Diana Ross - Biography
Diana Ross Biography
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross 1 (http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Ross/bio.html) on March 26, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan) is an African-American soul, R&B and pop singer and actress. Ross is one of the most successful female artists of her era, both due to her solo work and her role as lead singer of The Supremes during the 1960s.
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Biography
The Supremes
Main entry: The Supremes
Fred and Ernestine Ross had named and christened their daughter 'Diane'; however, due to a clerical error, 'Diana' was what wound up on her birth certificate 2 (http://www.divasthesite.com/Singing_Divas/Trivia/Trivia_Diana_Ross.htm) 3 (http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Ross/bio.html). Regaurdless of the mistake, Diane Ross would contnue to use the name 'Diane' through her teenage years.
Ross began her long music career with Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown as the doo-wop quartet The Primettes, a sister group to The Primes in 1959. After signing to Motown Records in 1961 and replacing McGlown with Barbara Martin, they changed the name of the group to The Supremes. Barbara Martin left the group shortly afterwards, and The Supremes carried on as a trio.
Although all the girls originally took turns singing lead, Motown chief Berry Gordy made Diane the permanent lead singer starting in 1964, because he felt her soprano voice had the pop appeal The Supremes needed to cross over to white audiences. Diane also began using using the name 'Diana' at this time. Between the summer of 1964 and the summer of 1967, The Supremes released ten hit singles making #1 and became the most successful black group of the decade.
In July 1967, Florence Ballard was fired from The Supremes and replaced with Cindy Birdsong. At this time, the group was also renamed Diana Ross & The Supremes, officially recognizing Ross as the focal point of the group. During this period, the group had two more #1 hits as Motown began plans for a Diana Ross solo career, which was announced in November 1969. In January 1970 Diana officially departed from the Supremes after a show in Las Vegas. The group moved on with new singer Jean Terrell while Ross put the finishing touches on her debut album.
Early Solo Career
In the spring of 1970, Diana Ross, Ross' debut solo album, was released. After the initial moderate success of what turned out to be Ross' signiture concert song, 'Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)' (US #20, US R&B #7), Ross broke out of the pack with her cover of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's 1967 classic 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough'. The original 3-minute love duet was turned into a 6-minute dramatic soul opus, where Ross was in spoken word half the time. The song would peak at #1 on both the US pop and R&B charts, and Ross recieved a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.
In the first few years of Ross' solo career, she didn't rely on the diva-like feel that would later come to dominate most of her recordings, often singing in a soulful delivery that was particularly her own, due to her work with songwriters-producers Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. But it still took Ross longer to fully establish herself as an artist in her own right, while she struggled to find a record able to top the success of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough'. Her second release, Everything Is Everything, wasn't the punch she was looking for, though her album cover would later inspire Britney Spears to wear a similar suit in her 2004 video for her single 'Toxic'. Her third, 1971's Surrender, was an improvement musically.
Though notable for several Top 40 solo recordings, Ross needed a new outlet for her talent. With the guidance of Berry Gordy, Ross decided to go to the movies. It would prove to be a fateful move.
Lady Sings the Blues
When word got out that singer Diana Ross was going to portray jazz-blues legend Billie Holiday in a box-office movie, critics, Holiday's fans and Ross' skeptics laughed at the news. Like many of the singers-turned-actors of the day, Ross was slammed early by critics because 'she didn't look like Billie' nor did she have the same qualities that made Holiday so unique when she became a superstar during the jazz era. However, Ross, Gordy, and the newly established film division of Motown Productions carried on with their Billie Holiday bio-pic production, Lady Sings the Blues.
Opening in theaters in the fall of 1972, Lady Sings the Blues became an instant hit. It not only increased the star powers of Ross and comedian Richard Pryor, who played the Piano Man, but introduced the world to future star Billy Dee Williams, who would go on to become the leading Black sex symbol of the 1970s. Ross was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and won Best Newcomer at the 1973 Golden Globes.
Ross covered a number of Holiday's songs for the film, including 'Strange Fruit' and 'Good Morning Heartache', which was released as a single on the double-album Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack at the end of 1972. That album went on to hold the #1 spot on the album charts, and would be Ross' only solo album to reach that position.
Diana & Marvin
By 1973, Diana Ross finally was able to see more chart success as a singer for the first time since 1970. With the Michael Masser produced 'Touch Me in the Morning', she scored her first #1 pop hit in three years and recieved a second Grammy nomination. That same year, Ross released a duets album with fellow Motown artist Marvin Gaye entitled Diana and Marvin, scoring several chart hits. While the album was a moderate financial success, critics noted the lack of schemistry between the two singers, a result of the fact that their parts were recorded seperately--Ross was pregnant with her first child during the time of recording in early 1971, and Gaye refused to stop smoking his marijuana in the studio when she was around. However, their partnership did produce some classic moments for them including their take on the Stylistics' 'You Are Everything' and their own hit, 'You're a Special Part of Me'.
Mahogany
After the success of Lady Sings the Blues in 1972, Berry Gordy arranged for Diana Ross to take the lead in Mahogany, a film he was to direct about a young woman from the Chicago ghettos who dreamed of being a successful model and fashion designer. Again, she teamed up with Billy Dee Williams as her love interest.
Opening in the fall of 1975, Mahogany wasn't the critical phenomenon that Ross probably hoped for, though it was a bankable success in the box-office. The film's theme song and lead soundtrack single, 'Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To?)', hit #1 on the US pop charts and was nominated for an Oscar. During the Oscars telecast, Ross became the first artist to perform for the Oscars ceremony via satelite; she sung 'Theme From Mahogany' from a concert she was headlining in Holland.
'Love Hangover', The Wiz, and diana
In 1976, Ross headed into disco territory with the release of the seven-minute dance single 'Love Hangover'. It became her first #1 R&B hit since 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' and the first of many of her songs to appear at or near the top of the Billboard Dance/Club singles chart. 'Love Hangover' was released from Ross' second self-titled album, which became a Top 10 Pop and R&B album that summer.
In 1977, Diana broke concert records with her one-woman concert at Broadway. The concert was packaged into both a live album, An Evening with Diana Ross, and a TV special that same year. For her efforts, Ross won a special Tony Award.
In 1978, Ross was back in the film limelight, starring in the film version of the successful Broadway play The Wiz, with Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, and Richard Pryor. Many eyebrows were raised at Ross, then age 34, playing Dorothy, who in all other versions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was portrayed as a young girl. The Wiz, which cost $24 million to make, only brought in $13 million dollars during its original theatrical release.
Unfortunately, projects Ross was planned to appear in, including a movie about entertainment pioneer Josephine Baker and The Bodyguard, which was supposed to co-star Ross and actor Ryan O'Neal as lovers, didn't come to fruition until years later. Actress Lynn Whitfield ended up playing Baker, and singer Whitney Houston and actor Kevin Costner ended up playing the lovers in The Bodyguard.
Diana Ross returned to her music career and released two strong successive albums: 1979's The Boss and 1980's diana. The former, produced by longtime Ross collaborators Ashford & Simpson, was a bigger hit on the R&B charts than on the pop charts, but has since been hailed by most music critics as probably her strongest album as a solo artist. The latter, produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the legendary disco band Chic, became the singer's biggest-selling record in her career, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. The diana album yielded two classic signature hits: 'Upside Down', Ross' first #1 of the '80s (and first British #1) and her fifth as a solo artist, and 'I'm Coming Out'. Both songs have since been heavily sampled by hip hop artists.
The RCA era
Having established herself as the biggest-selling female artist of the Motown label by 1981, Ross felt it was the right time to leave. Before leaving, however, a duet with Lionel Richie called 'Endless Love', which proved to be the biggest record of her career as well as her last hit on the Motown label.
She signed to RCA, and had several successful releases, beginning with Why Do Fools Fall in Love, which featured a cover of the Frankie Lymon hit. Ross' success continued into the early 80s including the hit singles 'Mirror, Mirror' (1981), and 'Muscles' (1982). In 1984, she appeared on 'Missing You', a tribute to the recently deceased Marvin Gaye, which became her final Top 10 hit. After a downturn in record sales during the second half of 80s, she returned to the Motown fold with Workin' Overtime in 1989.
Returning to Motown
Her Motown releases since 1989 have not been as successful in America as they have in Europe. For example, while 1991's Force Behind the Power and the Top 40 hit 'When You Tell Me You Love Me' were moderate successes in America, the album and the song became bigger hits overseas. 1995's Take Me Higher and 1999's Everyday Is a New Day performed similarly.
Diana expanded her versatily during this period by both recording a live opera album and a live jazz album. Both releases did respectfully well on the Billboard Classical and Jazz Albums charts as a result, making Ross one of the only artists to achieve fame in other charts other than the usual Pop and R&B. After the moderate success of Everyday Is a New Day, however, Ross was let go from Motown, after a lackluster 13 years, in 2002.
During the 1990s, Diana returned to acting, appearing as a schizophrenic in the the 1994 telefilm Out of Darkness, and as a singer who's willing to reconcile with a daughter (played by Brandy Norwood) that she abanadoned as a baby in 1999's Double Platinum. Ross was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Darkness.
Troubles at the top
Ross seemed to settle into middle age as the 90s continued, but by the end of the decade, the singer reached controversy. First, in 1999, Ross raised eyebrows when she was seen grabbing sexy rapper Lil' Kim's breast at that year's MTV Video Music Awards. Later on the next month, Ross was in hot water again this time for grabbing the breast of a female security guard at London's Heathrow Airport, who she felt had frisked her inappropriately. She was arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped.
As the 2000's hit, Ross tried to redeem herself by putting together a tour with the former members of The Supremes. However, former Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong passed on the tour, after being offered only $3 million and $1 million each, respectively, to join the tour, compared to the $15 million offered to Ross. Ross ended up recruiting Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne to begin the Return to Love tour. While Laurence and Payne were Supremes during the 1970s, they were never in the group atthe same time or with Rodd. The resulting tour was faced with problems, and was cancelled after the tenth show.
In 2002, Ross was pulled over for drunk driving outside of an Arizona Blockbuster Video store. After failing several sobriety tests and finding that her alcohol-blood level was 0.20--far above the legal Arizona limit of .008--the singer was arrested and later charged with a misdemeanor. In 2004, she served a 2-day sentence at a jail cell in Connecticut. The prison guard would later be accused of allowing Ross to do what she wanted while she was in prison. Ross only served 47 and one-half hours in jail, and was almost forced to return to serve another two-day sentence before a judge decided against it.
Current Work
In 2004, Diana Ross, age 60, was on the brink of a major comeback. She began touring again, first in Europe for the successful 'Love Life Tour', then later taking part in a brief tour in America as well. She later performed in tribute to her friend and former Motown Records alum Stevie Wonder at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards, alongside Mary J. Blige and Destiny's Child.
Ross, who as of present does not have a recording contract, is currently on a contract with MAC Cosmetics to promote a new line of makeup and is also taking several modeling photos for the lineup.
Personal
Diana Ross is the second of six children, three girls and three boys, from factory worker Fred Ross and teacher Ernestine Earle Ross. From 1971 to 1977, Diana Ross was married to music promoter Robert Ellis Silberstein, with whom she has two daughters (Tracee and Chudney). From 1985 to 2000, she was married to Norwegian businessman Arne Nęss Jr., with whom she has two sons. (Nęss died in a South African mountain accident in January 2004).
Before her first marriage, Ross had been romantically linked with both Motown labelmate Smokey Robinson and Motown chief Berry Gordy, with whom she had her first child, Rhonda. After her first mmarriage, she dated actor Ryan O'Neal, and KISS bassist and singer Gene Simmons.
Her oldest daughter, Rhonda Ross Kendrick, is a songstress and actress. Her second daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross, is an actress who received claim to fame as one of the stars of the hit sitcom Girlfriends, now in its fifth season on the UPN network.
Discography
Albums
- Motown releases
- 1970: Diana Ross (reissued the same year as Ain't No Mountain High Enough)
- 1970: Everything is Everything
- 1971: Diana! (soundtrack from a 1971 television special)
- 1971: Surrender
- 1972: Lady Sings the Blues (soundtrack from the Billie Holliday bio-pic Ross starred in the same year)
- 1973: Touch Me In The Morning
- 1973: Diana & Marvin (duets album with Marvin Gaye)
- 1973: Last Time I Saw Him
- 1974: Live at Caesar's Palace
- 1976: Diana Ross
- 1977: An Evening with Diana Ross (live)
- 1977: Baby, It's Me
- 1978: Ross
- 1979: The Boss
- 1980: diana
- RCA releases
- 1981: Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
- 1982: Silk Electric
- 1983: Ross
- 1984: Swept Away
- 1985: Eaten Alive
- 1987: Red Hot Rhythm & Blues
- Motown releases
- 1989: Workin' Overtime
- 1989: The Greatest Hits Live
- 1991: The Force Behind the Power
- 1993: Christmas in Vienna (live, with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras)
- 1993: Stolen Moments: The Lady Sings Jazz & Blues (live)
- 1995: Take Me Higher
- 1998: Very Special Season (Christmas album)
- 1999: Every Day Is A New Day
Hit Singles
Below is the list of several hit singles singer Diana Ross scored as a solo chart-topper during the '70s and '80s... along with the 12 number one singles she scored as lead singer of the Supremes, with an additional six #1 singles in two more decades, Ross ties with Elvis Presley with having 18 number one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100:
- 1970: 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' #1
- 1970: 'Remember Me' #16
- 1971: 'Reach Out (I'll Be There)' #29
- 1971: 'I'm Still Waiting' #63
- 1972: 'Good Morning Heartache' #38
- 1973: 'Touch Me in the Morning' #1
- 1973: 'You're A Special Part of Me' (w/Marvin Gaye) #12
- 1974: 'My Mistake (Was to Love You)' (w/Marvin Gaye) #19
- 1974: 'Don't Knock My Love' (w/Marvin Gaye) #15
- 1975: 'Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)' #1
- 1976: 'Love Hangover' #1
- 1978: 'Ease On Down the Road' (w/Michael Jackson) #41
- 1979: 'The Boss' #19
- 1980: 'Upside Down' #1
- 1980: 'I'm Coming Out' #5
- 1981: 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' #7
- 1981: 'It's My Turn' #9
- 1981: 'Endless Love' (w/Lionel Richie) #1
- 1982: 'Mirror, Mirror' #16
- 1982: 'Muscles' #10
- 1984: 'Swept Away' #17
- 1984: 'All of You' (w/Julio Iglesias) #19
- 1984: 'Missing You' #10
Filmography
- 1972: Lady Sings the Blues (Nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1972)
- 1975: Mahogany
- 1978: The Wiz
- 1994: Out of Darkness (telefilm)
- 1999: Double Platinum (telefilm)
Auto-Biographies
- (1993). Secrets of a Sparrow: Memoirs. New York: Random House. ISBN 051-716622-4.
- (2002). Goin' Back. New York: Universe. ISBN 078-930797-9. (a scrapbook-style collection of photographs)
This biography is published under the GNU Licence