Biography

Dara Rolins (born 7 December 1972) is a Slovak recording artist and entrepreneur. Her music career began at the age of nine, after being cast in the television musical Zázračný autobus (1981). The early role established a formula for her regular assignments as a child singer, and resulted in recording her debut album Keby som bola princezná Arabela (1983) on OPUS Records. By her late teens, Rolins appeared in a number of made-for-TV films of varying quality, as well as managing to deliver a series of teen pop-orientated albums, such as Darinka (1986), Čo o mne vieš (1988) and soundtrack Téměř růžový příběh (1990), all released by Supraphon. Along with Karel Gott, she experienced a one-off success in the German-speaking region in 1986, peaking with their duet "Fang das Licht" ("Catch the Light") (the German version of their Czech duet "Zvonky štěstí") at number seven on the Austrian Singles Chart, and number fifteen in Germany.As she reached adulthood, her popularity had stalled in the nineties. However, she made an attempt to replicate her local status abroad via the English set What You See Is What You Get (1996). The work distributed through a subsidiary of BMG, however, failed to attract the international market and she returned to homebase to resume her former course. Sen lásky (1997), which served as her initial comeback release featuring cover versions of various composers of classical era, produced a ZAI Awards-nomination within Slovak outputs. Following that, she continued in publishing dance material, namely What's My Name (2002) and D1 (2005); both on Epic. Her additional recordings included the best-of compilation 1983–1998 (2005) on Bonton, remix collection D2: Remixy (2008) by Epic and live recording of christmas album Šťastné a veselé (2009), released on Universal. On TV, she rebuilt her presence in 2007 for one season as a co-judge of reality show Slovensko hľadá SuperStar, and in the 2009 series of Česko Slovenská Superstar, also based on United Kingdom Pop Idol. She later joined the cast of Let's Dance (2011) and X Factor (2014).

Besides her recording achievements, Rolins posed topless in October 1999 for the Czech and Slovak issues of a men's magazine as a Playboy cover girl. She also upgraded her physical assets such as breasts prior to undergoing plastic surgery. The national press speculated about a rhinoplasty as well. In the new millennium, she has become the subject of more scrutiny. First, there was a 2009 revelation regarding her factual surname printed by Plus 7 dní; for over thirty years since her first public performance, she referred to herself exclusively under an adopted name. The following year, Rolins was accused of a negligent homicide caused by her 10 July 2010 traffic collision. The legal case, initially dropped due to a lack of probable cause, was later re-launched. In 2011, the pop singer released a new studio album on EMI entitled Stereo (2011). Receiving mixed reviews, the work featured an explicit, almost nude cover. Most recently, she released album ETC without a label.