Iranian Singer Draws in Israelis
MALVEAUX: When you hear about Israel and Iran, you might think of nuclear tensions or two countries sounding like they're on the brink of war. Probably not music, divas, pop culture. But as Elise Labott reports, a Persian singer named Rita, she is bridging the gap between these two countries.</s>ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She sings in Farsi, the language of Iran, but the fans dancing at her feet are Israeli and she's their top diva. Rita Johanfaruz known simply as Rita, now a cultural ambassador between two sworn enemies.</s>RITA JOHANFARUZ, ISRAELI ROCK STAR: Music was always a language -- one language that everyone could get connected with and be open to it.</s>LABOTT: As the crowds gather outside, a warm-up ritual with her band. Her performance, an affair with her audience, seducing them with tales of her native language. Born in Tehran, her family came to Israel when she was only eight. But the sounds and scents of the streets of Tehran remain with her, as does the music.</s>JOHANFARUZ: Especially, I think I remember my mother singing all through my childhood. So the music was a very big part of my life. I knew who I wanted to be since I was four years old. I used to sing, I think, some Persian song like</s>LABOTT: Settling into a Tel Aviv suburb, music remained her passion, singing in Hebrew and quickly rising to stardom. In 1988, this Iranian</s>JOHANFARUZ: To be a foreigner when you were a child and suddenly that you were chosen from all of those amazing singers and artists in Israel to sing the anthem.</s>LABOTT: A year ago, she decided it was time to revisit the soundtrack to her childhood.</s>JOHANFARUZ: I was in the middle of making another Israeli Hebrew record. Suddenly I felt like something is not matching and I felt something in my stomach that started to burn and to -- and I felt that I want to make a record that is (ph) the music of my childhood, my family.</s>LABOTT: She called it "All My Joys." A compilation of classic version ballads with a modern twist. It topped the charts in Israel and went gold within three weeks. While most western style music is banned in Tehran, Rita is an underground hit. Iranians download and buy bootleg copies of her albums at their own risk and flood her with messages over e-mail and FaceBook.</s>JOHANFARUZ: I want to show the real culture, the real amazing, amazing culture of Iranian and they, the Iranian people, you know, they feel that.</s>LABOTT: Visiting a Persian language Internet radio station in Tel Aviv last year, the lines ran hot with Iranians who love her music.</s>JOHANFARUZ: We have to do it more until some, you know, some magic will happen. And we have to believe in magic. When there will be a peace, because it's going to be, and I'm going to sing there. Let me dream. Let me dream.</s>LABOTT: A dream, indeed. As an Israeli citizen now, she can't go back to her homeland, but she has a message for the people of Iran.</s>JOHANFARUZ: We are not enemies at all. We don't have anything to be enemy. I believe that if we, all of us, would scratch this wall that they put between us, we can -- we can take it off soon.</s>LABOTT: Tearing down walls, building bridges, giving a voice to hope. Elise Labott, CNN, Tel Aviv.</s>MALVEAUX: What an amazing story. This next young lady just swam across Lake Ontario and she's only 14.