Every now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how did it go.....
Back in 1998 in Birmingham Israeli Dana International was the hot topic of the contest being the first ever transsexual and having angered the priests in her home country. She had tried to enter already in 1995 with Layla tov Eropa but then placed second in the national final, but in 1998 she was internally chosen. It was a close run and she won only with six points (172 vs UK's 166 and Malta's 165) but she became the winner of the first televoting era contest. If you look at the scoreboard those countries still using jury didn't quite support her.
In 2008 she was back in contest, but as an author for Boaz Mauda's Ke'ilu kan, that placed 9th in the final, after having performed Diva again in the 2005 Eurovision 50th anniversary show in Copenhagen.
2011 was her great comeback to the contest when she won the Israeli selection with Ding dong. But she didn't go to history books as the returning winner but the very first - and so far only - winner not qualifying for the final: only 15th in the semifinal out of 19. Only nine countries awarded her some minor points while 12 left her with none. Was it worth coming back? Certainly not...
But despite that, she remains one of the contest's most icoic winners! And she was back in the Eurovision's 60th anniversary party in London being the Diva we know again.
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