Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Diana Ross (born  Diane Ernestine Earle Ross
http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Ross/bio.htm
l on March 26, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan) is an
African-American soul music|soul, rhythm and
blues|R&B and popular music|pop singer and
actor|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.

In 1976, Billboard magazine|Billboard magazine
named her the female entertainer of the century.
In 1993, The Guinness Book Of World Records
pronounced her the most successful female artist
ever, partly due to her combined total of eighteen
#1 singles, six of them recorded solo and the
remaining dozen from her work with the Supremes.
Only The Beatles (20 #1s) and Elvis Presley (18
#1s) have equalled or bettered this
accomplishment.

==Biography==
===The Supremes===
Main entry: The Supremes

Fred and Ernestine Ross had named and
Christening|christened their daughter "Diane";
however, due to a clerical error, "Diana" was what
wound up on her birth certificate
http://www.divasthesite.com/Singing_Divas/Trivia/T
rivia_Diana_Ross.htm
http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Ross/bio.htm
l. Regardless of the mistake, Ross would continue
to use the name "Diane" through her teenage years.

Ross began her long music career with Mary Wilson
(singer)|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. Ross also began 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 officially 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, Ross officially
departed from the Supremes after a January 14
Farewell (1970 album)|Farewell concert at the New
Frontier (hotel and casino)|Frontier Hotel in Las
Vegas. The group moved on with new lead 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'
signature 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 of the running time.
The song would peak at #1 on both the U.S. pop and
R&B charts, and Ross received a Grammy
Award|Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal
Performance, Female.

In the first few years of Ross' solo career, she
didn't rely on the divalike 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 (single)|Toxic". Her third,
1971|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 Richard
Pryor, who played 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 Globe Award|Golden Globes.

Ross covered a number of Holiday's songs for the
film, including "Strange Fruit", "God Bless the
Child", 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 received 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 chemistry
between the two singers, a result of the fact that
their parts were recorded separately--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 (1975 film)|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 Academy
Award|Oscar. During the Oscars telecast, Ross
became the first artist to perform for the Oscars
ceremony via satellite; she sung "Theme From
Mahogany" from a concert she was headlining in The
Netherlands|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. The hit had previously been
turned down by Cher (entertainer)|Cher, Donna
Summer, Bette Midler, and Barbra Streisand.

In 1977, Diana broke concert records with a
one-woman concert on 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 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 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 Whitney Houston and
Kevin Costner ended up playing the lovers in The
Bodyguard (1992).

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 music|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", which became a gay anthem and cemented Ross
as a gay icon. Both songs have since been heavily
sampled by hip hop music|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, she recorded a duet with Lionel
Richie called "Endless Love (song)|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
1980s|80s including the hit singles "Mirror,
Mirror" (1981), and "Muscles" (1982). In
1984|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
1980s|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|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|1995's
Take Me Higher and 1999|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 1994
Television movie|telefilm Out of Darkness, and as
a singer who's willing to reconcile with a
daughter (played by Brandy Norwood) that she
abandoned as a baby in 1999's Double Platinum.
Ross was nominated for a Golden Globe Award|Golden
Globe for her role in Darkness.

===Troubles at the top===

Ross seemed to settle into middle age as the
1990s|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|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|London's Heathrow Airport, who she felt had
frisked her inappropriately. She was arrested, but
the charges were eventually dropped.

As the 2000s hit, Ross tried to redeem herself by
putting together a tour with the former members of
The Supremes. However, former Supremes Mary Wilson
(singer)|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 at the same time or
with Ross. 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 .08--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, worked with MAC Cosmetics earlier this
year to promote a new line of makeup and in turn
took several modeling photos for the lineup. She
is now rumored to be working on a new album of
love songs according to an unknown source, and is
currently headlining another European tour.

==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 1986 to 1999,
she was married to Norwegian businessman Arne
Næss Jr., with whom she has two sons (Ross and
Evan). (Næss 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 marriage, 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. Ross' youngest daughter, Chudney, in
the meantime, is a model.

==Discography==
===Albums===
;Motown releases:
*1970: Diana Ross (album)|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 (1971 album)|Surrender
*1972: Lady Sings the Blues (album)|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 (1976 album)|Diana Ross
*1977: An Evening with Diana Ross (live)
*1977: Baby, It's Me
*1978: Ross
*1979: The Boss
*1980: diana 

;RCA Records|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

===US Top 100 Singles===

Below is a list of Diana Ross' solo singles that
hit the Top 100 on the pop charts. Ross scored six
US #1 hits as a solo aritst; added to the 12 #1's
she recorded as lead singer of The Supremes, Ross
ties with Elvis Presley, having eighteen #1 hit
singles on the Billboard Hot 100:

;Motown releases:
*1970: "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" (US
#20)
*1970: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (US #1)
*1970: "Remember Me" (US #16)
*1971: "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" (US #29)
*1971: "Surrender" (US #38)
*1971: "I'm Still Waiting" (US #63)
*1972: "Good Morning Heartache" (US #34)
*1973: "Touch Me in the Morning" (US #1)
*1973: "You're A Special Part of Me" (with Marvin
Gaye) (US #12)
*1974: "My Mistake (Was to Love You)" (with Marvin
Gaye) (US #19)
*1974: "Sleepin'" (US #70)
*1974: "Last Time I Saw Him" (US #14)
*1974: "Don't Knock My Love" (with Marvin Gaye)
(US #46)
*1975: "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where
You're Going To)" (US #1)
*1976: "I Thought It Took A Little Time (But Today
I Fell In Love)" (US #47)
*1976: "Love Hangover" (US #1)
*1976: "One Love in My Lifetime" (US #25)
*1977: "Gettin' Ready For Love" (US #27)
*1978: "Your Love Is So Good For Me" (US #49)
*1978: "You Got It" (US #49)
*1978: "Ease On Down The Road" (with Michael
Jackson) (US #41)
*1979: "Pops, We Love You (A Tribute To Father)"
(with Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, & Stevie
Wonder) (US #59)
*1979: "The Boss" (US #19)
*1980: "Upside Down" (US #1)
*1980: "I'm Coming Out" (US #5)
*1980: "It's My Turn" (US #9)
*1981: "One More Chance" (US #79)
*1981: "Endless Love (song)|Endless Love" (with
Lionel Richie) (US #1)

;RCA releases:
*1981: "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (US #7)
*1982: "Mirror, Mirror" (US #8)
*1982: "Work That Body" (US #44)
*1982: "Muscles" (US #10)
*1983: "So Close" (US #40)
*1983: "Pieces of Ice" (US #31)
*1983: Let's Go Up" (US #77)
*1984: "All of You" (with Julio Iglesias) (US #19)
*1984: "Swept Away" (US #17)
*1984: "Missing You" (US #10)
*1985: "Eaten Alive" (US #77)
*1985: "Chain Reaction" (US #95)
*1986: "Chain Reaction (remix)" (US #66)

==Filmography==
*1972: Lady Sings the Blues (Nominee for the
Academy Award for Best Actress of 1972)
*1975: Mahogany (1975 film)|Mahogany
*1978: The Wiz
*1994: Out of Darkness (Television movie|telefilm)
*1999: Double Platinum (Television movie|telefilm)

==Autobiographies==

* (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)

==External Links==

*
https://www.audioville.co.uk/store/view.php?Id=49&
ProductCategoryId=26 Interview with Diana Ross

==See also==
*List of best selling music artists
*List of number-one hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the Hot
100 (US)
*List of number-one dance hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the US
Dance chart

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Diana Ross (born  Diane Ernestine Earle Ross
http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Ross/bio.htm
l on March 26, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan) is an
African-American soul music|soul, rhythm and
blues|R&B and popular music|pop singer and
actor|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.

In 1976, Billboard magazine|Billboard magazine
named her the female entertainer of the century.
In 1993, The Guinness Book Of World Records
pronounced her the most successful female artist
ever, partly due to her combined total of eighteen
#1 singles, six of them recorded solo and the
remaining dozen from her work with the Supremes.
Only The Beatles (20 #1s) and Elvis Presley (18
#1s) have equalled or bettered this
accomplishment.

==Biography==
===The Supremes===
Main entry: The Supremes

Fred and Ernestine Ross had named and
Christening|christened their daughter "Diane";
however, due to a clerical error, "Diana" was what
wound up on her birth certificate
http://www.divasthesite.com/Singing_Divas/Trivia/T
rivia_Diana_Ross.htm
http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Shows/Ross/bio.htm
l. Regardless of the mistake, Ross would continue
to use the name "Diane" through her teenage years.

Ross began her long music career with Mary Wilson
(singer)|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. Ross also began 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 officially 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, Ross officially
departed from the Supremes after a January 14
Farewell (1970 album)|Farewell concert at the New
Frontier (hotel and casino)|Frontier Hotel in Las
Vegas. The group moved on with new lead 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'
signature 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 of the running time.
The song would peak at #1 on both the U.S. pop and
R&B charts, and Ross received a Grammy
Award|Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal
Performance, Female.

In the first few years of Ross' solo career, she
didn't rely on the divalike 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 (single)|Toxic". Her third,
1971|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 Richard
Pryor, who played 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 Globe Award|Golden Globes.

Ross covered a number of Holiday's songs for the
film, including "Strange Fruit", "God Bless the
Child", 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 received 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 chemistry
between the two singers, a result of the fact that
their parts were recorded separately--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 (1975 film)|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 Academy
Award|Oscar. During the Oscars telecast, Ross
became the first artist to perform for the Oscars
ceremony via satellite; she sung "Theme From
Mahogany" from a concert she was headlining in The
Netherlands|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. The hit had previously been
turned down by Cher (entertainer)|Cher, Donna
Summer, Bette Midler, and Barbra Streisand.

In 1977, Diana broke concert records with a
one-woman concert on 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 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 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 Whitney Houston and
Kevin Costner ended up playing the lovers in The
Bodyguard (1992).

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 music|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", which became a gay anthem and cemented Ross
as a gay icon. Both songs have since been heavily
sampled by hip hop music|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, she recorded a duet with Lionel
Richie called "Endless Love (song)|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
1980s|80s including the hit singles "Mirror,
Mirror" (1981), and "Muscles" (1982). In
1984|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
1980s|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|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|1995's
Take Me Higher and 1999|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 1994
Television movie|telefilm Out of Darkness, and as
a singer who's willing to reconcile with a
daughter (played by Brandy Norwood) that she
abandoned as a baby in 1999's Double Platinum.
Ross was nominated for a Golden Globe Award|Golden
Globe for her role in Darkness.

===Troubles at the top===

Ross seemed to settle into middle age as the
1990s|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|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|London's Heathrow Airport, who she felt had
frisked her inappropriately. She was arrested, but
the charges were eventually dropped.

As the 2000s hit, Ross tried to redeem herself by
putting together a tour with the former members of
The Supremes. However, former Supremes Mary Wilson
(singer)|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 at the same time or
with Ross. 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 .08--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, worked with MAC Cosmetics earlier this
year to promote a new line of makeup and in turn
took several modeling photos for the lineup. She
is now rumored to be working on a new album of
love songs according to an unknown source, and is
currently headlining another European tour.

==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 1986 to 1999,
she was married to Norwegian businessman Arne
Næss Jr., with whom she has two sons (Ross and
Evan). (Næss 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 marriage, 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. Ross' youngest daughter, Chudney, in
the meantime, is a model.

==Discography==
===Albums===
;Motown releases:
*1970: Diana Ross (album)|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 (1971 album)|Surrender
*1972: Lady Sings the Blues (album)|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 (1976 album)|Diana Ross
*1977: An Evening with Diana Ross (live)
*1977: Baby, It's Me
*1978: Ross
*1979: The Boss
*1980: diana 

;RCA Records|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

===US Top 100 Singles===

Below is a list of Diana Ross' solo singles that
hit the Top 100 on the pop charts. Ross scored six
US #1 hits as a solo aritst; added to the 12 #1's
she recorded as lead singer of The Supremes, Ross
ties with Elvis Presley, having eighteen #1 hit
singles on the Billboard Hot 100:

;Motown releases:
*1970: "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" (US
#20)
*1970: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (US #1)
*1970: "Remember Me" (US #16)
*1971: "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" (US #29)
*1971: "Surrender" (US #38)
*1971: "I'm Still Waiting" (US #63)
*1972: "Good Morning Heartache" (US #34)
*1973: "Touch Me in the Morning" (US #1)
*1973: "You're A Special Part of Me" (with Marvin
Gaye) (US #12)
*1974: "My Mistake (Was to Love You)" (with Marvin
Gaye) (US #19)
*1974: "Sleepin'" (US #70)
*1974: "Last Time I Saw Him" (US #14)
*1974: "Don't Knock My Love" (with Marvin Gaye)
(US #46)
*1975: "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where
You're Going To)" (US #1)
*1976: "I Thought It Took A Little Time (But Today
I Fell In Love)" (US #47)
*1976: "Love Hangover" (US #1)
*1976: "One Love in My Lifetime" (US #25)
*1977: "Gettin' Ready For Love" (US #27)
*1978: "Your Love Is So Good For Me" (US #49)
*1978: "You Got It" (US #49)
*1978: "Ease On Down The Road" (with Michael
Jackson) (US #41)
*1979: "Pops, We Love You (A Tribute To Father)"
(with Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, & Stevie
Wonder) (US #59)
*1979: "The Boss" (US #19)
*1980: "Upside Down" (US #1)
*1980: "I'm Coming Out" (US #5)
*1980: "It's My Turn" (US #9)
*1981: "One More Chance" (US #79)
*1981: "Endless Love (song)|Endless Love" (with
Lionel Richie) (US #1)

;RCA releases:
*1981: "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (US #7)
*1982: "Mirror, Mirror" (US #8)
*1982: "Work That Body" (US #44)
*1982: "Muscles" (US #10)
*1983: "So Close" (US #40)
*1983: "Pieces of Ice" (US #31)
*1983: Let's Go Up" (US #77)
*1984: "All of You" (with Julio Iglesias) (US #19)
*1984: "Swept Away" (US #17)
*1984: "Missing You" (US #10)
*1985: "Eaten Alive" (US #77)
*1985: "Chain Reaction" (US #95)
*1986: "Chain Reaction (remix)" (US #66)

==Filmography==
*1972: Lady Sings the Blues (Nominee for the
Academy Award for Best Actress of 1972)
*1975: Mahogany (1975 film)|Mahogany
*1978: The Wiz
*1994: Out of Darkness (Television movie|telefilm)
*1999: Double Platinum (Television movie|telefilm)

==Autobiographies==

* (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)

==External Links==

*
https://www.audioville.co.uk/store/view.php?Id=49&
ProductCategoryId=26 Interview with Diana Ross

==See also==
*List of best selling music artists
*List of number-one hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the Hot
100 (US)
*List of number-one dance hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the US
Dance chart