Dana International
Dana International |
|---|
Dana International (Hebrew: דנה אינטרנשיונל; stage name of Sharon Cohen, born Yaron Cohen (male) in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 2, 1972) is an Israeli transsexual pop singer of Yemenite origin, who won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest for her song "Diva".
Next to original songs, Dana International is known for her cover versions of old hits. She has so far released eight albums and a further three compilation albums and has worked closely with other Israeli artists, including DJ Offer Nissim.
She made an appearance as both a guest presenter and performer at the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2005, when her 1998 winner Diva was nominated as one of the 14 finalists in the search for the greatest Eurovision song.
Biography
Yaron was the youngest of three children (the others are an older sister Limor and an older brother Nimrod). Yaron realized early that he belonged on stage. He enjoyed the Eurovision Contest and followed it closely, especially when Ofra Haza represented Israel with the song Chai (1983). He had a very happy childhood, and although his family was quite poor, his mom always found money to pay his music lessons. The years changed and this little boy became older, and then happened the first tragedy in his life: his best friend Daniel who he loved and admired and who prophesied Yaron a big career as a singer was deathly involved in an car accident. Yaron wanted to do mountain biking together with him on the streets of Tel Aviv but his parent's didn't allow it to him. Nowadays Dana keep on remember this fact with tears.
Career
1992–1993: Dana International
When he was 18, Yaron started to earn his own money working as a drag-queen. He parodied famous singers and women and he was perfect as a woman. During a show he was discovered by one of the famous Israel dj, Offer Nissim. Finally Yaron could make his dream come true: singing, singing as a woman. Dana first hit was the song Saida Suldana (My Name Is Not Saida). It was a satirical cover of Whitney Houston's song "My Name Is Not Susan". It received a great deal of radio airplay. In 1993, Dana flew to London for sex reassignment surgery, returning as Sharon Cohen. That same year she released her first album, Dana International, in Israel, which was soon released in Greece and other Middle East countries such as Egypt and Jordan. Her stage name came from the title track of this album. Dana International soon went gold in Israel.
1994: Israelian Award
In 1994 she released her second album Umpatampa, which was even more successful and provided a few of her hits. This album went platinum in Israel and has sold more than 50,000 copies to date. Because of her popularity and the success of this album, she won Best Female Artist award in Israel.
1995: Eurovision song contest
In 1995, Dana tried to fulfill her childhood dream of performing in the Eurovision song contest. She entered the Eurovision qualifying contest in Israel with a song Good Night Europe and came in second. But she didn't give up and of course it was not the end of Eurovision for Dana. In late 1995, Dana released an EP called E.P.Tampa, with three new songs and four remixes and special versions of her earlier songs.
1996–1997: Consolidating popularity
In 1996, Dana released her third album. Although this album was less successful than her previous album, it still reached gold record sales in Israel and included the hits Don Quixote, Waving and the club smash Cinquemilla. In 1997, Dana collaborated with the Israeli artist Eran Zur on the album entitled Another Sex, which became a huge hit.
1998: Diva and mainstream spotlight
Dana was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest with Diva, a song written by Svika Pick. The Orthodox and religious people were opposed to her selection and tried to void her participation in Eurovision. However, in may 1998, Dana performed Diva at the Eurovision contest and took Europe by storm, winning the contest with 172 points. She became a true international superstar, being interviewed by CNN, BBC, Sky News and MTV among others.
Dana released the single Diva in Europe and it became a hit, reaching number 11 in the UK charts and the top ten in Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands, selling more than 400,000 copies worldwide.
1999–2001: Stage falling, Streisand cover and new albums
In 1999, Dana released Woman In Love, a Barbra Streisand cover, but it was not the hit that Diva had been. In May 1999, Dana International again participated in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem. Dana was a part of the interval act and she sang the Stevie Wonder song Free. She also presented the winners award but embarrassed herself by falling over on the stage in front of a television audience of 1 billion.
She released her international album Free in Europe in 1999, which did not enjoy any success. A few months later Dana moved back to Israel and started to work on different projects. Israeli and Japanese editions of Free were released in 2000. That same year, an Israeli documentary film was made about Dana called "Lady D".
In 2001, after a break, Dana released her 7th album More and More. This album put Dana International back on track in Israel and provided two hits: I Won and After All, eventually going gold.
2002–2006: Fading from the scenes and Sony incident
Dana was a big star with great expectations. She was about to sign a big record deal with major Sony BMG, but something went wrong in negotiations. There were disagreements that led Sony to cancel the deal before it was completed. In 2002, she released another album, The Possible Dream, which did not well as expected. In 2003, she released a CD collection, containing all singles from The Possible Dream and also a new house version of Cinquemilla, titled A.lo.ra.lo.la. Few years later, in 2005, Dana participated in the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision song contest, held in Copenhagen, after "Diva" was selected as 1 of 14 songs considered to be the best Eurovision songs. The song did not make it into the final top five.
2007: Return to music
After few years gone from the show business, together with the relaunch of her official website, a first single of the upcoming album was released in March 2007: Hakol ze letova (It's all for the best). The second single to be released from the album, Love Boy, became the most played song on Israeli radio in a decade.[1] The full album, also titled Hakol ze letova, was released August 15 2007. At muchana was the third single and Seret Hodi (feat. Idan Yaniv) the fourth to be released from the album which became a bestseller in many online store.
So much has been told about her comeback and her time away from the scenes, someone thought about a media speculation against her. When she was asked "Where were you?", she simply replied: "The fact I wasn't popping on tv everyday? I didn't need to remind people I was alive: they know the name, I didn't need to resell myself. Everything's getting hot, get cold too. It's normal nature of the things".
Discography
- 1993 Dana International, IMP Dance
- 1994 Umpatampa, IMP Dance
- 1995 E.P.Tempa, IMP Dance
- 1996 Maganuna (Crazy), Helicon/Big Foot
- 1998 Diva - The Hits, IMP Dance
- 1999 Free, CNR Music
- 2000 Free (Israeli edition), NMC
- 2001 Yoter ve yoter (More and more), NMC
- 2002 Ha'chalom ha'efshari (The possible dream), IMP Dance
- 2003 The CD's collection, IMP Dance
- 2007 Hakol ze letova (It's all for the best), Hed Arzi Ltd.
