Starlet Quits Israeli ‘American Idol’ After Dad Admits To Skewing Vote
Following a voting scandal caused by her own father, a teenage singer has quit the Israeli version of “American Idol.”
Seventeen-year-old Tamar Yahalomi announced today that she will not compete in the semi-finals of “Kochav Nolad” (“A Star Is Born”), the popular Israeli edition of the singing contest. The decision came several days after it was revealed that voting irregularities had influenced the results of earlier episodes of the show — and that Tamar’s father stood behind the skewed results.
“Although it’s clear to everyone that Tamar had no connection whatsoever to the votes, [she] has decided that, because of the atmosphere created around her … she has no desire to continue in the competition this year,” the father, Dekel Yahalomi, wrote in a letter made public by the show’s producers.
The announcement followed what the Shmooze imagines were several extremely awkward days in the Yahalomi household, during which the aspiring singer disappeared from public view after weeks as one of the show’s most talked-about contestants.
The scandal erupted last week, after the show’s producers and a firm providing technical support noticed that suspiciously large numbers of votes for Yahalomi originated from a small number of cellular devices. Dekel Yahalomi later admitted to setting up the scheme.
Show producers accepted the senior Yahalomi’s claim that he alone bore responsibility for the incident, inviting Tamar Yahalomi to return to the show — along with several contestants eliminated during the manipulated votes.
As with their American counterparts, a lot is at stake for the show’s contestants: a number of previous winners and runners-up have gone on to successful careers as singers and actors.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion How Trump’s attacks on the university target what has made America great for Jews
-
Culture This Jewish New Yorker survived the Holocaust and the Hungarian Revolution, and is still helping others today
-
Fast Forward Trump says he and Netanyahu are ‘on the same side of every issue’ following talks on Iran, tariffs
-
Fast Forward California school board members accused of antisemitism during contentious meeting
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.