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Dana International

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Dana International

Dana International (Hebrew: דנה אינטרנשיונל; is the stage name of Sharon Cohen, born Yaron Cohen in Tel Aviv, Israel on February 2 1972) is an Israeli transsexual pop singer, who won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Diva". She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She has worked closely with other Israeli artists, including DJ Offer Nissim. As well as her original material, Dana International is known for her cover versions of older hits. In 2005, She had made an appearance as a guest presenter and performer at The 50th Anniversary Eurovision Concert in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her song "Diva", winner of the 1998 contest, was nominated as one of the fourteen greatest Eurovision songs.

Biography

Sharon Cohen aka Dana International was born Yaron Cohen on February 2nd 1972. Yaron was named after his uncle who had been killed during a terrorist attack. Though she was born genetically male, from a very young age Yaron identified with the female sex, as is the case with most male to female transsexuals. Sharon is the youngest of three children. The eldest is Sharon's sister, Limor, followed by brother, Nimrod. Sharon realized very early in life that she was a performer. Ever since Sharon was eight years old, she wanted to become a singer. She enjoyed the Eurovision Contest, following it closely, especially when Ofra Haza represented Israel with the song Chai in 1983. Sharon had a very happy childhood, and though her family was quite poor, her mother always found money to pay for her music lessons. Though the years had passed and he grew older, Yaron was always a little girl inside. At the age of thirteen Sharon realized that she was not a little boy, but a little girl and wanted to live the rest of her life as a female. The first tragedy in Sharon's life was when her best friend, Daniel, died in an automobile accident. Sharon loved and admired Daniel. And Daniel had prophesied that Sharon would someday have a successful singing career. With tears in her eyes (Sharon) Dana always remembers Daniel's prediction.

Career

1992–1993: Dana International

When she was eighteen, Sharon (Yaron at the time) earned a living as the Israel's first drag queen. She parodied many famous singers and women, and performed very well in her preferred gender. During one of her performances, she was discovered by one of the most famous Israeli D.J.s, Offer Nissim. Finally Sharon would be able to turn her dream into reality - singing as a woman. Dana's first hit was the song Saida Suldana (My Name Is Not Saida). It was a satirical version of Whitney Houston's song "My Name Is Not Susan", and it received a great deal of radio airplay.

In 1993, Dana flew to London for sex reassignment surgery, also known as gender reassignment surgery. Returning home to Israel as Sharon Cohen, that same year, she released her first album entitled Danna International. Soon after, the album was also released in Greece and in countries such as Egypt and Jordan. Sharon's stage name, Dana International, came from the title track from this album. Danna International soon became a gold record in Israel. The title of the album also contained a song, "Danna International",which is well known. (Note: the two n's in the song title).

1994: Israeli 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 E.P. 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, 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. The album is entitled "Ata Havera Sheli"

CD single cover for Diva:
File:DanaInternational.png
CD single cover for Diva

1998: Diva and mainstream spotlight

Dana was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest with Diva, a song written by Tzvika 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 174 points. She became a true international superstar, being interviewed by CNN, BBC, Sky News and MTV among others. Dana's own words "the message of reconciliation" which changed Israel's and the outlook of some religious people were; "My victory proves God is on my side. I want to send my critics a message of forgiveness and say to them: try to accept me and the kind of life I lead. I am what I am and this does not mean I don't believe in God and I am not really part of the Jewish Nation.".

Dana released Diva as a single 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 accidentally by falling over on the stage in front of a television audience estimate of 1 billion or more, whilst carrying the heavy trophy.

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, which eventually went gold in Israel.

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 do as 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. A 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. She also recorded the song Lola (sung in French), to which she released a video. This video can be found on the CD Hakol Ze Letova, released in 2007 as a bonus CD-rom video.

2007–today: Return to music

After a few years away from 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 on August 15 2007. At muhana was the third single and Seret Hodi ("Indian Movie", feat. Idan Yaniv) the fourth to be released from the album, which became a bestseller in many online stores.

On February 26 2008 Dana gained an additional achievement when the song "Keilu Kan" written and composed by her and performed by Boaz Mauda, was chosen on Kdam Eurovision to represent Israel at Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Discography

External links

Preceded by Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest
1998 		Succeeded by
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