Gideon Gov was born in Rehovot, and received the nickname "Gidi", by which he has been ever since known to the public. Gidi's father died when he was very young, which made his mother move from place to place, so he lived in different places in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Eilat. He wanted to go into a combat unit in the Israeli army but because of his asthma he eventually got into the Israeli army singing troupe, of the "Nahal" unit, where he had many memorable performances with many other famous-to-be Israeli actors and singers.

In 1973 he formed the band Kaveret (meaning "beehive" in Hebrew) with some of his friends a number of his friends from the Nahal Band, including Danny Sanderson and Efraim Shamir, plus other up-and-coming musicians including Yoni Rechter. Kaveret, known as "Poogy" in performances abroad, became one of the most popular Israeli bands in the 1970s, and among other accomplishments, represented Israel in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Natati La Khayay". The band broke up in 1976.

After the breakup, Gov joined the short-lived band "Parnasa Tova" (meaning "good income"), which included another well-known singer, Yehudit Ravitz.

In 1978 Gov put out his first solo album (appropriately called "Taklit Rishon", or "first album"); he has since released six other solo albums.

In 1979, Gov formed the pop-rock band "Gazoz" (meaning "soft drink" in Hebrew) with Danny Sanderson. The band only lasted long enough to produce two albums, but it was a very popular and still-remembered group.

In addition to his music career, Gov acted in Israeli motion pictures such as the "Ha-Lehaka" ("The Troupe") in 1978, which describes life in the military band;, "Dizengoff 99" in 1979 and more.

From 1979 to 1993 he was a co-host of the successful comedy show Zehu Ze! ("That's it!"), which included famous Israeli comedians such as Monny Moshonov and Shlomo Bar-Abba.

At the start of the 1980s he participated in a number of Israeli children's music festivals.

In 1994 he left Zehu Ze on amicable terms, to his own host musical/talk show, called "Laila Gov" (a play on the phrase "laila tov", meaning "good night"), on Channel 2, Israel's first commercial TV channel. The show was a moderate success. In 1995 the TV broadcasters wanted to take "Lilah Gov" off the air, but were convinced not to due to a petition signed by several thousand protesting fans.

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