Artist · chart history
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Solo artist Honolulu
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole is an artist from Honolulu. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole has 9 chart appearances on 9 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2007–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Over The Rainbow”, which appears on 5 lists with a best position of #32. The station that charted Israel Kamakawiwo'ole most often is WYEP (Pittsburgh, PA), with 3 appearances.
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, known to his fans simply as IZ or Braddah IZ, gave the world a song so gentle it barely seems to touch the ground. The Native Hawaiian singer from Honolulu, born in 1959, played the ukulele with a light, rolling touch and sang in a high, sweet voice, folding jazz and reggae into the music of Hawaii.
His 1993 album Facing Future made him a commercial force, and his medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" turned out to be his calling card: just a ukulele and that voice, strummed and sung as if he were sitting on the porch, turning two old standards into a quiet prayer. It spent 375 weeks at the top of Billboard's World Digital Songs chart, the longest run at number one on any of the magazine's song charts.
He died in 1997, but his music kept finding new ears: in 2010 NPR named him one of its 50 Great Voices, calling him the Voice of Hawaii, and in 2011 he picked up an Echo Pop Award for Hit of the Year.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Over The Rainbow | 5 | #32 | – | – | |
| 2 | Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World | 1 | #82 | – | – | |
| 3 | Somewhere over the Rainbow | 1 | #98 | – | – | |
| 4 | Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World | 1 | #176 | – | – | |
| 5 | What A Wonderful World | 1 | #434 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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