Diana Ross

Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in
history, with a total of twelve number-one hit singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, including "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", and " Love Child".

Following departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo career in music, film, television and on stage. Her eponymous debut solo album featured the U.S. number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and music anthem "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". It was followed with her second solo album, '' Everything Is Everything'' (1970), which spawned her first UK number-one single " I'm Still Waiting". She continued her successful solo career by mounting elaborate record-setting world-wide concert tours, starring in a number of highly watched prime-time television specials, and releasing hit albums like ''Touch Me in the Morning'' (1973), '' Mahogany'' (1975), and '' Diana Ross'' (1976) as well as their number-one hit singles, "Touch Me in the Morning", "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", and "Love Hangover", respectively. Ross further released numerous top-ten hits on various ''Billboard'' charts throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. She achieved several more global number-one singles, "Upside Down" (1980), " Endless Love" (1981), " Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (1982), "Chain Reaction" (1986), " If We Hold on Together" (1988) and "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" (1991).

Ross has also achieved mainstream success and recognition as an actor. Her first role was her Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Billie Holiday in the film '' Lady Sings the Blues'' (1972); she also recorded its soundtrack, which became a number one hit on the U.S. album chart. She also starred in two other feature films, '' Mahogany'' (1975) and ''The Wiz'' (1978), and later appeared in the television films ''Out of Darkness'' (1994), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and ''Double Platinum'' (1999).

Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by '' Billboard'' in 1976. Since her solo career began in 1970, Ross has released 25 studio albums, numerous singles, and compilations that have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. She is the only female artist to have had number-one singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 as a solo artist, as the other half of a duet, as a member of a trio, and as an ensemble member. In 2021, ''Billboard'' ranked her the 30th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time. Her hits as a Supreme and a solo artist combined put Ross among the Top 5 artists on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart from 1955 to 2018. She had a top 10 UK hit in every one of the last five decades, and sang lead on a top 75 hit single at least once every year from 1964 to 1996 in the UK, a period of 33 consecutive years and a record for any performer. In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes. She was the recipient of a Special Tony Award in 1976, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Early life

Diana Ross was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 26, 1944. She was born the second of six children to Ernestine (née Moten; January 27, 1916October 9, 1984) and Fred Ross, Sr. (July 4, 1920November 21, 2007). Her mother named her Diane, but the birth certificate was mistakenly filled out with the name Diana. Her family and Detroit friends called her Diane all her life. Ross grew up with two sisters ( Barbara and Rita) and three brothers: Arthur; Fred Jr.; and Wilbert, also known as Chico.

Ross and her family originally resided at 635 Belmont St., in the North End section of Detroit, near Highland Park, Michigan, where her neighbor was Smokey Robinson. When Ross was seven, her mother contracted tuberculosis, causing her to become seriously ill. Ross' parents sent their children to live with Ernestine's parents, the Reverend (pastor of Bessemer Baptist Church) and Mrs. William Moton in Bessemer, Alabama. After her mother recovered, she and her siblings returned to Detroit.

On her 14th birthday in 1958, her family relocated to the working-class Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects settling at St. Antoine Street. Attending Cass Technical High School, a four-year college and preparatory magnet school, in downtown Detroit, Ross began taking classes including clothing design, millinery, pattern making, and tailoring, as she had aspired to become a fashion designer. She also took modeling and cosmetology classes in the evenings and weekends – for which Ross has written that Robinson loaned her the funds required to attend – and participated in several of the school's extracurricular activities, including its swim team. In 1960, Hudson's downtown Detroit store hired Ross as its first African American bus girl. For extra income, she also provided hairdressing services for her neighbors. Ross graduated from Cass Tech in January 1962.

Career

1959–1970: The Supremes

At fifteen, Ross joined the Primettes, a sister of another group: a male vocal group called the Primes, after being brought to the attention of music manager Milton Jenkins by Primes member Paul Williams. Along with Ross, the other members included Florence Ballard, the first group member hired by Jenkins, Mary Wilson, and Betty McGlown, Williams' then-girlfriend. After winning a 1960 talent competition in Windsor, Ontario, the Primettes were invited to audition for Motown Records by A&R executive and songwriter, Robert Bateman.

Later, following local success via live performances at sock hops, etc., Ross approached former neighbor (and rumored childhood former boyfriend), William "Smokey" Robinson, who insisted that the group audition for him first. Robinson agreed to bring the Primettes to Motown, in exchange for letting him and the Miracles hire the Primettes' guitarist, Marv Tarplin, discovered by Ross, for an upcoming tour. Tarplin played in Robinson's band(s) for the next 30-plus years. In her autobiography, ''Secrets of a Sparrow'', Ross wrote that she felt that deal was "a fair trade".

The Primettes later auditioned for Motown, before various Motown executives. In Berry Gordy's autobiography, ''To Be Loved'', Gordy recalled he was heading to a business meeting when he heard Ross singing " There Goes My Baby" and Ross's voice "stopped me in my tracks". He approached the group and asked them to perform it again but, learning of their ages, Gordy advised them to return to the company only after graduating from high school.

Undeterred, the group returned to Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters daily, offering to provide extra help for Motown's recordings, often including hand claps and background vocals. That year, the group recorded two tracks for Lu Pine Records, with Ross singing lead on one of the tracks. During the group's early years, Ross served as its hairstylist, make-up artist, seamstress, and costume designer. In late 1960, having replaced McGlown with Barbara Martin, the Primettes were allowed to record their own songs at Hitsville's studio, many written by "Smokey" Robinson, who, by then, was vice president of Motown ("Your Heart Belongs to Me" and "A Breathtaking Guy"). Gordy, too, composed songs for the trio, including " Buttered Popcorn" (featuring Ballard on lead) and "Let Me Go the Right Way". While these songs were regional hits, they were not nationwide successes.

In January 1961, Gordy agreed to sign the group on the condition they change their name. Songwriter and Motown secretary Janie Bradford approached Florence Ballard, the only group member at the studio at the time, to pick out a new name for the group. Ballard chose "Supremes", reportedly, because it was the only name on the list that did not end with "ette". Upon hearing the new name, the other members weren't impressed, with Ross telling Ballard she feared the group would be mistaken for a male vocal group (a male vocal group was, indeed, named the Supremes). Gordy signed the group under their new name on January 15, 1961.

A year later, Barbara Martin left the group, reducing the quartet to a trio. In late 1963, the group had their first hit with "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", peaking at No. 23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 pop chart. At the end of the year, Gordy assigned Ross the role of the group's lead singer.

In June 1964, while on tour with Dick Clark's Cavalcade of Stars, the group scored their first number-one hit with "Where Did Our Love Go", paving the way for unprecedented success: between August 1964 and May 1967, Ross, Wilson, and Ballard sang on ten number-one hit singles, all of which also made the UK Top 40. The group had also become a hit with audiences both domestically and abroad, going on to become Motown's most successful vocal act throughout the sixties.

Ross began to dominate interviews with the media, answering questions aimed at Ballard or Wilson. She pushed for more pay than her colleagues. In 1965, she began using the name Diana from the mistake on her birth certificate, surprising Ballard and Wilson who had only known her as Diane. Following significant issues with comportment, weight, and alcoholism, Florence Ballard was fired from the Supremes by Gordy in July 1967, hiring Cindy Birdsong from Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles as Ballard's replacement. Gordy renamed the group ''Diana Ross & the Supremes'', making it easier to charge a larger performance fee for a solo star and a backing group, as it did for other renamed Motown groups. Gordy initially considered having Ross leave the Supremes for a solo career in 1966, eventually changing his mind because he felt the group's success was still too significant for Ross to pursue solo obligations. Ross remained with the Supremes until early 1970.

The group appeared as a trio of singing nuns in a 1968 episode of the popular NBC TV series ''Tarzan''. Between their early 1968 single "Forever Came Today" and their final single with Ross, "Someday We'll Be Together", Ross would be the only Supremes member to be featured on many of their recordings, often accompanied by session singers the Andantes or, as in the case of "Someday We'll Be Together", Julia and Maxine Waters and Johnny Bristol. Still, Wilson and Birdsong continued to sing on recordings.

Gordy drove Ross relentlessly throughout this period and Ross, due to anxiety arising from Gordy's demands of her, began suffering from anorexia nervosa, according to her autobiography, ''Secrets of a Sparrow''. During a 1967 performance in Boston, Massachusetts, Ross collapsed onstage and had to be hospitalized for exhaustion.

In 1968, Ross began to perform as a solo artist on television specials, including the Supremes' own specials such as '' TCB'' and ''G.I.T. on Broadway'', ''The Dinah Shore Show'', and a Bob Hope special, among others. In mid-1969, Gordy decided that Ross would depart the group by the end of that year, and Ross began recording her initial solo work that July. One of the first plans for Ross to establish her own solo career was to publicly introduce a new Motown recording act.

Though she herself did not claim their discovery, Motown's publicity department credited Ross with having discovered the Jackson 5. Ross would introduce the group during several public events, including ''The Hollywood Palace''. In November, Ross confirmed a split from the Supremes in '' Billboard''. Ross's presumed first solo recording, "Someday We'll Be Together", was eventually released as a Supremes recording and became the group's final number-one hit on the Hot 100. It was also the final number-one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 single of the 1960s. Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 14, 1970.

1970–1980: Solo career and films

In May 1970, Ross released her eponymous debut solo album, which included her signature songs, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", the latter becoming Ross's first number-one solo single. Follow-up albums, '' Everything Is Everything'' (1970) and ''Surrender'' (1971) came out shortly afterwards. In 1971, the ballad " I'm Still Waiting" became her first number-one single in the UK. Later in 1971, Ross starred in her first solo television special, ''Diana!'', which included the Jackson 5.

In 1971, Diana Ross began working on her first film, '' Lady Sings the Blues'' (1972), which was a loosely based biography on singer Billie Holiday. Despite some criticism of her for taking the role, once the film opened in October 1972, Ross won critical acclaim for her performance in the film. Jazz critic Leonard Feather, a friend of Holiday's, praised Ross for "expertly capturing the essence of Lady Day". Ross's role in the film won her Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. The soundtrack to ''Lady Sings the Blues'' became just as successful, reaching No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' 200, staying there for two weeks, and selling two million units.

In 1973, Ross had her second number-one hit in the U.S. with the ballad "Touch Me in the Morning". Later in the year, Motown issued ''Diana & Marvin'', a duet album with fellow Motown artist Marvin Gaye. The album became an international hit. Touring throughout 1973, Ross became the first entertainer in Japan's history to receive an invitation to the Imperial Palace for a private audience with the Empress Nagako, wife of Emperor Hirohito.

In April 1974, Ross became the first African-American woman to co-host the Academy Awards, with John Huston, Burt Reynolds, and David Niven.

After the release of a modestly successful album, ''Last Time I Saw Him