Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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DANA

(b Rosemary Brown, 1952 Londonderry) Pop singer. Convent girl auditioned for Irish entry in Eurovision song contest at age 17 and won: 'All Kinds Of Everything' was a UK no. 1 in 1970, followed by further hits until '76, own TV series '74, film debut '78 in The Flight Of Doves. She played summer seasons at seaside venues, pantomime in winter; also appeared in family-oriented TV shows; then she relocated to Alabama in the USA, where she became a star on Christian talk radio as well as making about 30 albums of religious and folk songs. Having spent only 18 months of her life in the Republic of Ireland, she announced in 1997 that she would run for president of Ireland on an anti-abortion platform, afraid that Ireland was becoming too much like America, and surprised everyone by coming a respectable third in a field of five.