Dilana Smith

Dilana Jansen van Vuuren was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on 10 August 1972. Her surname changed to Smith when she was about two years old, when her mother married her stepfather, and he adopted her. Dilana used singing as an escape from an unpleasant home scene, participating in school choir competitions and festivals, as well as church choir and fondue parties. When the opportunity presented itself, Dilana dropped everything and started performing full-time, from a travelling duo, to a mixture of bands in South Africa and the Netherlands. Moving to the Netherlands, she formed her own band, focusing more on original works and becoming one of the country's highest paid live performers. Recording her first album Wonderfool in 2000 led to four music videos, five singles and well over 200 gigs. She also sang the title tracks for two major motion pictures and performed in a festival in Belgium supporting Joe Cocker and Stuff, K's Choice and Heather Nova to a crowd of more than 100,000 people. Dilana also performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, with Dutch performers.