Dana Dragomir | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Dana Dragomir |
Also known as | Pandana |
Born |
Bucharest, Romania |
July 22, 1964
Genres |
Popular music Instrumental Pop Easy listening |
Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
Instruments | Pan flute |
Years active | 1980–present |
Labels | Pandana Records |
Associated acts | Peter Grönvall, Kristian Lundin, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Jonas Berggren, Max Martin, Merit Hemmingson |
Website | www.pandana.com |
Dana Dragomir (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈdana draɡoˈmir]; born July 22, 1964 in Bucharest, Romania) is a Swedish pan flute musician and composer. She is also known under the name Pandana (combination between the Greek god Pan and her name).
Dana Dragomir is best known for her interpretation of the song "Mio My Mio", written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA. She is the first professional female Pan flute player in the world. Her music is a mixture of Pop, World and New Age music. She achieved chart success in Sweden with several of her albums, being quoted the best selling instrumental artist in Scandinavia and she is the first instrumental artist ever to top the Swedish radio record chart, Svensktoppen.
Dragomir has a twelve year education at the prestigious Dinu Lipatti and George Enescu High School of Music in Bucharest, her place of birth. She was discovered and became an established star at the age of sixteen in her native country.
In 1985, aged 21, she left Romania for a 3-year contract in Las Vegas, her manager then having big plans for her in the USA. These were the last years of the Ceaușescu era, and the Securitate let her leave the country only on condition that she would spy for them. But Dragomir had no intention to ever come back to Romania. Her defection had dear consequences for her parents, who both lost their jobs. She eventually went back to Romania for the first time in 1990, after the fall of Ceaușescu.
Meanwhile, she had quickly grown dissastified with the slow developing project in the USA, and finally left the country and her manager to settle in Sweden. Her big breakthrough there came in 1991 with her rendition of "Mio min Mio", a song initially composed for the 1987 film Mio in the Land of Faraway by the two former ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Her instrumental version became a huge success and stayed in the Svensktoppen chart for ten weeks, peaking at number 1.