Kokhav Nolad (Hebrew: כּוֹכָב נוֹלַד; meaning "A Star Is Born") was an Israeli reality television show searching for talented new vocalists, based on the British Pop Idol model.

The contest was open to aspiring singers, most of them in their late teens and early 20s, who appeared before a panel of judges, who evaluated their performances.

Kokhav Nolad was preceded by another program called Lo Nafsik Lashir, in which the participants competed in their knowledge of Hebrew songs, not on the quality of their singing.

In the 9th season the singer Miri Mesika and the musician Yair Nitzani replaced Gal Ochovsky, Dana International and Pavlo Rozenberg.

For Kokhav Nolad 7, Israeli musician & singer Dudu Tassa made a theme named "Ratsiti Lashir" - simply translated as "I wanted to sing".

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 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.

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.

On Thursday, August 19, a small demonstration of about 20 Harel Skaat fans was held in front of the offices of Shidurey Keshet.

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.

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 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 20 May 2013, it was announced that judge Moshe Peretz was leaving the show to host the first season of The X Factor Israel on a competing station, Reshet.

The first series winner Ninette Tayeb, came from Kiryat Gat, inhabited by mainly Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews notably from North Africa.

Contrary to first season winner Ninette Tayeb who served in the IDF, and to Harel Moyal winner in season 2, a soldier in the Israel Border Police, also composing songs for the military forces, with Idan Amedi auditioning with a song he wrote while in the Israeli Combat Engineering Corps, Eisenberg said publicly in an interview that he would not serve in the military, raising protests against his defiant declarations and led to calls for his boycott.

In response, Kokhav Nolad held special auditions at various Army outlets to encourage those in military service to try to apply for the competition.

Huge media attention focused on her with her insistence in incorporating Arab-themed music in her interpretations rather than the general Jewish content of other contestants.

Tukan did not make it to the finals and the fifth season title went to Bo'az Ma'uda who would eventually represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest.

[citation needed] The changing ethnic landscape of Israeli society was also highlighted with the title win by Diana Golbi, a Russian Jew in season 8.

Artists publicly criticizing the show included Chava Alberstein (חוה אלברשטיין) and Yehoram Gaon (יהורם גאון).