The American weekly magazine Time has placed Dana International at the fifth place in the list of the 'People of '98'. 'Woman in love', International's new single, a cover version of Barbra Streisand's hit from the eighties, will be released in most European countries on 15 January. In Germany it will be released one week later, and in England only by the end the month.

In the meantime, we are able to hear the ballad version of the song on a special tribute album for the Bee Gees, released this week in England. The album 'Gotta get a message to you' is a tribute album that was made as a salute to the work of the legendary pop band the Bee Gees. In the album, 14 of the band's biggest hits are included in new versions by Robbie Williams, Boyzone, Cleopatra and others. (The song 'Woman in love' was written and produced by the head of the band, Barry Gibb).

The single 'Woman in love' will include a dance version of the song, supposed to be the next huge hit on the dance floors of Europe. A very stylish music video has been filmed for that version, and the music video will arrive on the screens of MTV in two weeks. The dance version was produced by Ofer Nisim, Dana's personal manager, together with the Sleaze Sisters. Dana has already worked once with the 'Sleaze Sister' on her former hit 'Diva'. The new music video shows Dana in a very revealing dress, and among other things, she will give a red hot kiss to Vania - a beautiful model from Croatia.

 

Dana International continues to fulfil the international promise. Now, the first lady of Israeli pop is releasing a new single, and in its honour she tells Ma'ariv la-No'ar about the new romance, her luxury life abroad, about the fight with the Spice Girls, about anti-semitism and hate. 30 things you didn't know about the Diva, and one special bonus: "Yours, Dana!" (Exclusive to Ma'ariv la-No'ar)

1. Her best friend is Limor, her sister who she tells all her secrets. Dana is strict with herself and phones her every day even when she is abroad. Limor was the first who knew about the changes Dana decided to do in her life. "It's a very deep spiritual connection," she says.
2. Limor's daughter, 'Aliya (7), is one of Dana's beloved children. She spoils her endlessly, and almost all the gifts she brings from abroad are for her.
3. Dana has a black mongrel - Bradford. She adopted it a month ago when she bought clothes and heard from the seller that there was a deserted puppy in a cardboard box. When she is not in Israel, her dancer Shmulik takes care of Bradford.
4. She eats only kosher food, and at formal meals she announces she is a vegetarian. Sometimes when someone serves her oysters and seafood, she almost throws up and demands that the reptiles are sent away from her eyes.
5. Her favourite food is a children's meal in McDonald's.
6. She hates to put on make up. And as opposed to the colourful image of her, in her private life she is not hard on the make up. She prefers a simple look - jeans and T-shirts.
7. Wigs on the other hand, she really likes. In the Eurovision Song Contest she wore her hair natural, but often she likes to change hairstyles and to be renewed. Once she even dared to perform in a short red wig, but right after the show she was back to her regular black hair.
8. Her favourite singer in Israel today is Corinne Elal.
9. Her favourite Israeli television show is 'Florentin'. And when she is not in Israel (which means most of the time), her friends take care to record it for her, and send her the cassettes.
10. These days, she is in the beginning of a new romance. He is called Vania, and he is an international model from Croatia. Dana met him a month ago during the filming of the music video for 'Woman in love' (the new cover version of the Bee Gees song), and she fell in love entirely. It began when the director asked them to stand in front of the cameras and try to feel in love. From the minute he said "action", they never left one another, and finished with a photogenic stormy kiss. After the filming they hurried to a hotel and spent three days in London, but because of Dana's busy schedule, she had to fly to other places, and they had to be satisfied only with a warm telephone connection.
11. Dana thinks that the sexiest man in the world is Brad Pitt. Once when she was photographed for a television show in London, and people told her that Brad Pitt was in a studio nearby, she blushed like an excited little girl, but by the time she had the courage to go to that studio, he had already left.
12. She thinks that love is the most important thing in the world. She says that for true and pure love, she is willing to leave everything, even her career.
13. Her childhood idol was Ofra Haza. When Ofra Haza sang in the Eurovision song contest the song 'Chay' ('Alive'), Dana sat at home in front of the television and promised herself that one day she would stand on the same stage.
14. In the last night before the trip to the Eurovision Song Contest, she went with her friends to the Western Wall in Jerusalem and prayed.
15. She hates to fly. Since the Eurovision Song Contest she is spending more time flying than on earth, and sometimes she has visited two countries in the same day. The climax was when one day she managed to be filmed for a Dutch television show, then she was interviewed for a popular British tabloid, and swept off for a television show in Ireland.
16. Neither does she love all the luxury hotels and the bodyguards who surround her everywhere. When Jean Paul Gaultier invited her to Paris, he put her up in the Ritz, one of the most glamorous hotels in the world. But after one night, Dana asked to move to a 'younger' hotel. The close company of the bodyguards is what she hated the most, and usually she does anything to run away from them. Once, when she asked to be a tourist alone in Paris and didn't succeed to run away from the bodyguards, she walked for more than 3 hours in order to wear them out. Dana was the first to be exhausted.
17. Her favourite country in Europe is France. She likes Paris and the special romantic atmosphere of the city. "But," she adds, "the most handsome men in the world are in Israel."
18. She talks about us in every interview and article. She mentions the sun and the sights, like a real ambassador. "It's not like you think," she explains every time since the beginning, "Israel is a free country, a liberal and cultured one. The fact that I was chosen to represent Israel explains it."
19. She is really torn by longing for Israel. The more she travels in the world, the more she likes Israel. She flies to Israel every free moment she has, even for only two days.
20. She carries with her a small Book of Psalms.
21. In Spain, there is a rumour that there are Barbie dolls made in her image.
22. Since the Eurovision Song Contest she receives hundreds of letters every week. She is very unhappy with the fact that she can't find the time to read all of them, but she demands that the most interesting letters will be transferred to her. Boys and girls from different countries and in different languages write her with the same message: "You gave us the power to believe that our lives are in our hands, and that only we ourselves are the responsible for our fate, and if we make an effort and never give up, we will succeed." But there are other letters. Sometimes she gets blasphemous letters that denounce her Jewry. "It's a pity we didn't kill all of you," was written in one of the letters, and in another one there was the shocking inscription: "Go back to the concentration and death camps!!!" She even receives threats from Nazi party members, but she continues to smile. "I fear only God," she says.
23. She is a big star also in the world of internet. A huge number of internet sites has information and pictures of her. The biggest site belongs to a Norwegian fan [Guess who!] More than 30 000 visitors have visited his site. But there is only one official site, which will be opened next week. In this site you will be able to speak with her, and to get the freshest news about her. The address of the site is: www.dana-international.com
24. Among her fans we can find Boy George, Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler. George offered to write a song for her, Gaultier claims she is his muse, and Mugler gave her the flattering title "The ultimate girl for the year 2000". This much!!!
25. After the huge European publicity wave that followed the reports about her offer to join the Spice Girls to replace Ginger Spice, Dana responded and said that she would never join this silly band. May be that's the reason for the complete mutual ignoring that was clear between the Spices and International at a show they all participated in recently.
26. The most painful event in her career was a show held in Ma'aleh Adumim a few years ago. While she was singing and dancing on stage, the audience spat on her and cursed her. She describes that experience as one of the most traumatic experiences in her life, but she has taken with her only the best from it. After the show, she drew strength and decided that she would never let the people opposing her to break her and her will to realize her dream - to be a singer.
27. She doesn't even feel angry about the Member of Knesset Shlomo Ben-Izri. She says that she would really have preferred not to deal with hate and abuse, but also claims that a person who insults another person like he did is not religious, and she can only feel sorry for him, and pity his world-view.
28. Her career these days is managed by 'Dana Music', a company she established herself. After years during which she was signed to different record companies, she decided to take her business into her own hands.
29. She doesn't see her life as a message. "I did what I did because this is who I am, and this is my private life," she explains, "I do not recommend anyone to go through what I have gone through in my life. I only think that everyone should live his life in a way he feels right and respect his fellow man.
30. When she was young, she was always a subscriber of the magazine Ma'ariv la-No'ar.

Bonus - Dana International is writing to the readers of Ma'ariv la-No'ar: "First of all, I want you to know that I'm dying from longing! I would really like to stay in Israel for a long period, but I can't. I hope you miss me just like I miss you! In the last few months I have had shows all over the world, and I must say that there is nothing like hearing the Israeli applause, at home. Next week, I'm going to release my new song 'Woman in love'. The song was written by the great Bee Gees and I was asked to renew it. I hope you will all love it as much as I do. Yours truly, Dana."

 

Next week a new song by Dana International is released in Europe, a cover version of the song 'Woman in Love' which was written by the Bee Gees for Barbra Streisand. Last week she opened a festival in the Canary Islands, and this week she jumped to Amsterdam for the recording of her new album. Between this and that, in her penthouse in Tel-Aviv, the Israeli star invited Gal Auchuvski for the first extensive interview since the Eurovision Song Contest. From the dream night to the guys who never leave her alone. By Gal Auchuvski.

The next Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Jerusalem in May. According to the plan, Dana International is supposed to be one of the stars in the artistic intermission. From a special stage that will be opened in the 'Sultan Pool', she is supposed to sing Stevie Wonder's song 'Free'. An optimistic song that speaks about the love of the human being and the spirit of freedom. This, of course, will happen if there are no surprising last minute changes. In other words: An entire world war has been going on behind the scenes the last few weeks. There are clearly some people who prefer to skip the issue of Dana. They call it political pressure. And you all know who I'm talking about. Dana, however, is not involved in that. In any case she doesn't have the time, and she already learned a while ago that the arguments on her behalf are managed very well even without her. She prefers to focus on work. And in the last year the word work has got a very different meaning for her.

That night she will never forget. And not only her. A lot of people remember where they were, and how they celebrated it. Nine months has passed since then, and the world of Dana International doesn't stop turning. She has a unique opportunity to become an international star. And as opposed to other Eurovision Song Contest winners, for her it's a very achievable one. We are not talking about hazy promises or a hunch. We are talking about the real thing.

But in order to realize this they are have to go a very hard and long way. An almost impossible one. Since the time that has passed since the victory, Dana and her team have learned a lot of lessons, and they still don't feel like they have finished the first grade. Every step they make is a most careful and calculated one. They are torn between the fear to loose the momentum, and the anxiety from making a mistake. And very few can give them advice. Just try to think how many Israeli singers have achieved a real international career, and you will understand how limited the knowledge about this subject is here.

Next week the Dana International's new single is released. Almost nine months after she won the Eurovision Song Contest the singer releases a new song. An up-to-date version of the song 'Woman in love', written by the Bee Gees for Barbra Streisand. The song will be distributed in two versions, one ballad version for the radio stations, the other one with more rhythm, for clubs and dance programs. Correspondingly, a new music video of the song will be shown on MTV and the other music stations. The music video is photographed with a shining white background, and in the climax of song Dana kisses a very handsome Croatian model on the mouth.

Every detail in this new song could be a chapter in a book that will be written some day. Why this song? Why did she wait so long? Why has she recorded only one song after the Eurovision Song Contest? And why is this song released on the big independent company CNR, and not on Sony?

Moreover, it's not an accident that Dana hasn't been interviewed since then by any Israeli newspaper. In addition to all the professional dramas, Dana had to face the complicated attitude that people have towards her here. An attitude that includes huge affection, sympathy and admiration, but also suspicion, jealousy, and even hate.

That's why in this interview she is closing all the opened issues, in a hope of leaving them behind. In order to have enough energy to travel a whole month from country to country and promote the sales of the new song, she needs to know that at least in Israel everything is OK. Otherwise how will she have the strength?

Ofra Haza, and Bezalel Aloni (Haza's personal manager - Z.G.), two people who supported her through the whole of this last year, explained her exactly how gloomy life can be after you have spend a wintry month in different hotels. Even if you arrive at those hotels in limousines and you really don't care who will take care of the bills.

"All through the weeks before the Eurovision Song Contest I convinced myself that we were not going to lose. Third place or second for sure. I really didn't think about the first place. Even when we received 8 points from Macedonia I was sure it was gone. They took it away from us. But when I saw that they didn't give the 12 points to Malta I was in shock. I was sure it had to be some kind of mistake. I ran like crazy to change my dress and got to the stage. I didn't know what to do. We hadn't even taken part in the victory rehearsal with all the other delegations before the contest."

"Everyone asks me why I got to the stage with a flag. And it really wasn't planned. I saw a flag and I took it with me. I really don't understand why this is so surprising. I did not represent not myself, it was my flag which sent me and I need to respect it. I felt on top of the world. People told me that the winner never speaks during the encore. Maybe I did because I'm such a chatterbox. And maybe I don't know. Why not talk? I was so happy that we were bringing the Eurovision Song Contest back to Jerusalem. So I invited everyone."

"When I thought about the victory, I was sure I would faint or cry but it didn't happen. Then we got the telephone from Israel and I was told about the all the celebrations in the square. We put on the television and we saw it everywhere. Sky, BBC, CNN, I saw it everywhere. I exploded. I became so sad. I was stuck in that hotel, celebrated with strangers, and the real joy was 4,000 kilometres from there. I wanted so much to be there. I became melancholic, but I didn't cry. Only when I got home I started crying. With my mum".

We sat in Dana's apartment, a penthouse in the centre of Tel-Aviv. She apologized that her apartment looked slightly empty, that she didn't have the time to buy all the furniture. She is thin, smokes like a chimney and puts out the cigarettes even before they are smoked half-way. Only this week she returned from the Canary Islands. Dana did a show there for the opening event of the yearly carnival, a mini version of the Brazilian carnival. It was a long flight, and she is still exhausted. A part of this exhaustion she is still carrying with her since that night in May. In order to explain the size of the pressures, here is a partial list of the achievements from last year (not including hundreds of television interviews and a press bag the size of an encyclopedia): A platinum record for 'Diva' in Sweden, a half hour interview ob CNN, a golden record for 'Diva' in Norway, Dana is on the yearly Amnesty international poster in Belgium, 'Diva' is the first Israeli music video that become a hit on MTV, Dana opened the Gay Games in front of 80 000 people, the American weekly magazine 'Time' chose Dana to the fifth place for the list of the people who made the year.

"Winning the Eurovision Song Contest was definitely a dream come true. A dream that I didn't even dared to dream. But I understood that this dream is not a gift. No one gave me 10 million dollars or a platinum album. I just got an edge of a thread from which I can go home. But where?"

"After the Eurovision I spent only 4 days in Israel and then I returned to Europe. I started with Belgium, and made a tour in all the Benelux countries. I did a lot of television shows and newspapers interviews, and we really succeeded in those countries - we made a platinum record. England was also very important for us because England is really Europe's pop capital. So I really made an effort there too. I did a show on the weekly broadcast of the national lottery, which is a great honour there. Madonna also did a show there with 'Frozen' last year. I did a show in Top of the Pops - as well as a lot of interviews. We did a very good job there, and we really reached a good place in the British chart. That week we even got close to Janet Jackson."

"But suddenly you understand that all that work doesn't help me in Germany. And it really seems like we neglected France and Germany, so the sales weren't good in those countries. And it's very confusing because I was not resting or something, I just focused on other countries. You have to learn how to divide your time in order to include all the countries. Especially when you are a new artist, not like Whitney Houston or something. When artists like her releases songs it's enough that people know and they will buy them without any promotion. This puts me under a lot of pressure."

Dana spent all this last year together with two people. Ofer Nisim, the one who wrote and produced her first hits and actually invented her, and Shai Kerem, the former editor of Rosh 1 who joined them as a third rib. Those three are managed independently in front of the world. They have a lawyer, a public relations officer, a few advisors, but eventually they are alone, learning along the way.

As we remember, Dana started her career on the independent records company IMP Dance. Later Dana and her people moved to Helicon, one of the biggest record companies in Israel, for a one year contract on which she released her last album. The relations with Helicon weren't very good from the beginning.

Everything started when Helicon preferred to sign Dana and her people to Big Foot, which enabled to Helicon to treat them like annoying children or something. The album with 'Cinquemilla' and 'Don Quixote' didn't succeed as planned, and Dana and her people were sure that the contract was over and their ways separated during that period. That's why they almost fainted when they discovered a month after the Eurovision Song Contest that Amsterdam was full of posters advertising 'Dana International - The Album'. A quick check let them discover that Helicon's people took some of Dana's songs they had and made an album without her knowledge. An album with a collection of old songs, and even a first take in English of Dana's former Eurovision attempt, 'Good night Europe'.

You should be inside the music world in order to understand how much distress is caused to a singer when someone releases her first take, a kind of recording rehearsal, as the first official European album after the Eurovision Song Contest. And you need a very strong support system for the audience to understand it is misleading.

On parallel lines, Helicon sued Dana in Israel arguing that the contract between them was still valid. The court postponed Helicon's arguments for a while, but there was no way to stop the distribution of the album, and Dana had to rely on the intelligence of the record buyers to understand that this was actually a pirate collection of old songs.

Helicon releasing this album was legal of course, but very ugly indeed. Helicon could have waited a little bit, and released this album sometime in the future, after Dana is more famous. But they wanted to earn more money, even if it was obvious that it made a big damage on Dana's developing career.

Dana, as mentioned, won over Helicon in the trial, but the time passed, the energy was wasted, and this event of course increased the fear that she should be afraid of anyone who may want to ride on her success. Maybe this event was the thing that contributed to the fact that the relation between Dana and Sony ended in disaccord.

Dana and her people didn't cope with Paul Berger, the manager of the company, who is an ex-Israeli. They claimed he was cold to them, were insulted when he demanded not to speak with them in Hebrew in front of other workers, but mainly because they didn't feel he really valued and believed in them. It has to be said that it's really not that simple to deal with Dana and her people. It takes a lot of time to buy their belief, and even then you can claim that they are suffering from a feeling of a paranoia. In this case, faced with the greased machinery of the record company, it's very easy to like them and to identify with their point of view.

The only thing that left from the connection with Sony is the song 'Woman in love'. It's part of a huge English project which was released before Christmas. The best artists in England are performing songs by the Bee Gees. Dana was offered to sing 'Chain reaction', that was done originally by Diana Ross. But she preferred 'Woman in love', which is much more dramatic and calm. It's a part of a decision that Dana doesn't need all the screams, feathers and war paint at this stage. In order to go from a gimmick to becoming a world first class singer, she needs to sell her voice and personality in the most calm and solid way. The gallops on the banana and the Kukuruku screams will have to wait for the next round. And by the way - the sales of the Bee Gees tribute album are great.

"It was very annoying with Helicon. It was legal, but was it moral? Why use old songs? They could call it 'The old songs' or something, but to call it 'The album'... Just to destroy me. In Israel they weren't proud of me. I remember that once they released a huge poster for Rosh ha-Shana (The Jewish New Year -Z.G.) with all their artists. They didn't mention me. I asked why. They told me because I'm special. They promised to make me a poster of my own. And did they? Of course not. So they were hypocrites, and treated me like a stepchild, and suddenly they want to earn money on my back."

"I also don't feel sorry about what happened with Sony. I hated this Paul Berger. He reminded me of the case of Helicon, and I'm glad we are with an independent company. The biggest in Europe, but small compared to Sony. Here I had a very big success on a small company (IMP Dance - Z.G.) and when I moved to a bigger company (Helicon - Z.G. ), something was ruined. So I hope that this thing will come back in Europe."

- It seems you are wasting a lot of energy on anger.
"Not any more. But I won't lie. Sometimes I think about all the people who behaved in a disgusting way towards me. Especially some specific artists in Israel who were very cruel. People always do things behind my back. Singers who won't agree to sing with me being on the same stage or at the same events. These things don't insult me. These things anger me. The hypocrisy of these people make me sick. I can understand that some people can be afraid of me. The problem is not in the people. We have great nation, and I think that most of the people here don't have a problem with me. When people see me on the street they give me great love. So I don't care about the gossip. The minority that doesn't want me will always be there. You don't want me to go through the front door, OK, I will come through the back door. No matter where, I will enter wherever I want to. I won't stay outside. Believe me."

- And those things make you angry? Does it affect your work?
"Not my work. It can affect my desire to do things. I travel all over Europe and do a lot of interviews. Do you know how many times people ask about Israel, about a country with street bombs. And I always smile and say that everyone should come to Israel and see that everything is normal here. But I don't have to do it. I could be selfish and talk only about myself. But I always speak about the wonderful Israel and the great soldiers here. And then the reporters here quote me as the one who said that Hitler was a genius".

- What did you really say in that interview?
"We sat in an interview in Germany. The interviewer asked me a very interesting question. He asked: 'If you could change things in history, what would you prefer to change?' I thought a little bit and my answer was that if I could travel to the past I would return to Hitler. I think that Hitler was a very clever person. A brilliant one. And I said how nice it could be if he would have used his cleverness to develop the world instead of destroying. I also said that if I could, I would have killed him with my own hands. That is exactly what I said. And then that morning I opened the newspaper and almost fainted. It's obvious someone did it on purpose. Why did those people do it? They could quote all the interview but they quote only this part, without the rest of the interview. Why? So on one hand I can say to myself that I will stop speaking about Israel. But on the other hand I can't. I'm a patriot."

"There is a sentence in the Bible that says 'As much as they torture it, it will grow' and I feel this way. Once I felt insulted but today I don't care. I'm glad. I look on my achievements and understand why people envy me so much, and why they want to stick knives in my back. But these things won't help. I know I'm right."

- It's only a stage. I'm sure that you have gone through much worse times.
"Of course. I had so many problems with accepting myself. I was young and stupid. I was afraid. You don't learn in school how to change your sex. I also understood that I really cannot become a real female. Only something that is really close to a female. So I could go out to the street and get all the whistles and look better than 100 women in the street, but the problem is in my brain. I don't have a woman's brain and until someone learns to operate on the brain, I will not be 100% female. I can get only to a certain level."

"At the start, when I was young, this issue kept me busy all the time and sometimes even depressed me. Until I said to myself that I shouldn't try to be something that I just cannot be. Why deal with labels. We will all die. Straights, gay, and all the rest. So why cry? Maybe I'm lucky. I am what I am. I choose to live my life as I want to and I have succeeded. This is who I am, and no one has to accept me."

The next few months will be very important in Dana's career. She will have to do a lot of work in Europe. Than she will sit in Amsterdam and record her new album. She has songs. She has producers. But still, to conquer the world - it's a huge mission. Dana knows she needs a lot of luck, and she also knows that there is a chance that she won't succeeded. However, no one will remember all those wasted months after the Eurovision Song Contest if the new song becomes a hit. And if the new album succeeds as is planned. On the other hand, even if she failed, she did it. She will always be remembered as the pride of the Gay community in Israel and the rest of the world. That's why when I am close to saying good-bye to her I ask her if she has time for guys on her free time.

"I'm single now. I have my romances, but I don't have someone constant. Lots of guys start with me. Even women. Once in Nicosia a lesbian started with me. She told me I should try. How could I tell her that relations with women is the thing that interests me the least..."

 

In a press conference held yesterday by Rashut ha-Shidur (IBA - The Israeli Broadcasting Authorities - Z.G.) for the Eurovision Song Contest, to be arranged coming May, it was made clear that the singer Dana International, the '98 Eurovision winner, will be the star of the artistic intermission of the contest, and thatshe will give the prize to the winners. According to the plan, Channel One will film a show of dancers and drummers with Dana International as the main star. A musical show in an ethnic style, which will be filmed at the foot of Mount Zion, with the walls of the old city in the background. The show will be edited to a clip that will be broadcast in the middle of the Eurovision, between the presentation of the songs and the distribution of points.

Dana's performance in the '99 Eurovision Song Contest is causing a lot of anger in orthodox circles in Jerusalem, who have threatened to sabotage the progress of the contest. But the producer Amnon Barkaey doesn't seem worried. "I'm not expecting any special problems on this issue." The '99 Eurovision Song Contest will be held on a budget of 7 million dollar. Despite the state support of the public and because of technical limitations, no tickets will be sold to the public, and the people who want to see the show will have to be satisfied with only a few hundred tickets for the general rehearsal.

Guido Jansens, the manager of CNR, the record company which Dana is signed to in Europe, said that the producers of the '99 Eurovision Song Contest in Israel weren't enthusiastic about the fact that Dana will perform at the beginning because of the orthodox pressures. The manager also revealed that if Dana is not able to perform because of the orthodox, there will be a huge demonstration held outside the Eurovision supporting Dana.