Dana International

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Dana International
(דנה אינטרנשיונל)
Dana International, 2008
Dana International, 2008
Background information
Birth name Yaron Cohen (changed to Sharon Cohen after gender reassignment surgery)
Born February 2, 1972 (1972-02-02) (age 36)
Israel
Genre(s) Dance, Pop, World
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1992 – present
Label(s) Hed Arzi Music
Website Official website

Sharon Cohen, professionally known as Dana International (born Yaron Cohen on February 2, 1972) is an Israeli pop singer. She is most famous for having won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Diva." She is arguably the most famous transsexual celebrity in the world. Her career began in 1992 and in that time she has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums, positioning herself as one of Israel's most successful musical acts ever.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Sharon Cohen was born Yaron Cohen on 2 February 1972 to Yemenite parents as the youngest of three children after sister Limor and brother Nimrod. Cohen was named after an uncle who had been killed during a terrorist attack. Though born genetically male, Cohen identified as a female from a very young age. Cohen wanted to become a singer ever since she was eight-years-old and saw Ofra Haza performing her song "Chai" on the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. Though the family was quite poor, Cohen's mother worked to pay for Cohen's music lessons, and Cohen has explained that her childhood was rather happy.

Cohen came out as transsexual at the age of thirteen.

The first tragedy in Cohen's life was the death of her best friend Daniel, who died in an automobile accident. Cohen asserts that Daniel had prophesied that she would someday have a successful singing career and claim's that Daniel's prediction is what pushed her to become the singer she wanted to be.

[edit] Career

Dana International
Dana International

[edit] 1992–1993: Dana International

At eighteen-years-old, Cohen (still legally male) earned a living as Israel's first drag queen parodying many famous singers and women. During one performances, she was discovered by Offer Nissim, one of Israel's most famous DJs, who produced her first single "Saida Suldana" ("My Name is Not Saida"), a satirical version of Whitney Houston's song "My Name is Not Susan." The song received a great deal of radio airplay and launched her career.

In 1993, International flew to London for male-to-female sex reassignment surgery and was thus legally able to change her name to Sharon Cohen. Returning home with her new name, that same year Cohen released her first album entitled Dana International in Israel. Soon after, the album was also released in several other countries like Greece, Jordan, and Egypt. Sharon's stage name Dana International came from the title track from the 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).

[edit] 1994: Umpatampa and Best Female Artist

In 1994 Dana 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.

[edit] 1995: Eurovision song contest

In 1995, Dana fulfilled 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 place.

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.

[edit] 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.
CD single cover for Diva.

[edit] 1998: Diva and mainstream spotlight

Dana was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest with her song "Diva." Orthodox and conservative people were opposed to her appointment and attempted to void her participation in the contest. However, in May 1998, Dana performed "Diva" at the Eurovision contest and took Europe by storm, winning the contest with 174 points. She thus became an 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 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.

[edit] 1999–2001: Stage falling, Streisand cover and new albums

In 1999, International released Woman In Love, a Barbra Streisand cover, but it was not the hit that "Diva" had been. In May 1999, Cohen again participated in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem. Dana was a part of the interval act and sang the Stevie Wonder song "Free." She also presented the winners award but embarrassed herself by accidentally falling over on the stage in front of a television audience estimate of one billion or more whilst carrying the heavy trophy.

She released her next album "Free" in Europe in 1999, which did not enjoy any success. A few months later Cohen 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 Cohen called Lady D.

In 2001, after a break, Cohen released her seventh album More and More. This album put Cohen International back on track in Israel and provided two hits called "I Won" and "After All", which eventually went gold in Israel.

[edit] 2002–2006: Fading from the scenes and Sony incident

Dana 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 one of fourteen 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.

[edit] 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]. It also gained a respecatable place on the airplay of the Greek radio station FLY FM 89,7. 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. The next single released from the album is Yom huledet.

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.

[edit] Discography

[edit] External links

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