Dana Rosemary Scallon

Dana Rosemary Scallon, known as "Dana" (born August 30, 1951 in Islington, London, England) is an Irish singer, pantomime performer, and a former member of the European Parliament. She won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with "All Kinds of Everything", a subsequent worldwide million-seller. She lived briefly in Birmingham, hosting a Christian music and interview series on television.

She was born "Rosemary Brown", the 5th of seven children of a King's Cross Station porter and trumpet player from Northern Ireland. When she was five, the family moved back to a public housing estate in Derry to escape the smog of London. She attended St Eugene's Primary School and then enrolled at Thornhill College. A singing talent from childhood, she had won several local contests while also participating in local choirs and taking piano, violin and ballet lessons.

In the early 1960s Rosemary formed a trio with two of her sisters, often performing at charity concerts organized by their father. When one sister left, the remaining duo landed a summer-long booking at the Palladium and a recording contract with Decca. Rosemary's other sister, however, left to join her new husband, a United States airman, in America. Stricken with stage fright, Rosemary the solo singer managed to win a folk competition at the Embassy Ballroom with her eyes shut. The contest's sponsor, Tony Johnston, helped her complete her equivalency degree and recorded a demo that convinced Decca to sign her on as a solo artist. She released a single in 1967 that brought some attention from local TV and radio.

Performing under her school nickname "Dana", she became a fixture in Dublin's cabaret and folk clubs. She was crowned "Queen of Cabaret" and feted with a parade and a reception at Clontarf Castle on the Saturday before Easter 1968.

Eurovision

At the suggestion of Decca's local agent, Phil Mitton, Dana auditioned for the Irish National Song Contest, a preliminary for the 1969 Eurovision competition. She reached the finals in Dublin, but came in second.

RTE chief Tom McGrath invited her back to compete the next year. She accepted even though she was preparing to retire from active performing to pursue teaching. The song, "All Kinds of Everything" by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, was picked for her by McGrath and propelled her to victory. She went on to represent Ireland in the 1970 Eurovision contest, held in Amsterdam. She performed perched on a stool on stage and defeated England's Mary Hopkin and Spain's Julio Iglesias to secure Ireland's victory.

Dana was given a hero's welcome upon her return to Ireland, especially in Northern Ireland. "All Kinds of Everything" shot to #1 on the Irish chart, as well as the UK, Australian, South African and Singaporan charts, on its way to passing 1 million sales. She quickly recorded an album, with orchestral accompaniment. Her follow-up single "I Will Follow You", failed to make much of a splash. Given the choice of giving up, she decided to fight for her recording career, and succeeded with Paul Ryan's "Who Put the Lights Out", which spent 11 weeks on the UK charts.

In 1974 Dana switched to GTO Records. Her first single on that label, "Please Tell HIm That I Said Hello" returned her to the top 10. Her 1975 holiday single "It's Gonna be a Cold Cold Christmas" by Roger Greenaway and Geoff Stephens, reached #4 and remained a classic. Now an established Irish singing star she appeared in films and festivals and sold out a week of concerts at the London Palladium. She also maintained her "Queen of the Cabaret" reputation with regular appearances in top London clubs. The BBC gave her two shows of her own: a series called A Day With Dana in 1974 and four series of Wake Up Sunday in 1979. BBC Radio followed suit with a series of I Believe in Music in 1977.

Meanwhile, Dana began performing stage pantomime in a blockbuster production of Cinderella in Oxford. In September of that year, however, she was hospitalized with a non-malignant growth on her left vocal cord, requiring surgery. The single "Fairytale" was sustained in the charts with the publicity from her dire medical prognosis. On October 5, 1978 she married Damien Scallon, a hotel-owner from Newry, at St Eugene's Cathedral in Derry.

In 1979, recovered from her surgery, Dana recorded a new album entitled "The Girl is Back", which had modest success. Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland that year inspired her to write a song based on his personal motto, "Totus Tuus", which topped the Irish charts. Long associated with Christian causes and Sunday-morning programs, Dana and her husband looked for opportunities to reach a broader market for Christian music, and found one in the United States. They attended the National Religious Broadcaster's Conference in Washington D. C. in 1980 and secured a contract with Word Records.

Her first album of Christian songs, "Totally Yours", was released on Word in 1981.

She was soon back in the studios again to make "Magic" in 1982, a pop album for Lite Records. It included four songs by her younger brothers, John and Gerald. Dana released the official world cup song for the Northern Ireland football team, "Yer Man", which was recorded with the full squad heading to Spain for the finals. Then came another summer season, this time it was in Blackpool with Little and Large. Next came the recording of her second album for Word, "Let There Be Love", containing a variety of tracks from up-tempo to an old Irish hymn sung in Gaelic. The pantomime season followed and Dana was off to Hull where she starred in a production of Snow White.

Falling pregnant again, Dana gave birth to her second daughter, Susanna Ruth, on 18 August 1983. Christmas time arrived to find the mother-of-two playing the part of Snow White once more. So popular had been the production in Hull that it had now transferred to the West End. There it played to packed houses and the original seven-week run was extended to twelve. One young boy caused the poisoned Snow White to "corpse" after shouting out for everyone to hear, "You stupid thing, I told you not to eat it!".

A tour of America took place in 1984 to promote the Word LPs. She spread the word in concert halls, churches and colleges, as well as TV and radio. The tour was a success but it nearly didn't happen; her outgoing flight began to shed debris as it passed over Reading, necessitating a return to Heathrow for an emergency landing. Billy Graham's Mission England gave Dana a platform; she had previously performed at his Boston crusades. Great Yarmouth was the venue for her summer season with Tom O'Connor, and Westminster Hospital was the venue for the birth of her son, John-James, delivered to the sound of fireworks on 5 November 1984. Then another run of Snow White panto's, this time in Wolverhampton, brought a familiar end to another busy year.

After fifteen years in show business, Hodder and Stoughton published her first book, Dana – An Autobiography, in 1985. Often funny, it told of her close-knit family life, her infant years in London and schooldays in Derry, ballet lessons, music lessons, talent contests, song contests, the start of the Troubles, the road to Eurovision, life as a pop star, panto's, romance, marriage and motherhood – and why she boiled eggs for five hours to make a salad. It also told of her growing devotion to God that led her to become a Catholic music singer.

Dana finally got to see the Pope in 1987 at the Superdome in New Orleans. She was invited to perform "Totus Tuus" before a gathering of 80,000 or more.

The 80s ended as they had begun – with Dana pregnant. She gave birth to Robert on 25 August 1989 in Newry. The Scallon family was now complete.

Throughout this decade, the musician and composer Peter Moss was her producer, arranger, musical director as well as playing various instruments on her albums.

1990s – USA to MEP

In 1991 they moved to Birmingham, Alabama in the United States, where Damien was now working as the manager for retreats at the traditional Catholic broadcasting network, EWTN. Dana hosted shows for them on TV and radio, called Say Yes and We Are One Body. She became a popular Catholic music singer and released many albums with HeartBeat Records, America's leading Catholic music label.

Dana appeared at conferences and public gatherings across the States. One such occasion was in Cherry Creek State Park, Denver, Colorado, in 1993: To help celebrate the sixth World Youth Day, she was invited to sing her song "We Are One Body", the theme song for the event, live to the Pope. She also sang at the World Youth Day celebrations held in Paris (1997), in Toronto (2002), and in Sydney (2008).

In 1997, beforeTemplate:Citation needed returning home to Ireland, she received US citizenshipTemplate:Citation needed, making her a dual Irish and US citizen.

After returning home to Ireland, Dana Rosemary Scallon became a candidate for the office of President of Ireland. She stood as an independent. She came third, ahead of the Labour Party candidate, but losing out to Mary McAleese.

In 1999, again as an independent, she won a seat in the European Parliament, representing the Connacht–Ulster European Parliament constituency. She campaigned on family values and her opposition to abortion. She refused to associate with any political party. However Fianna Fáil made several approaches to her to join<ref name="rte.ie">As revealed in an interview, Conversations with Eamon Dunphy, 3 November 2007, RTÉ Radio 1 http://www.rte.ie/radio1/eamondunphy/</ref>.

2000s – Politics

Scallon in 2001 opposed a proposed amendment to the Irish constitution that would legalise the 'morning after pill' and IUD. The amendment was defeated in a referendum in 2002, although it was supported by the mainstream political parties. Scallon also had public disagreements at the time with the Catholic hierarchy (notably with Cardinal Desmond Connell), the latter wishing instead to negotiate a consensus solution.<ref name="rte.ie" />

In 2002, she contested a seat in Galway West in the Irish general election, again as an independent. She lost, scoring a mere 3.5% of the constituency vote (the low score might be seen as a backlash against her stance in the previous abortion referendum, or the perception that she was a "blow-in" to the constituency).

In June 2004, Scallon lost her European Parliament seat, taking 13.5% of the vote. Later that year she failed to secure a nomination to the office of President of Ireland against the uncontested incumbent. (All her election results are listed at Elections Ireland.)

In February 2005, Dana returned to the world of entertainment when she spent time on the RTÉ television series "The Afternoon Show" (she took part in a weight loss challenge preceding her daughter's summer wedding). In 2006, she and dancer Ronan McCormack were paired together in the RTÉ celebrity dance series Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels. They made it to the final show and came second.

Also in 2006, Dana and Damien launched their own music label, DS Music Productions. One of the first albums released was "Totus Tuus", a compilation of songs dedicated to the memory of Pope John Paul II and issued on the anniversary of his death. A children's album was released in 2007, entitled "Good Morning Jesus: Prayers & Songs for Children of All Ages". It featured in a special series on EWTN.

Early in 2007 Dana, her husband Damien, and their company DS Music Productions were sued by Heartbeat Records for copyright violations for several of the albums they released under their new label.<ref>Heartbeat Records Inc v DS Music Production</ref>

In July 2007, she was a guest judge for the final of Belfast CityBeat radio contest Young Star Search.

Scallon has spoken at many colleges and universities in Ireland and America, where she talks about Ireland, her views around the European Union, as well as the relationship between Europe and the United States. She received an Honorary Doctorate at one appearance in Stonehill College in Massachusetts.

In November 2007, Dana took out a new album, with highlights including a newly composed song pleading for peace in Ireland, a version of the Johnny Cash hit ‘A Thing Called Love’ and a rendering of the Carpenters’ number ‘A Kind Of Hush.’

At the end of 2007, Scallon is due to publish a new autobiography

In 2009, Dana became a judge on The All Ireland Talent Show.

External links

• DS Music Productions Official website for Dana Rosemary Scallon
• HeartBeat Records
• EWTN's Dana Website
• YouTube's Dana channel