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| Birth Name(s) : Diane Ernestine Earle Ross |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Singer, songwriter, actress |
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Full Diana Ross Biography
In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the female entertainer of the century. Guinness World Records declared Diana Ross as the most successful female music artist of the 20th century with a total of eighteen American number-one singles: twelve as lead singer of The Supremes and six as a solo artist. Ross was the first female solo artist to score six number-ones. She is also one of the few artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of the Supremes.
Ross sang lead on all of the group's early singles, save for 1961's "Buttered Popcorn", led by Ballard. These singles were not successes, and Ross worked for a time as Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr.'s secretary for additional income. Feeling that Ross' soprano voice would allow the Supremes to crossover to mainstream audiences, Gordy made her the official lead singer of the group in late 1963. The same year, the Supremes had their first hit, the Holland-Dozier-Holland composition "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes". More H-D-H written and produced pop hits soon followed, with an unprecedented ten Supremes singles, among them "Where Did Our Love Go", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", and "You Keep Me Hangin' On", becoming number one Billboard Hot 100 hits between 1964 and 1967.
In 1971, Motown released Ross's second album Everything is Everything, which garnered Ross's first UK number one solo single, "I'm Still Waiting". Several months later, Ross released Surrender, which garnered the top 20 pop hit, "Remember Me". That year, Ross hosted her first solo TV special, Diana!. Featuring guest appearances by The Jackson 5, Bill Cosby and Danny Thomas, Ross' special continued her popularity with her middle of the road fan base.
That same year, Motown acquired the film rights to the popular Broadway play The Wiz, an African-American reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although teenage Stephanie Mills, a veteran of the play, was originally cast as Dorothy, Diana Ross convinced Universal Pictures producer Rob Cohen to have Ross cast as Dorothy, As a result, the eleven-year old protagonist of the story was altered into a shy twenty-four year old schoolteacher from Harlem, New York. Among Ross' costars in the film were Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, and her former label mate and protégé Michael Jackson from the Jackson 5. Upon its October 1978 release, the film adaptation of The Wiz was a costly commercial and critical failure, and was Ross' final film for Motown. The accompanying soundtrack album, however, sold over 850,000 copies.Diana Ross' landmark 1980 album, diana, was her final LP for Motown Records before leaving for RCA the following year.
Ross scored a Top 10 hit in late 1980 with the theme song to the 1980 film It's My Turn. The following year, she collaborated with former Commodores singer-songwriter Lionel Richie on the theme song for the film Endless Love. The Academy Award-nominated "Endless Love" single became Ross' final hit on Motown Records, and the Number One Record of the year. Feeling that Motown, and in particular Gordy, were keeping her from freely expressing herself, and not according her financial parity, Ross left Motown for $20 million contract to sign with RCA Records, ending her twenty-year tenure with the label. The Ross-RCA deal was the most money ever paid to an artist until Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and Janet Jackson all signed deals many years after Ross'. When "Endless Love" hit number-one in 1981, Ross became the first female artist in music history to place six singles at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing Barbra Streisand's four number-ones, Donna Summer's four number-ones and Olivia Newton-John's four #1's and Cher's four number-ones. "Endless Love" remains the most successful duet in pop history.
Later that year, Ross held a much-heralded concert in Central Park, the proceeds of which were to go towards building a playground in the singer's name. Fifteen minutes into the show, which was being filmed for Showtime cable television, it began to rain, and as she urged the crowd of 300,000 to safely exit the venue, Ross announced that she would continue the performance the next day. Ross' actions drew praise within the mainstream press. That next day, over 500,000 people came back for one of the largest free concerts in the park's history. However, the second show generated controversy. New York mayor Ed Koch objected to the expenses of a second show. To settle the matter, Ross personally wrote a check for an estimated $250,000 to cover the remaining costs. Although Koch's objections slowed the progress, the Diana Ross Playground was finally built three years later.
In December 2002, Ross was arrested in Tucson, Arizona for drunk driving. She pled no contest, and later served a two day jail sentence near her home in Greenwich, Connecticut. |
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