This article is about the Tibetan singer and actress. For the Israeli Paralympic swimmer, see Ami Omer Dadaon.
Dadon (Tibetan: ཟླ་སྒྲོན, Wylie: zla sgron), name Dadon Dawa Dolma (Tibetan: ཟླ་སྒྲོན་ཟླ་བ་སྒྲོལ་མ་, born in Tibet in 1968) is a Tibetan singer and actress.
In 1988, she studied voice at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Representing Tibet at national Chinese music competitions in 1988 and 1990, she won a silver medal each time.[2]
She made five albums in Tibet.[3] Her music, which is characterized by a mixture of traditional and popular folklore, was also critical of the situation in her country, which is considered by the Chinese authorities to be a threat to the state.[4]
Inspired by the Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, Dadon also incorporated some styles of Tibetan rock band Rangzen Shonu after hearing a tape smuggled into Lhasa in 1988.[5]
In 1992, she decided to flee and was granted political asylum in the United States (Middletown, Connecticut).
Her defection was cited in an internal speech by the Secretary of the CPC Tibet Committee Chen Kuiyuan in 1997, as well as the TV journalist Ngawang Choephel and director of the Tibet Hotel in Lhasa Jamyang Choegyal, son of Minister Kashopa Chogyal Nyima, two other government employees.[6]
^(in English) Tibet Information Network, Unity and discord: music and politics in contemporary Tibet, 2004, p. 83- 84 Dadon is Tibet's first pop star, and remains one of the most successful to this day.... She was inspired by the Taiwanese singer Deng Lijun, known as Teresa Teng, and emulated her singing style. However, as Henrion-Dourcy reports, another point of inspiration was Modern Tibetan songs, the 1995 cassette of the Dharamsala-based band Rangzen Shonu, 'Freedom Youth', which was smuggled into Lhasa in 1988.
