He was born Yaron Cohen into a Yemenite-Jewish family. Four years ago in London, he underwent a sex change operation. Now, as Dana International, one of Israel's top female singers, she is going to sing for her country in next year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Already religious politicians are chorusing their disapproval.
Two years ago, Ms International's song Goodnight, Europe, was second in the national pre-Eurovision contest, and the disappointed chanteuse acknowledged that it would "probably have caused a major scandal to have Israel represented in Eurovision by a transsexual".
But this week she went one better: the Israeli selection committee named her to sing Diva, chosen from 33 entries, at the contest being held in Birmingham next May. And the scandal is indeed unfolding.
Leading the critics is Shlomo Benizri, a media-hungry member of the Knesset from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, who lamented yesterday that, far from fulfilling its divine mission to serve as "a light unto the nations", Israel was sending "a message of darkness" by having Ms International represent it. The only reason sex changes weren't proscribed by the ancient rabbinical sages, he said, was because they never conceived of such "an abomination". The singer had committed "an act worse than sodomy", he stormed. There may indeed have been an element of deliberate headline-stoking in the choice of the singer, given that Israel has seen a decline in its Eurovision fortunes in recent years. But equally, Ms International is a highly regarded and highly popular local performer, whose albums sell by the tens of thousands, and whose fame has spread across the border to Egypt. Discovered singing in a sleazy Tel Aviv drag show eight years ago, the dark-haired, slim, statuesque Ms International says she has long been trying to broaden her appeal to match her adopted family name, and hopes that Eurovision will do the trick.
Her manager promises the Eurovision audience "the three most professional and amazing minutes on stage." Knesset member Benizri will doubtless be forgoing the pleasure.
David Horovitz is Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post