Dana International

Dana International ((Hebrew: דנה אינטרנשיונל); (stage name of Sharon Cohen, born Yaron Cohen 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". She was the first Israeli artist to be interviewed on MTV.

Next to original songs, 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 Ofer 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

Dana International 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).

Dana International's first hit was the song My Name Is Not Sa'ida. 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, International 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 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.

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 in Israel.

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 her song Good Night Europe and came in second. That was not the end of EuroVision for Dana.

In late 1995, Dana released an EP called E.P.Tampa, with 3 new songs and 4 remixes and special versions of her earlier songs. 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. In November 1997, Dana International was chosen to represent Israel in the EuroVision song contest with her song Diva. The Orthodox and religious people were opposed to her selection and tried to void her participation in EuroVision. In May 1998, Dana performed Diva in the EuroVision contest and took Europe by storm, winning the contest with 172 points. After she won, Dana International 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 in top ten in: Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, and The Netherlands, selling more than 400,000 copies worldwide. As 1998 closed, Dana was a big star with great expectations. She was about to sign a big record deal with Sony, but something went wrong in negotiations. There were disagreements that led Sony to cancel the deal before it was completed.

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 released her international album Free in Europe, which flopped. A few months later Dana to israel and started to work on different projects. She released an Israeli edition of Free and released Japanese version after visting there. In May 2000, 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. In 2002, she released another album called The Possible Dream which did well but was not successful as More and More.

In 2003, she released a cd collection , including all singles from "The possible dream" and also a new house version of "Cinquemilla", which was released back in 1996.

In 2005, dana participated in the 50th anniversery of the Eurovision song contest, held in copenhagen, after "Diva" was selected as 1 of 14 songs, voted best eurovision songs. "Diva" was one of the 14 songs, but didn't make it to the final top five.

Nowadays Dana has finished working on a brand new israeli album, which is about to be released in the beginning of 2007. A few of the songs appearing on the album:

Yom huledet= "Birthday" ( Dana wrote this song)

Hakol ze letova= "It's all for the best"

Lover boy

Behoravot ha'ahava

Behol yom aher

Yalla balgan

At muhana

A first single of the upcoming album is about to be released in December 2006.

Albums

1993 Dana International, IMP Dance
1994 Umpatampa, IMP Dance
1995 EPtampa, IMP Dance
1996 Maganuna, 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 Title not known, Hed-arzi

Controversy

She drew controversy from many Israelis who thought it was shameful for a transsexual to represent Israel.

External links

Preceded by Katrina and the Waves	Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1998	Succeeded by Charlotte Nilsson