Dana International
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Assigned male at birth, Sharon Cohen (Birthname Yaron Cohen) was born
in 1972 in Tel Aviv (Israel). She was the youngest of three children
(She has an older sister, Limor and an older brother, Nimrod) of a
Yemenite working family. He studied elementary school and then (Lior
and Schmulick Sa'adia) who would become her dancers. Her favourite
subjects were English and History. Sharon early realized she belonged
to the stage. She liked the Eurovision Contest and followed it,
especially when recently deceased Ofra Haza (who had also yemenite
roots) represented Israel with the song "Hi", in 1998. That day she
swore to herself that she would be there, on that stage, someday. But
it wasn't "he", but she, who went up to stages showing her feminine
voice and superb singing skills as a drag in gay clubs where the
27-years-old DJ (now her personal agent) Ofer Nissim mixed. She wasn't
accepted by ultra-orthodox Jews, that still claim that being gay must
be punished. Despite this, she had a huge success and was popular.
Dana's first hit was the song "My name's not Sa'ida". It was a
lampooning cover version of Whitney Houston's song "My name's not
Susan" It was listened on radio stations over and over again. People
loved her.
Then, in 1993 and in hiding of friends and family, Cohen flew to London
and came back as Sharon Cohen, after the gender reassignment surgery.
That same year she released her first album in Israel, although it soon
went out to other Middle-West countries such as Egypt and Jordan. It
was called like one of her songs, the one from which she took her name.
"Danna International" soon became gold in Israel. Later came her second
album, "Umpatampa", and she was awarded Best Female Artist in Israel in
1996.
In 1995 she tried to make it for the ESC and entered Israeli
Pre-Eurovision Selection (KDAM). She ended 2nd, with the feeling that
her friends were right when saying that people would never vote a
transsexual to represent their country. The third album, "Maganona"
(which means "Crazy" in Arab) was an answer to Dana's Egyptian and
arab-speaking audience. In Egypt, her music had been censored, but five
millions illegal copies were sold, without Dana earning a single cent.
But in 1998 her dream finally came true. She was selected by an IBC
(Israeli Broadcasting Company) commission to represent the country in
that year's ESC. When it was known in Europe that she was a TS, she
soon attracted the media attention. Jean-Paul Gaultier got in touch
with her to design the dress she should wear during the performance of
the properly called song 'Diva' (although she eventually decided to
wear another one and left Gaultier's for the final victory
performance). The Contest was held May 9th in Birmingham Wembley Arena.
That year a change was introduced and people could vote for her by
phone, and there would not be judges to choose who to send the points
to. Maybe that was the reason she won. Although she knows how to sing
and move onstage, all the media attention and the fight of gays to turn
her into their icon could have overlapped that fact. She became famous
everywhere, and she was the first Israeli artist to be interviewed on
MTV. Everyone wanted her to be on their TV shows in maximum audience
times.
After her win, she released two albums with her best songs, one that
fit in her country's market ("Diva Ha-Osef") and another which fit in
European market ("The Album" ). This last one used songs that Dana
International and her management didn't allow to use, so she took
Polydor to courts and won the trial. After some time away the public
eye, her awaited first international album "Free" was released in
Spring 1999. It was released in almost all Europe and in 2000 had its
Israeli and Japanese editions. Two singles from this album were
released: a cover of Barbra Streisand's "Woman in love" and a cover of
Stevie Wonder's album-titling track "Free". Year 2000 brought a lot of
promoting dates in Japan and Russia, especially in this last country,
where she performed together with singer Philip Kurkov. (Philip Kurkov
recorded a Russian version of Diva in 1999 and is about to release a
Spanish version as well).
in 1972 in Tel Aviv (Israel). She was the youngest of three children
(She has an older sister, Limor and an older brother, Nimrod) of a
Yemenite working family. He studied elementary school and then (Lior
and Schmulick Sa'adia) who would become her dancers. Her favourite
subjects were English and History. Sharon early realized she belonged
to the stage. She liked the Eurovision Contest and followed it,
especially when recently deceased Ofra Haza (who had also yemenite
roots) represented Israel with the song "Hi", in 1998. That day she
swore to herself that she would be there, on that stage, someday. But
it wasn't "he", but she, who went up to stages showing her feminine
voice and superb singing skills as a drag in gay clubs where the
27-years-old DJ (now her personal agent) Ofer Nissim mixed. She wasn't
accepted by ultra-orthodox Jews, that still claim that being gay must
be punished. Despite this, she had a huge success and was popular.
Dana's first hit was the song "My name's not Sa'ida". It was a
lampooning cover version of Whitney Houston's song "My name's not
Susan" It was listened on radio stations over and over again. People
loved her.
Then, in 1993 and in hiding of friends and family, Cohen flew to London
and came back as Sharon Cohen, after the gender reassignment surgery.
That same year she released her first album in Israel, although it soon
went out to other Middle-West countries such as Egypt and Jordan. It
was called like one of her songs, the one from which she took her name.
"Danna International" soon became gold in Israel. Later came her second
album, "Umpatampa", and she was awarded Best Female Artist in Israel in
1996.
In 1995 she tried to make it for the ESC and entered Israeli
Pre-Eurovision Selection (KDAM). She ended 2nd, with the feeling that
her friends were right when saying that people would never vote a
transsexual to represent their country. The third album, "Maganona"
(which means "Crazy" in Arab) was an answer to Dana's Egyptian and
arab-speaking audience. In Egypt, her music had been censored, but five
millions illegal copies were sold, without Dana earning a single cent.
But in 1998 her dream finally came true. She was selected by an IBC
(Israeli Broadcasting Company) commission to represent the country in
that year's ESC. When it was known in Europe that she was a TS, she
soon attracted the media attention. Jean-Paul Gaultier got in touch
with her to design the dress she should wear during the performance of
the properly called song 'Diva' (although she eventually decided to
wear another one and left Gaultier's for the final victory
performance). The Contest was held May 9th in Birmingham Wembley Arena.
That year a change was introduced and people could vote for her by
phone, and there would not be judges to choose who to send the points
to. Maybe that was the reason she won. Although she knows how to sing
and move onstage, all the media attention and the fight of gays to turn
her into their icon could have overlapped that fact. She became famous
everywhere, and she was the first Israeli artist to be interviewed on
MTV. Everyone wanted her to be on their TV shows in maximum audience
times.
After her win, she released two albums with her best songs, one that
fit in her country's market ("Diva Ha-Osef") and another which fit in
European market ("The Album" ). This last one used songs that Dana
International and her management didn't allow to use, so she took
Polydor to courts and won the trial. After some time away the public
eye, her awaited first international album "Free" was released in
Spring 1999. It was released in almost all Europe and in 2000 had its
Israeli and Japanese editions. Two singles from this album were
released: a cover of Barbra Streisand's "Woman in love" and a cover of
Stevie Wonder's album-titling track "Free". Year 2000 brought a lot of
promoting dates in Japan and Russia, especially in this last country,
where she performed together with singer Philip Kurkov. (Philip Kurkov
recorded a Russian version of Diva in 1999 and is about to release a
Spanish version as well).