Yaron early realized he belonged to stage.
He liked the Eurovision Contest and followed it,
especially when recently died Ofra Haza
(who had yemenite roots as Dana)
represented Israel with the song "Hi".
That day he swore himself that he would be there,
on that stage, someday.

But it wasn't he, but she, who went up to stages
showing his 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.
He wasn't accepted by ultra-othodox Jews,
that claim that beign gay must be punished.
Despite this, he 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,
Yaron 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.
But for israeli ultra-orthodoxs she still was he.
(NOTE: After this album, her company released
a CD  with remixes and some new songs, called "EPTampa").

 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.
It was (and still is) a very conservative and narrow-minded
country that socially bans gay and transsexuals.

"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)
comission 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 leave 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 hours.

After her winning, 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 sometime away the public eye, her awaited
first international album "Free" was released in Spring 1999.