Once upon a time, a young girl stood in front of the parishioners in a Boston church. She opened her mouth to sing, and a huge voice came out - moving the congregation to tears. At that moment the girl heard the voice of God tell her, "You're gonna be famous." From that time on, the girl knew that she was destined for greatness. That girl grew up to become Donna Summer.
Most people know about her hits. Great songs like "Last Dance", Hot Stuff", "On The Radio" and "She Works Hard For The Money." What most people don't know is that Donna started off as Donna Gaines in a rock band called The Crow. And that when the band broke up, she left school to be in the German production of the the musical Hair. Once in Germany, there was no stopping Donna. She was active in musical theater, playing in such shows as Showboat, Porgy And Bess, and The Me Nobody Knows, and in 1971 she cut her first solo record, "Sally Go 'Round The Roses"
By 1974, and now going by the name Donna Summer, she was doing a great deal of session work which brought her into contact with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. Together they recorded "The Hostage", a song which became Donna's first hit in Europe. An album and a few more European hits followed. Then in 1975, Donna recorded "Love To Love You Baby", the song that finally brought her success in America. The rest is history. Since then she has racked up fourteen top ten hits, four number one singles, three platinum albums, five Grammy awards and twelve other Grammy nominations. She is the first female artist to have three number one solo singles in one year ("MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls") and she is the only artist to have three number one double albums in a row (Live And More, Bad Girls, and On The Radio). Over the years Donna has proven herself to be a consummate artist and songwriter - she has written or co-written many of her hits, and is currently writing a musical based on her life story. Most recently she has done a benefit performance for GMHC at Carnegie Hall that raised over $400,000 for that organization. She also inked a multi-album deal with Epic Records and her first release for her new label was a live CD recorded at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. This concert was videotaped and became the highest rated concert special for a solo artist that VH1 ever broadcast. In 2007, she signed a new deal with Burgundy Records (an imprint of Sony/BMG) and in 2008 she released her first album of all newly written and recorded material in 17 years. The album is called Crayons and with it came the number one dance single, I'm A Fire - making Donna the only artist to ever have a number one dance single in every decade since the 70s. Over three decades after her first success, Donna was poised to start a whole new chapter in her career - showing the world that the Queen was indeed back. But unfortunately, that was not meant to be. She passed away on May 17, 2012 from cancer. In 2013 she was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and 20 2024 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy - long overdue official recognition of her incredible musical legacy.
She is the third of seven children. (One boy and six girls - imagine the fights over that bathroom! LOL)
She was married briefly in the early 70s to Helmut Sommer, with whom she had one child - Mimi Sommer.
She was married to songwriter Bruce Sudano with whom she has two children, Brooklyn and Amanda Grace Sudano. They married on July 16, 1980 and remained together the rest of Donna's life.
Over the years Donna maintained homes in Los Angeles, Connecticut and New York, but most recently she and her family had homes in Tennessee, Florida and Los Angeles.
Throughout her adult life, Donna had a passion for making videos - be it silly skits with the crew while on tour, or home movies with the family in her off time. Some of these films became the basis for the 2023 documentary, Love To Love You Donna Summer.
Donna passed away on May 17, 2012 from lung cancer. She was laid to rest near her Nashville home. At the time of her death she was survived by her husband Bruce, 3 married daughters and 4 grandchildren.
In 1974 Donna had her first European hit with The Hostage.
In 1975 Donna had her first American hit with Love To Love You Baby.
Donna wrote or co-wrote a significant number of her hits and album tracks.
In 1980, Donna became the first artist to sign with the newly formed Geffen records.
Donna was also an accomplished painter whose works sell for thousands and thousands of dollars.
Donna wrote several musicals including the much anticipated, Ordinary Girl - an autobiographical story. At this time, none of Donna's musicals has been publicly performed (outside of a few songs performed as part of her regular concerts.) There were plans before Donna passed away to bring Ordinary Girl to Broadway.
In 2003 Donna released her autobiography called: Ordinary Girl: The Journey.
In 2018 Summer: The Donna Summer Musical opened on Broadway. It was a jukebox biographical piece using Donna's music to tell her life story. Donna was portrayed by 3 actresses that represented Donna at different ages. Although it included none of the songs written for it, this is probably as close as we will ever get to seeing Ordinary Girl released.
In 2023, daughter Brooklyn Sudano in collaboration with Roger Ross Williams and HBO released a documentary about Donna's life called Love To Love You Donna Summer.
Donna was the only artist ever to guest host Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
Donna was the first female artist to have three number one singles in one year.
She was the only artist to date to have three number one platinum double albums in a row.
To date, Donna racked up 11 gold albums and 3 platinum albums (2 of which went double platinum). Additionally, she has has 12 gold singles and 2 platinum singles. (Check out www.riaa.com for a complete list of certifications.)
Donna had 14 top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and 4 of those reached number 1.
She picked up 3 American Music Awards in 1979 for Favorite Female Vocal Pop or Rock, Favorite Single Pop or Rock (Bad Girls), and Favorite Female Vocalist for Soul Music.
In 1980 Donna received the NAACP Image Award.
In 1992 Donna was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her most recent CD, Live & More Encore yielded back to back number 1 dance hits and was certified gold in Spain.
In 2008, she became the only artist to have a number 1 dance hit in every decade since the 1970s.
In 2013 she was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame - an honor that would have made her so proud. Previously she had been nominated for the classes of 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
In 2024 She was posthumously honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy (the Grammy Awards organization.)
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