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. When Artzi was eight years old, his family moved to north Tel Aviv.