Dana International - VCD 1-15

Dana International

VCD 1-15 (2)

How about we...skip that choreo we did last time, guys?

The same blurry, black & white video transfer as the previous two songs, and once again we've got the three dancers in their little PVC vests and shorts, with Dana in the same clubby fashion corset and pants. But they're no longer in the weird tinfoil-and-mushroom cave...now they're on a large outdoor stage with an enthusiastic smoke-machine, a light show, and a backdrop of what looks like painted waves. She doesn't participate in the problematic choreography from the last version, however...this time she just does the kick-ass little arm movement near the end of the instrumental segment. A good, enthusiastic performance.

Midway through the number we see the crowd, and wow...there are a lot of people watching this show...it must be a festival of some kind.

It's interesting to compare this performance with the last one, obviously filmed around the same time: it's almost exactly the same, but a few of the kinks have been worked out. At the end she does the same sexy little interaction with each of her dancers, and they all cuddle up together as the song finishes.

This is a very cool little music video, and once again I don't think it's supposed to be in black & white. It seems to be a statement about dealing with the ridiculous opinions of those who don't like you very much.

A mysterious woman enters a bar and kisses the bartender, then perches herself on a stool to watch Dana. Looking voluptuous in a sort of see-through white beaded gown, Dana is performing in one corner of the bar. On the wall behind her, television screens show moderately sexy videos and strange, somewhat mundane shots that look randomly culled from movies, sporting events and cartoons, including (watch for it!) Bugs Bunny dressed up like Cupid.

It begins to look like the bartender and the mystery woman are mocking Dana...at the very least, they certainly aren't appreciating her performance. The woman rolls her eyes and presses either an artichoke or a cel phone to her ear (hey, it's really blurry, remember). At one point she dares to sarcastically duplicate Dana's "Cleopatra posture." After approaching and sitting with the woman and getting into an argument (it looks like the woman is insulting her), Dana slaps her on the shoulder and physically pushes her out of the bar. On the TV screen, a boxer raises up his gloves in victory.

This would seem to be Dana "waving away a little depression and slanders." Good job!

Another in what seemed to be a series of appropriately weird performances of Maganona, Dana -- in a pink tube dress -- frolics with her dancers, one of whom is wearing a chicken head. It's great to see a different vocal interpretation of the song, though this one sounds a little bit messy -- her "gulu gulu gali gulu / ismi mimi ismi lulu" treatment is inconsistent and the chorus seems to catch her off guard quite a few times. She doesn't appear to be too "into" the show, standing in one spot most of the time and just sort of shimmying around, occasionally bursting out like she wants to have fun but seemingly unable to. Still, it must be a very difficult song to perform from a cold start, what with all the crowing, shrieking, and other wonderful weirdness.

During the comparatively out-of-control middle part of the song the dancers get a chance to shine, breaking out of their choreography to kick and spin around. She interjects a Hebrew phrase at 3:13 that isn't part of the original song, and I'm intensely curious as to what it is (it sounds dismissive) and at the end she hollers out an equally odd and possibly sarcastic "Thaaank you."

There is a much more entertaining and bizarre treatment of Maganona on VCD 2, just you wait...

Aha, this is more like it! I get the feeling that Dana really likes to sing this song (and the audience seems to love it too)...either that or she's done it so many times that she really has it figured out. She really comes into her own more when she's performing a more vocally oriented song, as opposed to the interjected nonsense (but still wonderful) lyrics of her dance tracks. I'll say it again: it can't be too much fun singing something like Maganona without a troupe of dancers and a lot of props (see VCD 2!)

This is recorded during the same performance as the previous clip, but it is much more vivacious. I think the people who hosted this concert should fire the cameraman on downstage left because he is obsessed with tilting his viewfinder 45 degrees counter-clockwise...it may be a problem with his head.

At the end of the song, she and her two dancers do their sassy marching-down-the-catwalk thing, which always seems to come off beautifully.

Aha, back with those fans again! Dana's final performance on this stage, and a bit more choreography this time around, but for some reason this one doesn't have live vocals. I'd like to point out to the attentive viewer the large group of patient musicians who sit behind Dana and her dancers for these three numbers, hands on their instruments, staring straight ahead and not doing anything, not even when the dancers engage in their Menafnefet "do the swim" dance. Though, what an acoustic guitarist or bassoon player could do during such a number is beyond me.

This version of the song has been edited...two of the instrumental bridges have been removed. Dana seems fully up to performance speed now, doing her little "wave off the hip" thing in perfect time and to very good effect while her shirtless dancers kick around with their fans. The annoying cameraman has been fired, or perhaps they just straightened out his head, because there are no appreciably tilted camera angles here.

At the end of the number Dana and her boys prance off stage, leaving the audience well-satisfied (and the announcer sounds pretty happy too!)

Oh my goodness, this is horrible. This is the low point. Who -- and I really want to know -- WHO decided to take what looks like a wonderful video of Dana performing one of my favourite songs and intersperse it with "home-video blooper" footage, complete with over-loud sound effects and a laughing audience? Surely this is the product of an Israeli version of "Funniest Home Videos." If nothing else, this teaches us that the people who produce it over there were no funnier than the people who produced it here.

The real shame of it is this is a rare instance to see and hear Dana singing with a band that is actually playing their instruments, but it's totally buried in "boink" sounds and people laughing at construction disasters and old ladies falling down.

You can see about 15 seconds (total) of Dana's performance. And an awful lot of little kids playing basketball and dogs doing funny tricks.

Oh no, I don't blame the people who put this on the VCD -- I'm glad it's here, after all. I blame the numbskull to thought it was a good idea to put the video together in the first place.

Dana lip-syncs in front of a giant bank of TV screens which replay clips from the "Diva" and "Chinquemilla" videos. It's a weird idea, but it works: the videos are nicely edited together and slowed down, and they go well with the song. I'm not sure if the they were actually synced up to "Petra" or not, but there sure seem to be moments of cool synchronicity.

There are two lip-syncing men doing backup, one of whom always seems to be holding onto his crotch. Dana herself has a mean hip-shake going on throughout -- occasionally looking like she's going to break out into a flamenco dance -- and the crowd looks quite happy to clap along with the beat from beginning to end...there's even some cool ululations from audience members in the middle bits.

Definitely a good way to end off VCD 1, with a hopeful, upbeat number and what looks like a very happy Dana International...