Dana International: Diva – Israel’s 3rd Eurovision Victory (Birmingham, 1998)

This video present’s Israel’s winning song in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham, “Diva” by Dana International, a transgender woman and one of Israel’s most successful singers ever. The first transgender person to win Eurovision, Dana International became a symbol for the LGBTQ community in Israel and around the world. The uptempo dance song is an ode to powerful women, including Cleopatra, the ruler of ancient Egypt, Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, and Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty. The original lyrics listed the biblical matriarchs, Rachel, Miriam and Sarah, but Dana International refused to sing them because the message was not universal. Originally sung in Hebrew, “Diva” was the last non-English song to win the contest until 2007. The official English version of the song with accompanying lyrics is featured below. Considered a Eurovision classic, this song was chosen as the 13th most popular song in the history of Eurovision, performed by Dana International at the Eurovision 50th anniversary concert in Copenhagen in 2005.