Dana Dawson

Dana Dawson managed to sustain parallel paths in music and stage performance. Her first appearance in theater occurred at age seven, when she joined a national touring production of Annie. She later entered the cast of Rent for its national tour in October 2000 and remained with the show for its Broadway premiere the following August. On the vocal side, she issued her first album, Paris, New York and Me, in 1991. The summer of 1996 brought her second album, Black Butterfly, which contained the dance hit “3 Is Family.” Her 2001 single “Nice Life,” issued in England, appeared on the soundtrack for the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. After fighting colon cancer for several years, she succumbed to the illness on August 10, 2010, at the age of 36.