Shalom
I hope you fine,
Here is the text which I edited from Wikipedia the largest and online
encyclopaedia on the planet, bigger than Encyclopaedia Galactica and
cheaper than the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, cutting out all
irrelevant topics not related to the planet Earth.

This was a page from searching for "Dana International" in (Wikipedia)
http://www.wikipedia.com
As you see below is the edited text which I would like to put in, some
are small updates of extra data, but the main emphases is the change
of Dana's beginning, since it referred Dana to the unfortunate
masculine appearance. Me if i were Dana and searching the
encyclopaedia about myself, I would have been upset of the misuse of
gender pronouns in the early description of the text.
This encyclopaedia is the backbone of many searches nowadays, it
appears mostly first in Google, and it gives a summarised version
possible of all possible websites relating to the matter. Many school
kids, university students use Wikipedia for a start/kick start for
there research, and to provide a background coverage for there final
complete search and research. From this it is wrong to miss-use the
gender pronouns especially of a transsexual person that is opposite of
there gender role they exist today and in the future. It could cause a
negative perception/cause possible passive discrimination to ignorant
viewers, not fully understanding the feelings of the individual to
whom the text is written about. I do thank them very much to place
Dana in the encyclopaedia, but certain things need to be changed, so
that trans people wont feel upset/offended by certain things, which
are fact, and not taken into consideration as fact. An example of this
is the ID Document/Number/Social Security number system. According to
the majority of governments on this planet, using a male to female
transsexual as an example is considered only to be legally female, if
the person has undergone gender reassignment surgery, regardless to
how feminine this person looks, talks, feels and such... Many girls
try to get this legality by creating wormholes and shortcuts even when
not having the gender reassignment surgery at the time due to the fact
it costs an arm, a leg even a liver and a possible brain, to fool the
system, and fit comfortably in society without the hustle and the
bustle, or gender complications

So please read through and give me the go ahead, and also have a
chance to add in your bit. By the way, many new website masters doing
Dana International as a topic would also look at this first to get an
idea how to start and when to start, and where to stick in there other
research.
Lotsa love and hugs
Danielle
((^_^))



[edit] Biography
Sharon Cohen was born on the second of February 1972 and named by her
parents as Yaron. The name was from her uncle who died in a terrorist
attack She was identified as male at the time of birth, as in the
case of all male to female transsexual people. She was the youngest of
three children (Her older sister is Limor and her brother Nimrod).
Sharon realized very early in life that he was a performer. She
enjoyed the Eurovision Contest and followed it closely, especially
when Ofra Haza represented Israel with the song Chai (1983). She had a
very happy childhood, and although her family was quite poor, her
mother always found money to pay for her music lessons. She wanted to
become a singer when she was eight years old The years had passed and
this she grew older and was still a little boy at the time, but a
little girl inside, the first tragedy in her life was: That her best
friend Daniel whom she loved and admired, and who prophesied that
Sharon would have a successful career as a singer. Daniel died in a
car accident. From past to present (Sharon) Dana keeps on remembering
this fact with tears. At the age of thirteen she realised that she was
not a little boy but a little girl, she wanted to live the rest of her
life as a girl.

[edit] Career

[edit] 1992–1993: Dana International
When she was 18, Yaron (at the time)/Sharon started to earn her own
money working as the countries first drag-queen. She parodied many
famous singers and women and performed very well in her true gender
identity which is a woman. During a show she was discovered by one of
the most famous Israel DJs, Offer Nissim. Finally Sharon could make
her dream a reality: singing, singing as a woman. Dana's first hit was
the song Saida Suldana (My Name Is Not Saida). It was a satirical
cover of Whitney Houston's song "My Name Is Not Susan". It received a
great deal of radio airplay.
In 1993, Dana flew to London for sex reassignment surgery (also better
known as gender reassignment surgery) and legalized her name as Sharon
Cohen. That same year she released her first album, Dana
International, in Israel, which was soon released in Greece and other
Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt and Jordan. Her stage name came
from the title track of this album. Dana International soon went gold
in Israel. The title of the album also contained a song of hers which
is well known "Danna International". (Note the two n's in the song
title).

[edit] 1994: Israeli award
In 1994 she released her second album Umpatampa, which was even more
successful and provided a few of her hits. This album went platinum in
Israel and has sold more than 50,000 copies to date. Because of her
popularity and the success of this album, she won Best Female Artist
award in Israel.

[edit] 1995: Eurovision song contest
In 1995, Dana tried to fulfill her childhood dream of performing in
the Eurovision song contest. She entered the Eurovision qualifying
contest in Israel with a song Good Night Europe and came in second.
But she didn't give up and of course it was not the end of Eurovision
for Dana. In late 1995, Dana released an EP called E. P. Tampa, with
three new songs and four remixes and special versions of her earlier
songs.

[edit] 1996–1997: Consolidating popularity
In 1996, Dana released her third album. Although this album was less
successful than her previous, it still reached gold record sales in
Israel and included the hits Don Quixote, Waving and the club smash
Cinquemilla. In 1997, Dana collaborated with the Israeli artist Eran
Zur on the album entitled Another Sex, which became a huge hit.


CD single cover for Diva

[edit] 1998: Diva and mainstream spotlight
Dana was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest
with Diva, a song written by Tzvika Pick. The Orthodox and religious
people were opposed to her selection and tried to void her
participation in Eurovision. However, in may 1998, Dana performed Diva
at the Eurovision contest and took Europe by storm, winning the
contest with 174 points. She became a true international superstar,
being interviewed by CNN, BBC, Sky News and MTV among others.
Dana's own words "the message of reconciliation" which changed Israel
and the outlook of some religious people were; "My victory proves God
is on my side. I want to send my critics a message of forgiveness and
say to them: try to accept me and the kind of life I lead. I am what I
am and this does not mean I don't believe in God and I am not really
part of the Jewish Nation.".
Dana released Diva as a single in Europe and it became a hit, reaching
number 11 in the UK charts and the top ten in Sweden, Belgium,
Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands, selling more than 400,000 copies
worldwide.

[edit] 1999–2001: Stage falling, Streisand cover and new albums
In 1999, Dana released Woman In Love, a Barbra Streisand cover, but it
was not the hit that Diva had been. In May 1999, Dana International
again participated in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem.
Dana was a part of the interval act and she sang the Stevie Wonder
song Free. She also presented the winners award but embarrassed
herself accidentally by falling over on the stage in front of a
television audience estimate of 1 billion or more, whilst carrying the
heavy trophy.
She released her international album Free in Europe in 1999, which did
not endeavour any large success. A few months later Dana returned to
Israel and started to work on different projects. Israeli and Japanese
editions of Free were released in 2000. That same year, an Israeli
documentary film was made about Dana called "Lady D".
In 2001, after a break, Dana released her 7th album More and More.
This album put Dana International back on track in Israel and provided
two hits: I Won and After All, which eventually went gold in Israel.

[edit] 2002–2006: Fading from the scenes and Sony incident
Dana was a big star with great expectations. She was about to sign a
big record deal with major Sony BMG, but something went wrong in the
negotiations. There were disagreements that led Sony to cancel the
deal before it was completed. In 2002, she released another album, The
Possible Dream, which did not do as well as expected. In 2003, she
released a CD collection, containing all singles from The Possible
Dream and also a new house version of Cinquemilla, titled
A.lo.ra.lo.la with several remixes. A few years later, in 2005, Dana
participated in the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision song contest,
held in Copenhagen, after "Diva" was selected as 1 of 14 songs
considered to be one of the best Eurovision songs. The song
unfortunately did not make it into the final top five. She also
recorded the song Lola (sung in French), to which she released a
video. This video can be found on the CD Hakol Ze Letova, released in
2007 as a bonus CD-rom video.

[edit] 2007: Return to music
After a few years away from show business, together with the re-launch
of her official website, a first single of the upcoming album was
released in March 2007: Hakol ze letova (It's all for the best). The
second single to be released from the album, Love Boy, became the most
played song on Israeli radio in a decade.[1] The full album, also
titled Hakol ze letova, was released on August 15, 2007. At muhana was
the third single and Seret Hodi ("Indian Movie", feat. Idan Yaniv) the
fourth to be released from the album, which became a bestseller in
many online stores.

[edit] Discography
1993 Dana International, IMP Dance
1994 Umpatampa, IMP Dance
1995 E.P.Tempa, IMP Dance
1996 Maganuna (Crazy), Helicon/Big Foot
1998 Diva - The Hits, IMP Dance
1999 Free, CNR Music
2000 Free (Israeli edition), NMC
2001 Yoter ve yoter (More and more), NMC
2002 Ha'chalom ha'efshari (The possible dream), IMP Dance
2003 The CDs collection, IMP Dance
2007 Hakol ze letova (It's all for the best), Hed Arzi Ltd.