Dana’s joy at performing again before Kenya trip

EUROVISION legend Dana is delighted she’s getting back on the road again for a nationwide tour and is looking forward to spending Christmas in Africa with her children. The former MEP can’t wait to return to the stage after the lean Covid years but once the curtain falls on her final tour date she will be jetting off to Kenya for some quality family festive time.

The 71-year-old said: ‘We are living in Galway and it is very much home for us. The people there were so welcoming to us, but more importantly to our children and that was so important to me.’

But her four children – Grace, Ruth, John James and Robert – have long since flown the coop and are now living in far flung destinations across the globe.

‘They’re kind of scattered around the world,’ said Dana, ‘but we try to get together every year for Christmas. So we looked at a map of the world and decided that the best place for everybody to come together was Kenya.’

The original Derry girl – and Ireland’s first Eurovision winner with All Kinds of Everything – has now racked up more than six decades in the music industry.

The Thanksgiving by Candlelight tour includes Dana’s great friend Philomena Begley and other troupe members Louise Morrissey, Chloe

Agnew, Brian McGrane, John McNicholl and Simon Casey.

Dana, above, said: ‘I don’t often get to work with a bunch of girls like these. And it’s so much fun recording and rehearsing together. Performing live is a fairly unique experience. I still get that butterfly feeling before I go on stage.’

The singer has toured the world since her career kicked off at the age of just 16.

And while her Eurovision success earned her fame across the continent, she says she was shocked to discover her music had travelled as far away as Mexico.

She recalls: ‘Our son got married and we were all there for the wedding. The night we were leaving we were having a family dinner. Then we heard one my songs being played on the music in the hotel.’