Dana International VCD's!

Dana International

VCD 16-30 (2)

Well, this is the one that most people have seen, and I've got to say it's a wonderful video. Dana goes through several transformations, becoming a series of different icons in the course of the song. There's a lot of very spiffy and tasteful computer animation to help it along, and I've got to say it's one of the better videos I've ever seen.

As for the icons, the only one I can positively identify is Judy Garland...if she is specifically impersonating other women during the video I am not recognizing them (though there are two who might be Celine Dion). Each impersonation is presented as a sort of a commercial/music video for that artist's music, with appropriate logos and sets...Gie Sagie, the director, is a very, very talented man, and knows how to use computer effects in a way that compliments the video -- looking like a natural part of the action -- without ever overwhelming it. The sequence with "three Danas and a tiger" is very cool.

Of all her looks in this video -- retro, kinky, hippie, chic -- I am most impressed with the "Afrodita" outfit and makeup, which is absolutely stunning. As good as this video is, though, it still can't beat:

Her first collaboration with the director Gie Sagie, and a very unconventional clip, this is the version of Chinquemilla with the extra effects in it (glowing eyes, lightning bolts). This whole thing makes me think of a sort of grotesque, gothic Naked Lunch approach...only weirder.

You've got Dana going through a number of different looks, some of which are surprisingly masculine and more than a little vicious. She walks down a slightly alien catwalk, accompanied by two women with glassy-eyed stares (this seems to be a bit of a theme in the video...most of the people, including Dana, tend to look emotionally inappropriate: wildly aggressive, coldly sexual, or more than a little zombie-like). It is disconcerting. I am particularly intrigued when Dana pulls out what looks like a stuffed insect with a keyboard attached to it, and starts typing on the keys. Hmmm.

To compliment it all there are three men wearing biomechanical masks, dancing around or yanking on cables attached to the floor. Then you've got the famous rocking-horse banana (Gie Sagie said that "buy for me a big banana" was the only lyric in the song he could decipher, so he though, "if she wants a big banana, she's got it!")

The highlight for me is the final speech -- only heard on this version of the song, which appears on "The Album" -- where she invites people to lick her fruit and burns up her microphone wires with her eyes. It's a very powerful and demented ending to an intensely creative video.

An appropriately sedate video interpretation with more computer generated action, but this time it doesn't work as well...some of the 3D rendering is clunky (especially the flapping wings) and it all just seems a bit too sweet: swimming fish, dancing fantasy men, and Dana sitting inside a giant floating bubble.

Still, it's a pretty sweet song, so I don't think it's too off the mark. And at this point in her career I believe she was striving for a certain popular, non-offensive appeal ("Damn that Chinquemilla video!" her record company probably said).

So to go with the tinkly happy music, there are tinkly happy visuals. Dana sucks up a candle (well yeah, that could be a little risqué) and conjures up miniature Danas, fish and peacocks into her hand. Men in funny costumes spin around. Everybody stands on a gigantic clock. Dana's outfits are beautiful (a light-blue PVC bustier and pants)...but with the graininess of this clip it's difficult to really get a look at her.

Wow, this is a huge crowd! Dana -- looking very hip-y in her black sparkly outfit -- announces "...my favourite song, I'm sure it's a song you all like. The name of the song is...DIVA!" And the audience -- old ladies, children and buff guys in muscle-shirts alike -- goes wild.

It's great to see this very tangible sign of her success. This extremely diverse crowd of people just love her, and they love the song. I suspect this performance was filmed shortly after Eurovision, but even so I hope she still enjoys this sort of reception in Israel today. Hopefully she's still viewed as a symbol of national pride and diversity.

During the first chorus Dana is joined by a series of dancers, but keep your eye out...suddenly one minute of the song disappears, and there are more dancers on stage. Something's missing here (a verse, chorus and bridge, namely). At the end of this somewhat shortened version of the song Dana starts to speak in Hebrew to the crowd, but her speech is cut off.

Okay, I'd like to know what's going on here. This looks like it was filmed in a gymnasium of some sort, attended by a large group of children all wearing identical T-Shirts and looking a little bored. Like the shopping-mall video that opened the first VCD, this must be a very difficult place to perform: harsh fluorescent lighting, bad sound, and a crowd which looks like it was forced into clapping along (members of which often forget to stop clapping).

Shmulik -- not content just playing the accordion in the "Yesnan Banot" video, here shows his prowess at pretending to the play the acoustic guitar, inciting two short-skirted dancers into a strange sort of Flamenco (very well choreographed, I must say). Dana herself is dressed in a relatively unspectacular way -- how else are you supposed to be dressed for a children's program? -- and her body language is decidedly uncomfortable.

Weird things: the enormous, frightening clown made out of balloons, and the cameraman accidentally backing into Dana (check out her and Shmulik's bemused, "let's make the best of this" expression). It's very, very interesting to see how Dana deals with this sort of bizarre situation. She has my sympathy.

Filmed at Eurovision (like the version of Diva on the first VCD), this must have been recorded after she won...an encore of sorts. She jumps around, sings, and claps wearing her feathery Gauthier dress and grinning, obviously very excited (who wouldn't be?) and, interestingly, doing a much better job than she did the first time...every inch the diva.

She's back with her four backup singers (doing exactly the same choreography they did the first time), but instead singing of the somewhat off-key bridge she directly addresses the fans: "Do you want it in Jerusalem next year? I want to thank all of you! I want to say I love you! See you next year...in Israel!" Sadly, rolling credits and an announcement voice-over mar the second half of the song.

At the end she says "Thank you very very very much." Even her backup singers seem touched. You've come a long way since that children's show, Dana...

This seems to be an excerpt from a short documentary about Dana. At a somewhat chaotic outdoor event, she comes on-stage with a group of dancers, doing a bit of impromptu dancing to what sounds like a remix of "Zomba." The crowd is extremely enthusiastic (people are holding signs, one of which reads "We love you Dana!") She launches into "Free," subtitled in Hebrew, and footage of her performance is interspersed with shots of soldiers and military personnel.

At 1:14 Dana is being interviewed in her dressing room, where she speaks entirely in Hebrew until her final words: "fuck them." At gets everybody laughing.

Once again, you need to deal with rolling credits at the end. There's also indications that there's more to the documentary than is included on the VCD -- if we're lucky -- the whole thing will be available in the future!