Yaakov (Kobi) Ventura (later Kobi Oshrat) was born in Haifa to parents who had immigrated from Salonika. After an early career on the Israeli stage, in 1969 he began composing and arranging music for radio, TV, film and advertisements. Oshrat achieved international fame when his composition, Hallelujah, sung by the Israeli group Milk and Honey, won the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest. Oshrat has written more than 1000 songs, but Hallelujah is his most famous, with 400 cover versions of it around the world.[1]
Oshrat also composed and conducted the 1985 and 1992 Israeli entries. He conducted the 1987 and 1991 Israeli entries but did not write the music for them.
