Roy "Chicky" Arad

Roy Chicky Arad engages in art, prose, poetry, filmmaking and journalism. Born in Beer-Sheva. Today he lives and creates in Tel-Aviv.

In the year 2000, as a member of the pop-dance group “Pingpong”, Chicky participated in the Eurovision song contest, which is regarded with immense seriousness in Israel. As soon as the selection of the group to represent Israel was announced, a lot of criticism was drawn. When on stage, in front of millions of viewers, the band members waved the national flags of both Israel and Syria, in order to present the natural longing for peace with Israel’s northern neighbour. In addition, group members displayed hints of bisexual acts. The performance aroused a big debate in Israel large-scale condemnation of the group, resulting in Chicky getting fired from a television spot he used to present, and an Israeli radio and television ban over the group’s songs. The happenings of Chicky in the Eurovision song contest were portrayed in the moving documentary “Happy Story” (Dir. by Alon Weinstock, Channel 8). In 2004 Chicky started to work with the American label Comfort Stand. His first release was "Tourists, come to Israel, it's a nice country EP". On 7th January 2005 Chicky released two different albums: "Monster", in Comfortstand, together with the French musician Chenard Walcker. And "Sputnik in Love" in the dutch label "WM Recordings", the first album he produced himself. In July 2005 chicky released "I Vanunu" with Chenard Walcker (Freesamplezone, Paris).