Danna Opens Her Heart!
Interview by Shay Kerem
1. Who would you like to meet?
There are many. But most of all I would like to meet Daniel. He was my best buddy when we were kids. We were neighbours, and we had a rare relationship. We mostly liked to ride our bikes together at night along the beach and chat. We have chatted for hours. When all the questions and problems concerning my sexual identity came up, during my adolescence, he was my listener and he was always holding my hand, encouraging, telling me to go my way. "AND YOU'LL SEE", he was always telling me, "YOU'LL SEE THAT ONE DAY YOU'LL BE A BIG STAR, CAUSE YOU DESERVE THAT". He was the first to believe in me and gave me powers. One night, we decided on going for a night ride on our bikes. My parents wouldn't let me go so he went alone. The next morning I was informed that a car hit him. He died right away. I have had some terrible days. I missed him a lot. Till these days I'm talking to him, to the sky. When I first started to succeed I had thought of him. I wanted so much to give him a kiss and tell him : "THANKS, YOU WERE RIGHT". I'm sure one day we'll meet each other.
2. What do you like in Israel?
I'm very attached to Israel. I like the view of the Galilee, the human warmth and Tel-Aviv, the most astonishing city in the world.
3. What do you think is 'Israeli'?
When I get back from abroad and come out of the airplane, the first thing that brings me back here is the beeping on the roads. And also Falafel, Sun and Sea, a huge line everywhere and the sentence : "EXCUSE ME, I'M HERE JUST FOR A QUESTION", which is an Israeli invention.
4. What can't you stand in Israel?
The local impatience and exaggerated friendship. I sit in a resturaunt, the fork is on its way to my mouth and a mother with her 3 kids standing in front of me and saying "HERE'S DANNA", and staring at me like I was a museum exhibit.
5. Describe to me an exciting event in your career.
I have had many performances this year. Dozens of performances in front of thousands of people, but the most exciting one was in front of one person only. One day I got a letter from a child who had cancer. He wrote that he really likes me, and asked to meet me. I went to the hospital and met a charming boy, with no hair and with huge vital eyes. We talked a lot and then he asked me to sing. Ofer Nissim, who was with me, took out a guitar and I sang "ANI LO YEKHOLA BILADEICHA" ("I CAN'T DO WITHOUT YOU"). My throat was choked from tears. On the way home I thought how everything gets so small compared to this little boy who's fighting for his life. How everything is simple and not important.
6. When did you realize that you are a success?
In one of my performances in the 'Forum' Club in Beer-Sheva. There were many people and I had only 2 songs, I haven't even had my first album yet. The love in which they have accepted me let me understand that my career is on the way up. Also when I performed in NY when "Saida" (the song: "My name is not Saida" - A.C.) was in the top of the Dance Parades, I realized that the success is soon to come, and there was another event, not a long while ago. In the 'fans meeting', with "ROSH 1". That was after the record was already very successful and I performed lots of times, but in the concerts thousands of people seem like one big block without faces and names. The moment when I came in the hall and saw the 100 fans was very exciting. When they chatted with me and told me how much they love me, it was wonderful.
7. Describe to me an embarrassing moment in your career.
Everyone saw the embarrasing moment in "Fisfusim" (an Israeli TV program that show funny accidents). I performed in Haifa. That day I was ill and considered canceling the show. I didn't want to disappoint the fans and got there weak and tired. Since I hadn't got the powers to go to my hairdresser, I gathered my hair and wore a wig. During the concert my wig fell. I laughed on the stage, but it was very unpleasant. This is also the place to answer everyone who asked me in the letters - No, I wasn't blond, it was a wig. In the begining of my career we thought that I'd swap characters and change my hair. That's why I was photographed as a blond. In the end we decided to give up on that idea. In most of the pictures you see I'm natural, and only sometimes, when I feel like getting crazy, I were a wig.
8. What's your favorite color?
Black.
9. What's your favorite food?
Mom's yemenite food, of course. "Malawah", "Jahnun", "legs soup" and everything else.
10.Who is your childhood idol?
Ofra Haza. Today they tell me I remind them of her in the singing. For me, it's a compliment.
11. When was your first time on the stage?
I played in the "Cameri" theater when I was 13. It was in the musical "Yosef Uktonet Hapasim" ("Jossef and the coat of many colors"). I was among the choir boys and I had one solo sentence: "Here's Jossef!". I had practiced that at home for hours, in front of the mirror.
12. Whom would you like to have a joint bath with?
With my rubber duck. The truth is that I'd rather do joint things in other places. In the bath it's crowded and inconvenient.
13. Who's the most beautiful woman in the world?
Beauty is difficult to measure, it's mainly a matter of personal taste. I think Ofra Haza is beautiful and also Cindy Crawford.
14. Who's the most handsome man in the world?
Wow, that's hard. There are so many. Let's settle with Nisso, my boyfriend.
15. Have you ever kissed a girl?
Never. I really like girls but just as friends, to fondle their hair and exchange female advices, nothing more than that.
16.When was your first kiss?
When I was 14. It was wonderful, He was such a hunk, and since then I've had many kisses, but I never forget the taste of the first one.
17. What is your weakness?
I'm sometimes impatient. So is Ofer, my producer, and we sometimes fight with terrible shouts to the sky. Someone who's watching us from the side must think that that's it, it's a fight for the whole life, but 2 minutes later we continue talking as if nothing had happened.
18. Give me a good quality of yours.
You decide.
19. What makes you laugh?
It's not nice to say, but mistakes and screw-ups of other people make me laugh. Hanna Laslau is a great entertainer and a huge talent, in my opinion.
20. Who are your favorite Israeli artists?
Tzvika Pick is a wonderful composer, Rita is huge, Adam is a great rock singer. BTW, when I was 17 I used to go to his performances and learned a lot from the power that he gives on the stage. Rami Klinestein is also talented.
21. And who's your least favorite?
If you had asked me that a year ago, when I was wilder, I would have given you names. Nowadays I'm forced to be diplomatic, so I won't say names. I'll just say that there are a few rotten rock artists that think they have invented music, but for some reason the public doesn't think so, and in spite of the support from communication they get, the audience doesn't relate to them.
22. Do you have friends?
Being fair, I don't have many. I'm open to a certain limit. Concerning friendships I'm very close, and gotten more closed after the success, when lots of people are trying to get closer and I know that what interests them is my image and the wish to be close to success. Real friends are those who go in the hard way too. Lior and Shmulik, my dancers, accompanied me from childhood and are very close to me. And Daniel, that I've told about, is sitting in heaven, but is still my friend.
23. What's difficult for you to forgive?
About lies, about dishonesty and especially about narrow mindedness and lack of willingness to accept a person, any person, the way he is.
24. Which one of your songs do you like the most?
It changes. Sometimes it's connected to the audience reactions. When one song is accepted with hysteria, it's my 'favorite' for that week. Generally I like all my songs. Really. We select songs after lots of filtering and floundering, and there are many songs that fall in the way. If a song gets in a record and in a performance, we really like it.
25. What is Love?
It is everything. The sea, the sun, the waves, the sadness, the laughter, the weeping and the happiness. Love is the whole life.
26. Which historical age would you like to get back to?
There's always this tendency to make the past magical and wonderful. Nostalgia is necessarily sweet. I'm not like that. I think that we are in a wonderful age of development, advancement and open-mindedness. I wouldn't like to go back, I would like to jump a hundred years forward.
27. What about breaking out to overseas countries?
There are some advanced contacts at the moment. In the past my songs have made it to the Hit Parades in Europe and America, but I don't like talking about things before they actually happen. I can only promise you one thing: the day will come and you'll be proud when you see me on MTV. Remember that. (way to go Dana)
28. What's your attitude to animals?
I really love them. I have two dogs, one of them is named "Bi", because it is Bi-Sexual. The truth is that it didn't tell me that, I decided for it, cause I believe it's the best.
29. What makes you shed tears?
I never cry because of me. Sad cases of other people might cause me to cry. Maybe in the sub-conscious it's my way to unload my own loads.
30. What do you think about marrige?
I think that duality is a wonderful and necessary thing. It's not good for a person to be alone, but in marrige there is something not natural, this commitment for the whole life is problematic. We change every day, so how can you commit for another 30 years? And still, they say that marrige is a bad thing, but haven't found a substitute yet.
31. What about children?
I will have some. I really love kids, and one day I will adopt at least two. I will probably adopt in Brazil so they will be close to my color.
32. What is your favorite movie?
The most kitsch that can be - "Gone with the wind".
33. What is your motto?
From one of my songs, that Ehud Manor wrote,
"What the eyes see now / isn't always the truth.
The old riddle in unsolved / and the visible in unexposed.
So ever expect surprises / You're in the wonder-world like everyone / and everyone can be wrong, man / you are just apart of the tear-game."
34. Do you have a dream?
My life has proven to me that the dreams of yesterday can be today's reality, so I dream less and more do.
35. What is your massage?
The most important: Be yourself. Go with what your heart tells you, fight for your truth, be strong.
This page was originally created by Ami Turgman