Shlomo Artzi was born on Moshav Alonei Abba. Artzi's parents were Holocaust survivors and their memories deeply influenced him and his sister Nava Semel, a playwright. His father, Yitzhak Artzi, a Zionist activist in Bukovina, Romania in his youth, was later a member of the Knesset. His maternal grandmother was the sister of Rabbi Meir Shapiro.