Back to home page
One step back
This article has been published on 17.5.2000 in the biggest selling Israeli newspaper called "Yediot aharonot" (wich means: "Latest news"). It's written by Boaz Cohen and has been sent to me by the person who mailed me last week with the news that Eden would stop being an MTV VJ. It was in Hebrew, but that person was so kind to make a translation.
The writing was on the screen for quite a while. Viewers of the music channel MTV could notice that lately Eden Harel, the Israeli star of the popular music channel, looks a bit down, lacking that primal enthusiasm which characterized her during her first years at the station.
Last night, shortly past midnight, the official statement said: "After five years Harel said she quits her job as VJ on MTV. She will go on vacation on Sunday".
For 60 million viewers in 37 different countries Eden is part of the daily routine. They learned to know her well, wake up with her in the morning and fall for her extrovert style, her changing hair do's and her liberated manner.
The anonymous girl from Eilat beat famous Israeli stars at the MTV auditions, (some of them, presented VJ-like shows) and became the biggest star MTV got on the air and Eden wasn't even 19 years old. She was the youngest presenter at the station that got a show of her own.
After handing her notice, Harel refuses to give interviews, she packs her bags in her London flat and goes on a long vacation, probably in the Caribbean. Related people claim that she got a tempting offer from an American tv network but no deal was yet signed. In the mean time she would like some quietness and being away from the cameras.
She was born in Eilat as Adva (A ripple in Hebrew - Later changed to Eden.) At a year old, her father left home and immigrated to Miami. Ever since she moved all over Israel with her mother, brother and sister. At 11 years old she was sent to Hadassim boarding school. "I'll always land on my feet because I have a surviving nature", she once said, "I started waiting tables in a pub at 14, carried beer cases, slapped perverts faces, and look where I am now".
She entered the mind of millions of European viewers by chance. When she worked in a Tel-Aviv club (Allanby 58) a friend told her there were auditions for presenters in the city.
"I came with no expectations. The conversation was in English, they shot me, I was really cool and that's it. They told me I was in", said she five years ago. How simple.
The debut broadcast was June 5 1995. Thousands of Israelis got up early to watch our Representative on MTV at 7 AM, local time. Harel presented "Waking on the wild side", the most famous show on MTV, following the footsteps of well known past presenters like Rebecca de Rovo. In Israel her first shows were severely criticized.
But before she turned 19 Eden became the most popular presenter of MTV Europe. Ceremony and event producers began approaching her so she would honor gala evenings with her presence. Israeli tv asked her to present the 1999 Eurovision songcontest. She firmly refused that offer.
She interviewed the biggest names in the music industry from Bono (Whom she also kissed on air) to David Bowie at a party in Iceland ("An experience I'll never forget"). Her career moved fast , with no breaks so far. In every visit to Israel she gets offers from advertising agencies wishing to recruit her to a campaign for a fat check. She turns down most offers (She advertised a credit card and a shoe company). "Work is lot's of fun," she admitted, "Travel all over Europe, see new places and meet interesting people and obviously the salary is excellent".
A year ago she was asked how long she would be waking on the wild side. "MTV isn't a job for life. When I'm fed up, I'll stop. There's no doubt it's not fun as it was at the beginning, when everything was new. Afterwards I'd like to do something in the artistic field, I don't know what exactly. It's a great job and London is a wonderful city but I'd rather live in Israel. London is too cold". "Waking up very early in the morning when it's freezing outside, to live with flights and lack of sleep. It's not really glamorous, I don't fly in first class and ride limo's. I'm an ordinary girl with a job and being away from Israel, to me, it isn't a small price to pay for a career".
Lately it shows that she's bored. She can't be nice to 13 year olds calling the show asking for "the new song by Britney Spears". Eden Harel loves rock, she repeatedly said so on several occasions. She prefers listening to the Clash over Ricky Martin and she dreams of making music herself and "To remind everyone that rock'n'roll isn't dead and that it's the best thing there is".
So, would we be seeing Eden Harel in the next round as a rock star?
"It has always been my dream to sing and to have my own band", she said 2 years ago, "But I put it aside when I got the job at MTV".
"I write songs and learn to play the guitar, I could have hooked up with a record company and get a contract on the spot, do one hit, make a huge pile o money and later live on an island of my own, but that would mean being a product and I wouldn't want this. I want to make good songs, real music, start from scratch".