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A Berklee-trained Japanese-Israeli jazz and soul vocalist, Geila Zilkha is a Kobe Jazz Vocal Queen winner. Renowned for her soulful voice, she excels in solo projects, anime soundtracks, and jazz reinterpretations of Showa-era classics.
Geila Zilkha is a highly accomplished and recognized jazz and soul vocalist based in Japan. Her name, "Geila," translates to "joy" in Hebrew, derived from the Israeli folk song "Havana Gila." Born and raised in Kobe to an Israeli father and a Japanese mother, she grew up fluent in both English and Japanese and attended the Canadian Academy. Her artistic journey began with ballet at age three, but after being diagnosed with scoliosis and undergoing surgery at age nine, she transitioned her focus to music. She initially learned the alto saxophone and keyboard, leading a jazz big band in high school before being accepted to Berklee College of Music in Boston. During her second year at Berklee, she realized her voice was her true instrument and changed her major to singing. She studied under mentors including April Arabian, Bob Stoloff, Orville Wright, and Dennis Montgomery III, participating in the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Vocal Summit, and Reverence Gospel Choir before graduating in 1991. Returning to Kobe, Zilkha worked as a television and radio personality, hosting programs for FM802 and ABC Television. After the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake interrupted her career, she moved to Tokyo, where she became a prolific voice actor and commercial singer. Her vocals have been featured in advertisements for major companies such as Mazda, All Nippon Airways (ANA), and Haagen Dazs. In 2002, she founded the all-female gospel group Voissalot Choir, which released three albums (Crystal Aspiration, With Your Life, and Rose) and performed on international stages, including an invited appearance in New York in 2009. In 2007, she formed the duo SOLO-DUO with vocalist Ayumu Yahaba. In 2010, Zilkha won the Grand-Prix at the Kobe Jazz Vocal Queen Contest, leading to a performance in Seattle. That same year, she released her debut solo album, "all Me," which became a major hit in the Japanese jazz scene. This was followed by "appearance" in 2011, "Day Dreaming" in 2013, and the live studio recording "Geila Zilkha & Super Soul Jazz" in 2014. She also leads the "Girayama Jiruko" project, which reinterprets Showa-era Japanese pop classics through jazz arrangements across two volumes. Her work in anime includes performing "Return to Love" for SoltyRei and "Shiroi Heya" for Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt, as well as providing translations and lyrics for various projects. Currently, she is a jazz vocal instructor at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music and continues to release music, including the 2022 album "ORIGINALS" and the 2025 project "MOON EXPRESS."