The chart was initially called the Hebrew Song Chart on Galei Tzahal and later renamed "Mishlanu."[1]

The National Library of Israel's Sound Archive holds material that reflects the breadth of this era: approximately 10,000 records of Hebrew songs recorded for broadcasting, mainly from the 1950s, along with another 10,000 Hebrew-song tapes recorded by Kol Yisrael in the 1960s and 1970s, later copied to compact discs and made accessible at the Library and on its website.[2] A separate catalog entry documents a Hebrew songbook titled "Hit Parade 1961," published in Tel Aviv around 1961, which included an "Israeli Hit Parade" section listing four songs alongside international and film-and-stage categories — evidence that the concept of ranked Hebrew popular songs predates the formal radio charts.[3]

Following the Six-Day War, Kol Yisrael and Galei Tzahal moved to separate Hebrew songs from foreign-language songs in their annual rankings.[4] The exact timing of this transition is not fully consistent across sources. One Maariv account dates the first separate annual Hebrew charts on both stations to 1968 and names "Malchut HaHermon," performed by the Northern Command Band with Motsi Aviv as vocalist, as the first Hebrew Song of the Year under the new format.[4] A different Maariv account dates Galei Tzahal's first annual Hebrew chart to 1967,[1] while Ynet's retrospective places Kol Yisrael's separation of Israeli and foreign songs in 1969.[5] These accounts may reflect different stages of the transition or different chart formats, but the sources do not resolve the discrepancy into a single consistent date.

Kol Yisrael's weekly and annual charts were suspended in 1968 following criticism, then revived in 1969 in a revised format that also named Singer, Female Singer, and Band of the Year.[1] Dalia Heller, who had edited Galei Tzahal's annual chart from its first edition in 1967, moved to Kol Yisrael in 1970 to edit its weekly and annual Hebrew charts; she recalled the station receiving thousands of postcards for each annual broadcast.[1] In 1976 the annual chart migrated to the newly launched Reshet Gimel, where it became known as "Makom BaTzameret" ("A Place at the Top").[1]

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, annual-chart voting relied primarily on postcards sent to radio stations, with listeners nominating songs and artists.[4] Participation was limited and declined over time, while artists' supporters and managers could attempt to manipulate the results by submitting forged or duplicated postcards.[4] In 1986, Galei Tzahal editor Dalit Ofer explained the decision to close the station's "Mishlanu" chart by saying that it was not respectable to build rankings on roughly 30 postcards a week.[5] Such a small voting pool made the postcard system particularly vulnerable to manipulation.[4]

Telephone voting eventually replaced postcards, substantially expanding participation. A Ynet report on the annual broadcasts described about 30,000 voters for Reshet Gimel's chart in the relevant year, considerably more than for Galei Tzahal's; most voters were female, and their average age was approximately 25.[6] The annual voting pool differed markedly from the weekly-chart audience: Reshet Gimel's weekly chart typically drew around 3,000 regular voters, and Galei Tzahal's about 1,000.[6]

This difference had practical consequences. A song that performed strongly during the weekly season could disappear from the annual results because the larger, less regular annual audience had different tastes.[6] Editors did not directly determine the vote, but their cumulative influence was exercised through decisions about which songs received airplay throughout the year.[6] Categories expanded beyond Song of the Year to include Singer of the Year, Female Singer of the Year, Band or Duo of the Year, and Discovery of the Year.[6] The charts explicitly measured popularity rather than artistic quality.[6]

In 1967, "Geshem Geshem Bo" by the Nahal Band won Galei Tzahal's "Mishlanu" chart. A Maariv retrospective identifies it as the station's first annual chart and says the result also matched "Hagal Hakol."[1][5] The absence of Naomi Shemer's "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" from the chart drew criticism at the time.[1][5]

For the year 5749 (1988–89), Mashina's instrumental track "Rikud Hamakhona" was chosen as Song of the Year in Reshet Gimel's annual Hebrew chart — the only instrumental piece ever to receive that title.[7] The tune had earlier featured in the band's live performances of "Baderekh el Hayam" and remained without lyrics after the band members were unable to continue writing them.[7]

In 1984–85 (Hebrew year 5745), Yardena Arazi's "Lo Na'atzor" placed second in the annual Hebrew song chart and 27th in the annual summary for that year, while Arazi was named Female Singer of the Year.[8] The song, with lyrics by Yoram Taharlev and music by Nurit Hirsh, had won first place at the 15th Children's Song Festival, held during Hanukkah 1984.[8]

The divergence between stations was illustrated clearly in 2008: the song "Dvash" was named Song of the Year by Galgalatz while ranking only fourth in Reshet Gimel's annual chart; Media Forest data showed it had been the most-played song on radio that year and had reached number one on Reshet Gimel's weekly chart.[9] A 2024 Jerusalem Post review of Hebrew year 5784 similarly listed different leading songs for Galgalatz, Kan Gimel, and Mako Hitlist, underscoring that no single result represented the whole of Israeli radio.[10]

Alongside broadcaster-run countdowns, ACUM — the Israeli organization that protects composers', lyricists', and music publishers' rights — publishes annual rankings based on monitored radio airplay. ACUM's AcumOnAir system tracks broadcasts across 34 licensed national and regional radio stations, and its surveys rank songs, songwriters, composers, arrangers, and performers.[11]

The 2012 ACUM announcement included separate top-ten lists for Hebrew and international songs. Eyal Golan's "Kashat Ito" led the Hebrew list, followed by Shlomi Shabat's "Yesh Lach" and Mosh Ben-Ari's "Teni Li Siman"; Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" topped the international list.[12]

For 2022, Anna Zak's "Lech Lishon" ("Go to Sleep") ranked first in ACUM's list of the 20 most-played songs on Israeli radio, followed by Static & Ben El with Netta Barzilai on "Efes Maaamatz" ("Zero Effort") and Lior Narkis's "One in a Million."[13] That year also saw a notable shift in representation: five female singers appeared in the top ten and six in the top 20, compared with just one female singer in the prior year's top ten.[13]

The 2024/2025 ACUM airplay ranking named Hatikva 6's "Superheroes" the most-played Israeli song — described as a tribute to a nation that mobilized after October 7 — while Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" led the international category.[14]

In the 2026 rankings, covering Hebrew year 5786, Eyal Golan's "Mada Bidyoni" ("Science Fiction") ranked first, followed by Peer Tasi's "Of Muzar" and Noam Bettan's "Michelle."[11] The rest of the top ten included Tasi's "Ma Yihye Machar" (fourth), Osher Cohen's "Kulam Ganavim" (fifth), Odeya Azoulay's "Rocky" (sixth), Omer Adam's "Malkat Hador" (seventh), Hanan Ben Ari and Tasi's "Halevai" (eighth), Tasi's "Hee Lo Yoda'at Lama" (ninth), and Ben Zur's "Kol Akeva Letova" (tenth).[11] The top 20 also included a new version of Naomi Shemer's "Od Lo Ahavti Dai," performed by Yehoram Gaon and Subliminal, alongside songs by Hatikva 6, Noa Kirel, and Idan Amedi.[11]

Category rankings accompanied the song list: Avi Ohayon was named ACUM's most-played songwriter and composer for the eighth consecutive year, Sarit Hadad led female performers, and Eyal Golan topped the male-performer list.[11] Reflecting the enduring affection Israeli audiences hold for certain artists, the late Arik Einstein ranked third among male performers in the 2026 results.[11]

A separate annual countdown run by Ynet and Galgalatz named Sasson Shaulov's "Always Loves Me" Song of the Year in its own ranking; Omer Adam's "Queen of the Generation" placed second and Idan Amedi's "Superman" third, with Amedi also receiving that countdown's Person of the Year and Performance of the Year titles.[15]

For much of their history, the annual Hebrew song charts functioned as a primary measure of an Israeli artist's standing. Yigal Ravid described the chart as once having the power to "crown" or bring down singers, and recalled Arik Einstein saying he sat close to the radio each year to hear whether his songs had succeeded.[4] The annual broadcast became a cultural event that extended beyond the music industry into general public life.[4][6]

Over time the charts' centrality diminished as online views, social-media metrics, live-performance revenue, and the proliferation of competing countdowns offered additional and often larger platforms for measuring popularity.[4] Yet the annual rankings — whether produced by ACUM's computerized monitoring system or by broadcaster-run listener votes — remain a recognized fixture of Israeli musical culture, providing yearly snapshots of the songs and artists embraced by different radio audiences.[11][6]

The charts have faced recurring criticism on several fronts. The postcard voting system that governed the early decades was demonstrably fragile: artists and managers could submit forged entries, while the small number of participants made the results vulnerable to manipulation.[4] Galei Tzahal editor Dalit Ofer said the station closed "Mishlanu" in 1986 because it was not respectable to base a chart on roughly 30 postcards a week.[5] In 1989, the State Comptroller called for a different ranking method; Reshet Gimel's editor noted at the time that a sales-based chart was impractical because Israeli record companies did not release singles.[5]

The representation of Mizrahi and Mediterranean music was a sustained point of contention. Critics argued that chart results did not reflect sales or live-performance success, and in 1998 representatives of Mizrahi music protested Galei Tzahal results that placed Eyal Golan fourth and Sarit Hadad third in the singer categories.[5] The historical underrepresentation of the genre has also been attributed in part to editors' programming tastes; stations later adopted broader inclusion policies.[4]

The multiplicity of charts itself has created ambiguity: because Galgalatz, Reshet Gimel, Galei Tzahal, ACUM, and media outlets have maintained rankings with differing methodologies, an individual result does not represent a unified national verdict. The divergence between stations — illustrated by the 2008 case of "Dvash" and the different chart leaders reported for Hebrew year 5784 — has been a recurring structural feature.[9][10]