Diana Ross: The soul legend isn’t relaxing as she turns 80

Upon turning 80, Diana Ross shows the same tenacity she has demonstrated throughout her career, which has spanned more than 60 years.

The singer has always known that life is a matter of sinking or swimming. Courage and determination took the queen of soul from the public housing project in Detroit, where she grew up, to the stages of some of the biggest arenas in the world.

“You can’t just sit around and wait for people to grant you this golden dream,” Ross once said. “You have to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”

Striving for perfection

Born Diana Ernestine Earle Ross on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan, she was the second of six children to African-American parents.

“I was raised to have ideals, to believe that anything was possible, and that hard work was part of that,” the singer wrote in “Secrets of a Sparrow,” her 1993 memoir.

Now a multimillion-dollar artist who has won countless awards for her music, Diana Ross’s exceptional career has served as an inspiration to many young black women.

The path to stardom, however, was not easy.

In a music industry upended by racism and sexism, she often felt the need to defend her determination to succeed.

“It seems like with every achievement, with every move I made, no matter how big or small, there was always someone there to try to bring me down,” she said in her memoir.

Supreme talent – ​​and diva behavior?

She rose to fame as the lead singer of The Supremes in the 1960s, when songs like “Baby Love,” “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “You Can’t Rush Love” took her to a different realm. of popularity.

Although the original lineup also consisted of Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Betty McGlown – who was soon replaced by Barbara Martin – it was Ross as lead singer who won all the plaudits. When record label Motown made the decision to rename the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, it was clear that a star was on the rise.

His growing fame was accompanied by a growing reputation for brilliance and demands, followed by tantrums if they were not met.

Over the years, the music icon’s off-stage outbursts have been widely covered in the press. Whether her quest for perfection extended into “diva” territory is open to debate, knowing that several male stars at the top of their game have not faced the same level of scrutiny.

‘There’s no mountain high enough’

In 1970, Ross left to pursue a solo career. She achieved her first solo number one hit in the United States that same year with the release of her single “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” from her eponymous debut solo album.

A decade of success followed, with hits such as, in 1980, “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out” – which remains an LGBTQ+ anthem to this day – and “Endless Love”, a 1981 duet with Lionel Richie, which saw her become the solo female band with the most No. 1 songs in the United States at the time.

More hits were on the horizon, such as “Chain Reaction” (1985) and “If We Hold On Together” (1988), allowing him to occupy arenas around the world, as he still does today.

In addition to her fame as a singer, Ross has also achieved success as an actress.

Her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the 1972 biopic “Lady Sings the Blues” earned her a Golden Globe as well as an Oscar nomination for best actress in a leading role; She thus became the first black actress to be nominated in the category for a film debut.

Other films in which he starred include the romantic drama “Mahogany” (1975) and “The Wiz” (1978), Sidney Lumet’s African-American version of the musical “The Wizard of Oz.”

Inspiring

Along with 13 Grammy nominations, she has received two Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards – one for her solo career and another as a member of The Supremes. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, she also has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and received the United States’ highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2016.

As she turns 80, she embarks on her “Beautiful Love Performances – Legacy 2024 Tour” that will reunite her with her fans across North America in the coming months.

For Ross, music continues to be the best recipe against the world’s torments. As she writes on her website: “Put positive music into your train of thoughts. Think, ‘gratitude’. You can’t stop thinking, so think good thoughts.”

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier