Dana International - Early Life

Early Life

Yaron Cohen was born in Tel Aviv to a Jewish family of Yemenite and Romanian descent. In an interview, she said her grandfather originated from Transylvania (Romania). Her paternal grandparents lived in Petah Tikva. She was the youngest of three children, and was named after an uncle who had been killed during a terrorist attack.

Though born male, she identified as a female from a very young age. She wanted to become a singer since the age of eight, when she watched legendary Israeli singer Ofra Haza perform her song "Chai" in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. Although the family was quite poor, her mother worked to pay for her music lessons, and she claims that her childhood was happy. She came out as transsexual at the age of 13.

The first tragedy in Dana International's life was the death of her best friend Daniel, who died in a car accident. She asserts that Daniel had prophesied that she would someday have a successful singing career, and claims that Daniel's prediction is what pushed her to become the singer she wanted to be. The stage name she adopted, Dana or Danna, is the feminine version of Daniel's abbreviated name, Dan or Danny.