She may be seen as a pop singer, but the musician Dana Berger was strongly influenced by the rock of the 80s and is a rocker at heart!!
(Photo: Gabriel Baharlya)
= She was born in the Neve Shanan neighborhood in Haifa on November 2, 1970, but grew up and was educated in Jerusalem.
= Her parents divorced when she was 5 years old, her father left home and she stayed to live with her mother who was a teacher at the school she attended. She would visit her father once a week.
= She says that she was a "good Jerusalem girl", ballet class twice a week, piano class twice a week, and Scouts once a week. She used to listen to George Michael, Olivia Newton-John, and Duran Duran, and needless to say, she was a good student.
= At the age of 15, like a typical teenage girl she made a 180-degree turn, she entered the world of rock. She said that Olivia and George were replaced, by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bauhaus, and more... From a good girl, she became a "freak" with black clothing, torn shirts, and heavy makeup.
= In 1987 she founded the band "O Ban". A Jerusalem punk rock band that vented its anger on everything possible, against the government, against the police, against environmental pollution, and even against plutonium!! No kidding, they had a song called "Radioactive Plutonium".
(Photo: Gabriel Baharlya)
= One day the band receives an invitation to perform at the legendary "Metro" club in Tel Aviv. Dana goes on stage with a short black mini skirt up to her chest and black gloves to the shoulders and roars her soul in front of the entire Israeli musical brass which includes: Dan Toren, Yermi Kaplan, Korin Elal, and more.
= She enlists in the army and to her surprise, she is accepted into the Nahal band, thanks in large part to Tzedi Tsarfati. During the army, she moves to the big city of Tel Aviv in order to fulfill her musical dream. Her mother, who is concerned with her daughter's move, takes a sabbatical and moves with her to live in Tel Aviv.
= In 1990, nearing the end of her military service, one day she receives a call from Dan Toren who offers her to join his and Yuval Messner's new band. Dana doesn't think twice and a week after she is released from the army she holds the first concert of the band "Balagan" at the legendary "Roxanne" club.
= Two weeks after the performance, the band gets significant exposure when it is invited to be a guest on Rivka Michaeli's show "Reason for a Party" on Channel One.
= Dana, Dan, and Yuval together with Yair Gat on the bass, Dror Margalit on the keyboards, and Gal Hadani on the drums (who was later replaced by Ra Mochiah) in 1991 the band recorded their only album "Urban Paradise", which was released in March 1992 by the label "Ponocol". All the members of the band arranged and musically produced the album. The two songs that stood out from the album were "Gvarim Miktsoanim" and "Sheket" written by Yona Wallach and composed by Yuval Messner. The band broke up shortly after the release of the album.
= Dana will never forget the first time she heard herself on the radio, it was during the Gulf War. One evening, when she was a waitress in a pub in Dizengoff, there was a missile siren, and the employees together with the customers entered the safe room of the pub. While they are listening to the radio and waiting for the message that they can leave the safe room, the band's song "Sheket" was playing on the radio.
= Yoav Kutner wrote about the band: "Balagan, especially in retrospect, was the "top band", which only existed for a short time but managed to record an album that had several "classic" sections of Israeli rock of the early 90s. The band was active just before the big boom of young, alternative Israeli rock. Perhaps if she had lasted a little longer, she would have realized her potential for success in real time. But Balagan, as mentioned, existed only for a short time, and only after its breakup did its members start successful solo careers."
(Photo: Eldad Refaely)
= In the same year, Dana was cast in the successful TV series "Inyan shell Zman". The series focused on the plots of 11th-grade 5 students (as of the first season) in a high school in North Tel Aviv, on the problems of teenagers, and dealt with topics such as studies, adolescence, love, recruiting for the IDF, social gaps, rape, drugs, early pregnancy, bulimia, etc. Dana played in the series for 7 years.
= Dana began to be more involved in local music and participated in many different projects such as the rock opera "Samara" by Hillel Mittelpunkt, participation in the 1992 Festival, she participated in Rafi Adar's album "The Full Heart of Kontinka" and appeared for the first time as a soloist in 1993 as part of the music festival "Rock in the Red Sea".
= At the same time she starts studying at the "Rimon" music school, but the affair ends quickly and after three months she leaves.
= In 1994, Dana released her debut album "Dana Berger", in which she wrote and composed most of the material on the album and collaborated with Vered Clifter, Johnny Shuali, Berry Sakharof, Oded Farah, and Ra Mochiah. The style of the album was "hard" and "wild" rock n' roll, with hard and sharp lyrics. The most prominent songs from it are "King", "And my heart is Empty" and "What will be left for Me at the End". Berger's picture appearing on the back of the cover with a nosebleed also represented the musical atmosphere of the album. The album was not a commercial success.
= Dana appeared at the rally in support of the Oslo Accords, which took place in the Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square) on November 4, 1994, with the song "Quiet", shortly before the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
= In 1998, Dana released her second album, "Just to Be", produced by Yuval Shafrir. This album was characterized by much softer songs than her previous album. Among the most prominent songs in it are "Far from Reality", "Passing Warmth", "Come and we will go from here" and "Waiting for him". Also on this album, she collaborated with other artists, among them once again Vered Klafter and Toren as well as Yehuda Ader and the keyboardist Eyal Klein. The album was a great success and was accompanied by several successful performances. Alongside the album, Berger appeared in various musical projects and children's festivals.
= In 2000, Dana released her third album, "Ad Hakaze", with the musical production of Ofer Meiri. The album which was her big breakthrough brought Dana tremendous success and made her one of the most prominent singers in Israeli music. Among the prominent songs on the album was "Learning to Fly", "Up to the End", "Love", and "There Is a point in It" (a remake of Yael Levy's song, originally called "No Crying") and "Crying for you". The sales of the album earned it a double platinum album status and in the annual Hebrew chart of "Reshet Gimel" radio station in the same year Berger won the title "Singer of the Year".
= In 2003 she released her fourth album, "In Motion", also musically produced by Ofer Meiri. Among the outstanding songs from the album were "Ba and Holech" (which she wrote for her partner, Adi Sharon), "While on the Move", "Gan Meir" and "Five in the Morning". Following the album, Berger once again won the title of "Singer of the Year" in the annual chart.
= In 2005, she participated in the debut album of the band "Metropolis", where she sang the song "Sleep without Dreaming" together with the soloist Roni Alter.
= In 2006, Berger's fifth album, "Yom Yom", was released, this time with the musical production of Loui Lahav. Some of the songs on the album were written by Tsurya Lahav. Among the outstanding songs from the album were "Mother" and "Haruti".
= In 2010, "Here I Came Home", a joint album by Berger and Laity Pearl, was released. The theme song of the album was also used as the theme song of the television series "Khatofim". Another song that stood out was the first single "Loli".
= In 2014 Dana released her seventh album "Gifts of Time", musically produced by Yossi Phayne. After the release of the album, the songs "My Walls" and "See You" were released as singles.
= In 2016 she took part in the children's album "The Treasure", a project initiated, composed, and produced by Gal Ziv, in which Alon Ader, Gadi Ronan, Yael Deckelbaum, and more participated.
(Photo: Ilan Bashor)
= In 2017 Dana released her eighth album "Congested Days". Dana created the album through a crowdfunding project at Headstart and raised NIS 100,001. In March 2017, the first single "Negan" was released, which was a success. At the end of May 2017, the second single "Crowded Days" was released accompanied by a music video starring Lior Ashkenazi. In July 2017, the third single from the album was released - "You're not at home".
= In 2020 Dana collaborated with her partner Adi Sharon and the two released the album "DNA", with Dana providing the lyrics and vocals and Adi providing the electronic beats and the electrifying atmosphere. The album includes 11 songs, most of which were written by Dana herself in addition to texts by others - "Shelter Public" and "Forgiveness" written by the poet Meir Goldberg, "Roots?" written jointly by Dana Berger and Samira Sariya, "Trees" written by Arik Einstein and "Kohav" which Dana Berger wrote inspired by a text by Gilad Admoni.
= In February 2022, Dana released her tenth album "All Love to the Best". An album was created by chance, in collaboration with Michal Dagan, Dana's student in a writing workshop. Those meetings between a teacher and student gave birth to an album in which all the lyrics were written by Michal Dagan and composed by Berger. The album was created spontaneously without planning or thought, every time they finished working on a text, Dana automatically took the guitar and composed.
= Apart from Dana's musical career, she also has quite an acting career under her belt!!
She participated in the series "Saturdays and Holidays", "Girls" and "Wonderful Divorce". She played in the drama series for children and youth "The Island" and also in the series "Diaries of the Great Vacation". She also participated in the seventh season of "Survival", the program she finished in fifth place.
= The song "Nafelt Hizk" was written by Hemi Rudner about Dana due to her separation from her boyfriend and partner Yermi Kaplan.
= The song "You Come and go" was written by Dana about her current partner Adi Sharon. Dana said that after two weddings and a divorce, she fell in love again with a musician who made her life difficult. At the beginning of their relationship, he would come and go for a week or two each time. Since he didn't answer the phones and didn't return messages, Dana wrote the song.
= In August 2024, Dana released "Gagoa Hai", a song written and composed by Orit Dokler, who studied with the late Shahar (Debi) Mathias in Ramon, Mathias was murdered together with her husband Shlomi in their home in Kibbutz Hulit on October 7.
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