Shani Hazan

Hazan grew up in Kiryat Ata, a city in northern Israel, as one of five children raised by her parents, Eli and Sigal, who operated a transportation business.[1] From an early age she showed an interest in performance: she sang in a school choir, studied theater, and appeared at Independence Day events, including on Kiryat Ata's main stage.[1] She was discovered as a model at the age of 15.[1]

At 19, while completing her mandatory service in the Israeli Navy, Hazan auditioned for the Miss Israel competition — a step she described as a personal challenge, noting that she did not know how to walk in high heels before the competition began.[1]

Hazan won the Miss Israel title in 2012 at a ceremony held in Haifa.[2] In the months following her win she began a professional path that included preparations for international competition, public appearances, volunteer activity, and modeling work.[3] She was photographed for Blazer's swimwear magazine but appeared in beachwear rather than a swimsuit, as she was expected to lead a campaign for a swimwear company and the magazine wished to avoid a conflict of interest.[3] As titleholder, Hazan said she felt a responsibility to represent the country and was comfortable entering the industry at a measured pace.[3]

Hazan went on to compete at Miss World 2012, reaching the final group of 30 contestants from a field of 117.[4] Preliminary events included talent, Beach Beauty, and Top Model competitions, and she advanced to the semifinals in Beach Beauty and Top Model, with photo shoots conducted in a desert setting she described as particularly beautiful.[4] For the talent segment, she performed "Move On," a song written and composed by her cousin Shahar Even-Tzur of the band Monica Sex; she advanced in the talent event but did not reach its Top 10.[4] She also noted that Spanish-speaking contestants from South America were easy to communicate with because she spoke Spanish, and she described the experience of contestants bonding during the competition.[4]

A memorable moment from the competition came on her first night, when her Danish roommate — responding to Hazan's introduction in Hebrew — answered fluently in the same language and said, "Listen, I'm sleeping. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Hazan recalled that the two became close friends the following day.[4] The prize for winning Miss Israel was a pink Suzuki; Hazan noted at the time that she did not yet have a driver's license, and that her boyfriend Daniel had offered to drive her.[4]

After completing her pageant duties, Hazan returned to military service and planned to enroll in the preparatory program at the Beit Zvi performing-arts school.[4] She worked as a presenter for Aphrodite and Reebok and studied acting at the Keren Yadovskimov Studio; by 2017 she was working on several singles that the article said would soon be heard on Israeli radio.[5] A 2017 profile described the Reebok campaign as a high point in her modeling work.[1]

Her ambitions shifted increasingly toward music. In 2015 she said she had been eliminated from Israel's edition of The X Factor before reaching the judges' houses stage.[6] She described taking the elimination hard at first but later welcoming it, crediting the program with introducing her to music professionals who could help promote her songs and album.[6] She rejected the suggestion that her pageant background made her a gimmick, expressing a desire to demonstrate that a model and a singer could be the same person.[6] She also said she wanted to promote a healthy body image, including the idea that a model can eat and still succeed in the industry.[6]

Hazan indicated she had been accepted to an acting school around the same time but had not yet decided to begin, describing modeling and music as her primary ambitions for the future.[6] By early 2017 she was preparing to relocate to New York to write music, explore acting opportunities, and build a presence in a market where she was not yet known.[1] An October 2017 report confirmed the move had been completed approximately four months earlier, and noted that she had joined New York Models.[7]

In a 2017 interview, at the age of 24, Hazan spoke publicly about sexual abuse she said she experienced as a child, describing abuse by a family friend from the age of 8 to 14 and a separate assault at age 14 at her school.[1] She said she had kept much of this from others for years and had disclosed it to her parents only a few months before the interview.[1]

Hazan said she chose to speak out because she wanted women who had experienced sexual violence to have a space to talk and to understand that what had happened was not their fault.[1] She described receiving messages from women who told her that her account had given them the courage to speak about their own experiences, and said she hoped to establish an organization where women could come and talk.[1] She said that performing on stage had become a place of freedom for her — "Freedom is the most important thing in my life" — and spoke about her planned move to New York as a continuation of that independence: "I don't need a safety net. I am my safety net."[1]