Season 1 (2003) The first season of
Kokhav Nolad ran between May and August 2003. The first season was a collaboration with an earlier Israeli TV program called לא נפסיק לשיר (meaning We will not stop singing) that had started in 2002. The 2003 season, the second and last of the original music quiz program and the first of Kokhav Nolad (כוכב נולד) was jointly called "לא נפסיק לשיר - כוכב נולד". After this initial joint season, Kokhav Nolad was launched separately as an independent show in 2004. The finale was held on 28 August 2003 at the
Nitzanim Beach in front of a live audience of 7,000 people. The judges for the final were the Israeli composer and producer Roni Brown רוני בראון and singer
Izhar Ashdot (יזהר אשדות).
Ninet Tayeb won first place with the song "Yam Shel Dma'ot" (A Sea of Tears), after receiving 49.3% of the audience votes in the final.
Shiri Maimon was runner-up with the song "
Don Quixote" after receiving 28.2% of the votes.
Shay Gabso came third with 22.5% after performing "Esh" (Fire). Over 1.4 million votes were cast during the final.
Season 2 (2004) The second season of
Kokhav Nolad was held from February to August 2004. The final was broadcast on August 15, 2004 from
Coca Cola Music Village at the
Nitzanim Beach, in front of an audience of 7,500 people.
Harel Moyal won the contest with 862,368 votes,
Harel Skaat took second place with 806,292 votes, and
Adi Cohen took third place with 254,926 votes. Almost 2 million votes were cast during the final. Since Skaat won first place and Moyal second in the first semi-final against Harel Moyal, and since polls held at certain sites indicated that Harel Skaat would win, many were surprised when he did not. A controversy arose about the voting in the final, beginning with claims that the production company had forged the results and ending with claims that voters had used software to send in more votes for their candidate than was allowed by program regulations (250 votes per apparatus). The production staff denied all of these allegations. On Thursday, August 19, a small
demonstration of about 20 Harel Skaat fans was held in front of the offices of Shidurey Keshet. The demonstrators demanded that they investigate the claims and recount the votes.
Keshet Broadcasting reported that the matter was investigated and no irregularities were found.
Season 3 (2005) The third season of
Kokhav Nolad was held from March to August 2005. The final was held on August 29, 2005 in
Tel Aviv in front of thousands of people.
Yehuda Sa'ado won first place with the song "Sadot Shel Irusim," getting 918,520 votes,
Michael Kirkilan won second place with "Yesh BeLibi Kinor," getting 370,631 votes, and
Shir Biton won third place with "Smakhot Ktanot," getting 322,288 votes. 1.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the winning moment.
Season 4 (2006) The fourth season of
Kokhav Nolad ran from May to September 2006. The final was held on September 7, 2006 at
Volume Tel Aviv, in front of an audience of 40,000 people, attracting over a million viewers.
Jacko Eisenberg won 1st place with 846,039 votes and
Maya Rotman was the runner-up with 514,981 votes.
Season 5 (2007) The fifth season of
Kokhav Nolad was held in 2007. The final of
Kokhav Nolad 5 was held on Golan Beach in the eastern side of the
Sea of Galilee (opposite the city of
Tiberias, west of the sea) on August 29, 2007. After the first semifinal, Zvika Hadar announced that Marina Maximillian Blumin had qualified. In the second semifinal Boaz Ma'uda won first place in his bracket.
Chen Aharoni went into a head-to-head with Shlomi Bar'el, with Shlomi coming out as the victor. As such Marina, Boaz, and Shlomi were the final three contestants. a first for the series was the participation of
Miriam Tukan, in the fifth season, becoming the first
Arab participant of Kokhav Nolad.
Bo'az Ma'uda won with 50% of the vote,
Marina Maximilian Blumin - 27% was runner and
Shlomi Bar'el third with 23% of the vote. Bar'el went on to sign a contract with
Hed Arzi Music and Blumin with
Helicon Records. In addition,
Chen Aharoni and Adir Ohayon, reached deals with
NMC Music.
Season 6 (2008) The winner was
Israel Bar-On.
Season 7 (2009) An addition to the new season, of the show, was
transsexual singer and former
Eurovision Song Contest winner
Dana International, who joined the show as a judge, fifth in the panel that includes composer
Svika Pik, singer
Margalit Tsanani, director and choreographer
Tsedi Tsarfati, plus writer and music critic
Gal Uchovsky. The show's host as usual was comedian
Zvika Hadar. Auditions were held in Israel in
Tel Aviv,
Beersheba, and
Haifa. While in
Kokhav Nolad 6, auditions were also held in
India; this time the judges went to find singers in the Americas. The finale was broadcast live from
Eilat. The average age of the seventh season was remarkably low, because many of the contestants had not finished high school when the show aired. Although the show is mostly dedicated to Israeli and Hebrew music, this year the participants were allowed to sing some songs in
Arabic,
English,
Russian and
Spanish. On August 23, the finalists were announced to be
Mei Finegold,
Vladi Blayberg and
Roni Dalumi, Ron Dalumi winning the competition with 61% of the votes.
Season 8 (2010) The winner was
Diana Golbi.
Season 9 (2011) The auditions started in January 2011 and the televised season in April 2011. The winner was
Hagit Yaso.
Season 10 (2012) The auditions started in late 2011 and the televised season in May 2012. The winner was
Or Taragan. ==Show cancellation==