The song has been sung by many singers including André Zweig, Joan Baez, Donovan, Chava Alberstein, Theodore Bikel, Hélène Rollès in duet with Dorothée, and Russian ensemble of the Jewish songs on Yiddish "Dona". The song has been translated into many other languages including German, French, Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian. The song became especially popular after the performance of Joan Baez in 1960 and Donovan in 1965, and was even featured on "More Chad & Jeremy", a Capitol Records compilation of standards sung by the British duo. The song in English became well known as "Donna Donna" when it was translated approximately in 1956 by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz. The first translation into English was made by Secunda himself but did not become popular. Secunda wrote "ha ha ha" for the choral score with the broken chords. There are some difference between the original and the melody that are well known. Secunda wrote "molto rit." (gradually very slowly) for the ending of the first verse. Then "he" sings the melody, and "she" sometimes sings "Dana", other times sings "Ah" with a high voice or technical passage.
Although singing the third part of "Dana Dana" (="Dana Dana Dana Dana.") the man sometimes sings lower than the melody using disjunct motions. First, a woman (Secunda wrote "she") sings four bars and then the man (Secunda wrote "he") sings the next four. He wrote "piu mosso" (more rapidly) for the refrain and some passages that emphasize the winds. The melody of the introduction was also used at the end of the song. He wrote for the choral score "andantino" (some slowly) and "sempre staccato" (play staccato always). The Yiddish text was written with roman alphabet.
Secunda wrote "Dana-" for the orchestral score and "Dana Dana" for the vocal scores.
The original is 2/4, in G minor for a duo of a man and a woman, choral with the orchestral accompaniment. The song was prohibited in South Korea as a communist song. Both of them were Jews, and the song has been written in days of nazism. The song has been written as "Dana Dana" in Yiddish, for the theatrical musical play "Esterke" (1940-1941) words written by Aaron Zeitlin, music written by Sholom Secunda.