She received her doctorate from the Faculty of Arts and Music at Belgrade University, where she majored in solo singing.
Dragana began her singing career in 1982 as a soloist with the Yugoslavian Ensemble Renaissance, and made her operatic debut in 1988 as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.
During that season, she also sang Preziosilla in Verdi's La forza del destino, as well as Olga and Filippyevna in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
In 1989, she received a scholarship from the Italian government to further her studies at the Milan Conservatory and went on to perform in many European opera houses as well as in Egypt, Syria, and Algeria.
She became a minor Youtube sensation through her drunken performance of a duet in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.