Back on the life of the star of popular song in the 1960s, singer, writer, but also founder of a company in the department of Maine-et-Loire. An atypical life course.
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The Israeli Embassy in Paris announced Wednesday, December 23, 2020 the death of Israeli singer RiKa Zaraï, at the age of 82. This very popular singer in the 1960s to 1980s started playing the piano at a very young age. Arriving in Paris, she goes through a difficult period, but her career takes off after meeting Eddie Barclay. She then goes on hits like Casatschok, Hava Naguila or So I sing.
A brutal car accident in 1969 brought his career to a halt. She is at risk of losing the use of her legs. With tenacity and strength of will, she walks again three years later and takes the stage again.
To read also: the subject of Franceinfo.Popular singer Rika Zaraï, known in particular for her hit “Shirtless, Pantsless”, died at 82
After five gold records, she launched into literature and released several books including a bestseller in 1985: “My natural medicine”. Several million books are sold. A success that allows him to invest his copyright in the creation of a business. In 1986, she opened a conditioning plant for “Pronatura” medicinal plants in Saint-Sylvain-d’Anjou. This town, near Angers, is not chosen at random, the department of Maine-et-Loire is specialized in the cultivation of these plants.
The factory then had 70 employees and offered around twenty plants sold in mass distribution (thyme, rosemary, green anise, sage and marjoram …) under the direction of her husband Jean-Pierre Magnier.
But the adventure quickly takes another turn, pharmacists take a very negative view of this marketing which escapes them and launch legal proceedings against Rika Zaraï for “illegal practice of pharmacy”.
► Subject INA. Rika Zaraï interviewed in Nantes on December 07, 1988.
video length: 01:34
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Interview de Rika Zaraï
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A long and publicized trial where the singer and businesswoman Rika Zaraï defended herself with force during a press conference on January 10, 1989: “I don’t mix, she says and I only use culinary plants, released by the Ministry of Health and, from that point on, I don’t see what I can be blamed at all! “
video duration: 00 min 44
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Closure of the Rika Zaraï medicinal plant factory
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In the end, Rika Zaraï and her husband, CEO of Pronatura, then benefit from a dismissal. The Saint-Sylvain-d’Anjou plant closed in 1991 and put an end to its industrial project.
After a stroke in 2008 and a long absence from the stage, she sang at the Folies-Bergères in Paris last February. In a wheelchair, she performed one of her hits, “Prague,” on the occasion of the “Night of the Depression,” and received a standing ovation from the audience.
Rika Zaraï, visionary woman, had also perceived, before much, the need for local production and the benefits of medicinal plants.
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