Dana, who secured her presidential candidature through local authorities, is known for her strong anti-abortion stance but has denied she will be a one-issue candidate. The 44-year-old singer from Derry's Bogside, whose maiden name is Rosemary Brown, has lived in the heart of the American Bible Belt in Birmingham, Alabama, for the past seven years.
She and her husband, Mr Damien Scallon, had taken up an offer of a television career and she presents a chat show, Say Yes, on a Catholic cable channel. While in the US, she has addressed anti-abortion rallies.
In 1970, the 18-year-old Dana was the first Irish winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with All Kinds of Everything. She then enjoyed a modest career as a singer. Later in the 1970s, a growth on her vocal cords was successfully treated.
She married in 1979, and when her husband's hotel in Newry, Co Down, was blown up for the seventh time, the couple left for Dublin and then went to London.
The first of her four children, Grace, was born in 1981. She told The Irish Times in 1995 that it was during this pregnancy that her views on abortion were formed when she had a threatened miscarriage.
Dana has sung for the Pope three times, as well as recording an album of the Rosary. She composed the hymn The Golden Rose, which some say is the real Knock anthem.
Last month, she went to Paris for concerts by invitation of the Vatican as part of the run-up to the Pope's visit there.