Ninet Tayeb

From Kochav Nolad to Steven Wilson

Nati Ninet Tayeb, known as Ninet, was born on October 21, 1983 in Kiryat Gat, Israel. She served in the Israeli Defense Forces combat engineering corps, won a youth talent contest at fifteen with a Mariah Carey cover, and names Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Oasis among her influences. In 2003 she won the first season of the reality show Kochav Nolad with about 49 percent of the vote, released her debut single "Kmo Shir Noget" that November, and starred in the daily musical drama HaShir Shelanu from 2004 to 2005. She sings and plays guitar, piano and drums, and has worked as an actress, DJ and television presenter.

Her first album, Yachafa (Barefoot, September 7, 2006, Helicon), was produced mainly by Aviv Geffen. Communicative (November 17, 2009) turned to alternative rock; Sympathetic Nervous System (May 30, 2012) was in English, produced by Mike Crossey at Motor Museum Studio in Liverpool; All the Animals Knew (May 3, 2013) was in Hebrew. She lived in Los Angeles from 2016, released Paper Parachute, her first US album, on February 3, 2017, and gave an NPR Tiny Desk concert published March 3, 2017, with Joseph E-Shine Mizrahi, Matt McJunkins, Doron Kochli and Yotam Weiss. Later records are I Got Up to Dance (2023) and Ani Nina, listed for June 4, 2026.

She sang on Steven Wilson's Hand. Cannot. Erase. in 2015, on a re-recording of Porcupine Tree's "Don't Hate Me" for the 4 1/2 EP in 2016, on To the Bone in 2017, and co-wrote and duetted "Rock Bottom" on The Harmony Codex (September 29, 2023). She joined Wilson at the Royal Albert Hall in 2015 and March 2018.