Rita Rivets

Killing me softly with her song ... and her sensuality.

A Persian Penelope Cruz crossed with a honey-throated thrush, Rita is to diva for.

But this beautiful Iranian-born, Israeli-raised singer with the kick-tuches talent -- it helps that she served in the Israeli military -- is no Divine Miss R ego-wise, spinning her experience with the aplomb of a disk on a turntable sending out sparks of gold-record respect.

And there has been much of that in a decades-long career in Israel, where the singer -- born Rita Yahan-Farouz -- is on a first-name basis with fame and fortune and worldwide fans.

It's her world -- and welcome to it, which is exactly what her devoted followers will do this weekend, when Rita performs on March 14 at the Keswick Theatre (www.keswicktheatre.com) in Glenside.

"From day one, all of Israel has hugged me," says the nation's "My Fair Lady" -- she also scored in an Israeli production of that legendary musical -- about her arrival at age 8 from Iran.

By then, she was a vetted veteran, having been singing for four years -- making her pronouncement at a party before friends and family "that I will become a singer!"

Hummus and hit records: "And I have never stopped celebrating being part of Israel."

Fireworks amid the firmament -- for Israel's 60th anniversary, she was voted the nation's "singer of all time."

Time was she had a song in her own heart of love and respect for her adopted homeland: On Israel's 50th anniversary, she was selected to sing "Hatikvah" at a national celebration saluting the country's golden anniversary.

Golden-throated, platinum-talented, her records have recorded the feel and pulse of a thriving nation, whether it be "Shara Barkhovot ('Singing in the Streets')" -- which she sang representing Israel at the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest -- or "Ahava Gedola ('Big Love')," which she adored doing as her third album 16 years ago.

In the sweet 16 years since, she and former husband/ Israeli pop icon Rami Kleinstein collaborated on so many projects they just seemed to pop right out of them.

A 'Good Stew'
What is Rita's recipe? A mix of cultures, she allows. "It is a lot of good stew of so many flavors," she says of the stirring renditions affected by her Iranian/Israeli upbringing. "My music reflects all that."

Her on-stage persona -- visible this Sunday and wherever good Internets are sold -- mixes sauce and sass and a street-strutting sense of just steppin' out. Her sensuous look ... Rita's watery eyes at the conclusion of a down-ballad have audiences wanting to embrace her while her temptress taunts have them wanting to seduce her.

As rosy as things look from her perspective on stage, all she need do is cast her view across the Mideast to her native Tehran and see how life has run away from what she remembers it to be there as a child.

"It is very difficult to see what is happening there now," she says with a sigh. "I remember a completely different Iran, a European-style Iran, so colorful. To see such a dark Iran ... "

And her voice trails off ... But her voice is known there, trailed by many fans who "write me telling me they don't like the policies" of the dictatorial regime forced on them.

"Inside, the people are not" the evil-doers one would think. That trait is reserved for the politicians, she says of those who have overrun Iran with dangerous policies and nuclear blasts of hot air.

Yet it is that colorful memory of childhood which helps color her impressive voice even today, along with one whose music lessons were born to be given.

"Ah, my mother has had a wonderful influence," says Rita of the woman "who sang with her beautiful voice to me as a baby. The first thing I heard was her singing, melodies sung in Persian."

It is no Occident, then, that her current interest revolves around rock music with an Oriental influence.

"What I want to do," she says of her recent alliance with a rock band, "is world music."

While she thinks the world of her ex-husband Rami, she roams now on her own, working with other musicians: "I'm a little more independent."

Yet there is that need for that fun fan base.

"It is the give and take," says Rita of her interaction with audiences. "That is the only way I can do that. I am a person of people."

She flirts with the image of singer/ seductress: "I come from a very warm family, touching and kissing, hugging," she says with a proud laugh.

Decades in the Making
Overnight sensation? Sensation, but decades in the making, attests the singer of her 24-year career that has her, at 48, fortified to go more.

And the performer who knows how to "Open a Window" -- one of her successful albums -- may be looking out at 42nd Street before long.

Dubbed a " 'Billy Elliot' of the streets" by one critic, she was lauded by others as a great "Fair Lady"; indeed, Eliza Doolittle did much to propel her theatrical foothold amid the footlights.

And she rocked hard as Roxie Hart in the Israeli version of "Chicago," approved as second to none when it came to all that Jewish jazz.

And out of that open window now she sees "amazing things."

Could one of them be her Broadway debut?

Rita roars a "give her regards": "Tell [producers] on Broadway that if they have an idea, I'll be there," she says of what may one day become her very own west side story.