Portrait
Dana International
Born
2 February 1969Tel Aviv, Israel
SingerIsrael

Dana International

Her 1998 Eurovision victory made her the contest’s first openly trans winner and brought her music to an international audience.

Dana International was born in Tel Aviv in 1969. She grew up in a Jewish family with Yemenite roots and developed her performance style in the city’s club scene before establishing herself as a recording artist in the early 1990s.

Her dance-pop recordings drew on Hebrew and Arabic as well as international club music. Following gender-affirming surgery in London in 1993, she continued building a career that reached listeners beyond Israel, including in neighbouring countries where her music circulated despite restrictions.

Her selection for Eurovision in 1998 provoked opposition from religious conservatives. At the contest in Birmingham, “Diva” won, making her the first openly trans winner. The combination of musical success and public confidence gave the performance significance for trans and queer audiences across national boundaries.

Dana returned to Eurovision with “Ding Dong” in 2011 and appeared as a guest when the contest was held in Tel Aviv in 2019. Her career also extended through albums and television appearances. The victory remains its most internationally visible moment, but it was part of a longer history of performing and recording rather than a single isolated breakthrough.

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