Singing ‘My Way,’ Filipina Caregiver Rosa Fostanes Wins Israel’s ‘X Factor’
Under the Radar Talent: Rosa Fontanes came to Israel four years and cares for an elderly Tel Aviv woman.
A Filipina caregiver, once part of a faceless crowd of foreign workers who tend to Israel’s infirm and elderly, has won one of the country’s most popular TV singing contests.
Competing in Israel’s version of “The X Factor,” Rose Fostanes, 47, swept the judges off their feet with a winning rendition of the Frank Sinatra standard “My Way” in Tuesday’s final.
Fostanes, who came to Israel four years ago, has been working for about 20 years across the Middle East, and currently cares for an ailing woman in Tel Aviv.
“I’m speechless. I cannot say anything now. I can’t believe that (this has) happened to me,” Fostanes said in English after her victory.
In the run-up to the final, Fostanes said she hoped her popularity on the show would shine a spotlight on Israel’s low-paid foreign workers, who include about 20,000 Filipinos.
She has been compared to the Scottish singer Susan Boyle, 52, who shot to fame in 2009 after appearing on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent” and performing a powerful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables.”
For many Israelis, the word “Filipino” has become synonymous with caregiver, and Fostanes’s appearance and success on Israel’s “X Factor” could help break the stereotype.
“I wanted Rose to win. She’s amazing, I really want her life to change. She’s a great singer,” said Shiri Maimon, an Israeli singer who was one of the judges.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
