Just a few snapshots
Hear Dana sing "All
Kinds Of Everything"
Listen to some of Dana's singles: |
The Eurovision Song Contest was to be on March 21, 1970. A nervous Dana, along with her mother, and grandmother received a blessing from the Bishop of Derry before their departure to Amsterdam. This was a big event and in those days winning EUROVISION carried with it enormous prestige within the music industry, not to mention the potential to sell millions of records. That same year Mary Hopkins sang the British entry and the fact that she recorded for APPLE, the record company owned by THE BEATLES, was well publicized. In addition to this competition, the Spanish entry was sung by Julio Iglesias. Dana was still in school and looked as if she had shown up to take part in a local Irish dancing contest and was completely at variance with the carefully preened competitors from the other leading countries. Against all odds this unknown girl from Derry sang ‘All Kinds Of Everything,’ with charm and panache. This unknown individual would was forever to be known as Dana, became the winner of the song contest. After a night of interviews from the press to see who this mystery winner was, Dana finally escaped the madness to go to Mass. The shock of fame hit Dana on her return trip home. Approximately 5,000 people where waiting at the airport to get a glance at their beloved new Irish singing sensation. "All Kinds Of Everything" became a massive international hit, topping the chart in Great Britain and the Hit Parades throughout Europe for several weeks. The Eurovision song contest proved to be a major springboard to even greater success for the Irish songstress. It opened up many new and exciting opportunities for Dana around Europe and eventually around the world.
In a short time Dana emerged as one of Britain’s most popular singing stars, clocking up record success with a string of hit singles ",Who Put The Lights Out" "Please Tell Him That I Said Hello," "It's Gonna Be A Cold Cold Christmas," "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again," "Something's Cooking In The Kitchen," "Fairytale," and albums such as, "All Kinds Of Everything," "The World Of Dana," "The Girl Is Back," "Have A Nice Day," "Love Songs and Fairytales," and "Everything is Beautiful." During this time she was voted "The Most Popular Girl On Television" by a top selling British television magazine. Against the norm of the secular music industry, Dana made appearances on Christian programmes for radio and television, even if it wasn’t the "in" thing to do. It was her soon to be her husband, Damien Scallon, who helped her get over the fear of Dana speaking in public about her faith. Damien had been "Baptized in the Holy Spirit" and was involved in the Charismatic renewal movement that had been established in the Church. As he told Dana about this renewal of faith, she was still not sure of God’s plan for her. It took a scare that she had cancer of her vocal cords before she knew her life must change, and she must take a stand for her faith. Dana and Damien were married on October 5, 1978. On their honeymoon,
they wrote their first song together, "Praise the Lord." At the end of the
70’s, Dana was preforming at Charismatic conferences. Dana and Damien found that
their relationship as a couple began to grow as they wrote songs for Christ. In 1979
inspired by the Holy Father’s visit to Ireland, they wrote a song to Pope John Paul
II’s motto " Totus Tuus.. Totally Yours." In December of that year, the
song hit the charts in Ireland and made it way to the number one spot. |
