Dana Rosemary Scallon

Dana Rosemary Scallon
Pictured on arrival at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on 16 March 1970
Background information
Birth name	Rosemary Brown
Also known as	Dana
Born	(1951-08-30) 30 August 1951 (age 65) Islington, London, England
Genres	Celtic, folk, pop, Christian
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Rex, Decca, GTO, Creole, Warwick, Fanfare, Epic, Heart Beat, Lite, Ritz, Word, DS Music, Cherry Red
Website	www.danaofficial.com

Dana Rosemary Scallon (born Rosemary Brown on 30 August 1951), known in her singing career as Dana, is an Irish singer and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

While still a schoolgirl she won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with "All Kinds of Everything". It became a worldwide million-seller and launched her music career.

She entered politics in 1997, as Dana Rosemary Scallon, running unsuccessfully in the Irish presidential election, but later being elected as an MEP for Connacht–Ulster in 1999. Scallon was again an independent candidate in the Irish 2011 presidential election, but was eliminated on the first count.

Scallon was born in Frederica Street, Islington, North London, to Robert and Sheila Brown (née Sheerin). Her father worked as a porter at nearby King's Cross station. A hairdresser by trade, he'd relocated his family from his native Derry in Northern Ireland because of the high unemployment there after the war. She was five when her parents were advised by their doctor to return to Derry because of the London smog, and the harmful effect it had on some of their children. (London had not yet benefited from the Clean Air Act 1956.) Their new home was on Derry's Creggan housing estate where they stayed until 1967, when they moved to the newly built Rossville Flats complex in the Bogside, an area overlooked by the historic city walls.

Her parents were musical – her father played the trumpet in his own dance band, The Imperial All Stars, and her mother was their guest pianist. They had seven children in all: three sons and four daughters, including their third-born child Grace who died at eight months from a penicillin allergy. Fifth-born and youngest daughter Rosemary won the first talent contest she entered - an all-aged event at St Columb's Hall when she was six. During her childhood she was taught to play the piano and violin, taught herself to play the acoustic guitar, sang in the school choir, and at one point, after years of ballet practice, considered becoming a ballet teacher. She took part in many more music and dance contests. In the early 1960s, she began performing with her sisters Eileen and Susan in charity concerts organised by their father. Then Eileen left the trio to become a hairdresser, leaving the others as a duo, who later managed to secure a summer season at the Portrush Palladium. Their Aunt Rosaleen in 1964 contacted a friend in the music business, arranger Frank Barber, and that led to Decca Records offering them a recording contract. Susan declined the offer, choosing instead to get married and emigrated to the United States with her husband, a member of the USAF. In 1965, the now solo Rosemary Brown took part in a local talent contest at the Embassy Ballroom, where she won first prize – a chance to record a demo tape. Tony Johnston, a headmaster and part-time promoter who sponsored the competition, took her under his wing while she continued with her studies at Thornhill College, the Roman Catholic grammar school for girls she joined in 1963.