Dana was born Rosemary Brown in Derry on August 30, 1951. In 1970 as a teenager she represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest, singing All Kinds of Everything, and brought home the country’s first victory in the contest. Dana recruited her father as her manager and followed with hits including Who Put The Lights Out?, Please Tell Him That I Said Hello and It’s Gonna Be A Cold, Cold Christmas. She ideintified publically with her Catholic upbringing, notably with songs such as Totus Tuus, commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979.
Dana: Eurovision winner and politician.
In the 1980s, she moved with her husband, Damien Scallon whom she married in 1978, and family to the United States, where they were involved with a Christian broadcasting network. She returned to Ireland in 1997 to contest the Irish Presidential election as an independent. She came in a credible third, ahead of the Labour Party candidate. In 1999, again as an independent, she contested and won a seat in the European Parliament representing Connacht-Ulster.
She has declined to associate with any political party. She campaigns on family values, most notably in her opposition to abortion. Her decision in 1999 to oppose a government proposed amendment to the Irish constitution to place some restrictions on abortion, which put her at variance with mainstream Pro-Life movement in Ireland, the mainstream political parties and the Roman Catholic Church, on the basis that in her eyes the anti-abortion amendment wasn’t anti-abortion enough, lost her much of her original support. The defeat of that amendment was blamed on ultra-conservative elements, who were accused by other anti-abortion campaigners of destroying the likely last chance to impose stricter abortion restrictions in Ireland.
In 2002, Dana Scallon contested a seat in the Irish general election, again as an independent. In what was seen as a backlash against her stance in the previous abortion referendum, she lost disastrously, getting just 3.5% of the vote and losing her deposit.
Scallon lost her seat in the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004. Interviewed later she said: ”I have no regrets about my political career. It was a wonderful five years and I loved it. While I hope I will be best remembered for my work as a politician as well as an entertainer, my main priority has always been to be a good wife and mother.”