She has a back catalogue :: Dana International - Yesh bo esh

One of my first and lasting pmed favourites is Dana International, and I have no idea how much time I've devoted to running an unofficial website about her since I started it in early 1998, after hearing she would represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest with Diva.

At the time, I had been a fan for more than three years, first hearing her 1994 hit Ani lo yekhola bil'adeykha אני לא יכולה בלעדיך ("I can't manage without you") in the legendary Tel Aviv disco Allenby 54 in late December that year. One of my main goals with starting a website about Dana was to show that she was not a novelty one hit wonder, but an established singer and star - not only in Israel, but in the Arab world too (due to a couple of notorious songs in Arabic that became underground hits in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia).

Being a Dana-fan can be frustrating at times as she has made some fairly strange career choices up through the years, since starting out as a Tel Aviv cabaret artist in the early 1990s. She has recorded with almost all Israeli record companies, which could be interpreted as being a bit fickle, but my main gripe is how her managers managed (sic) to fall out spectacularly with Sony Records' London office soon after signing with them after winning the Eurovision, hooking up with a Dutch compilation record firm and a couple of has-been producers instead. Suffice to say, the chances of an international career as a dance star went down the drain. Trying to make a come-back, she and her managers choose the former Soviet Union countries (a market famous for pirate copying and mafia involvement in the music industry) instead of Western Europe and the US, where she probably would have had much more of a chance of turning her Eurovision notoriety into a career - at least as a cult artist focusing on the gay club circuit.

Fortunately, she has at least continued to release albums in Israel, although it's now been almost five years since her latest one. However, apparently she has now signed with the important Israeli label Hed Artzi (Ofra Haza's record company through most of her career), and an album is supposed to be in the works. It's not the first time there have rumours like these floating around, but I guess there's still hope.

In the meantime, enjoy one of my all time favourites, Yesh bo esh יש בו אש ("He has fire") - a duet with Israeli rock singer Iggy Waxman איגי וקסמן off the 1996 album Maganona مجنونة.