Diana Ross is a legendary Motown singer who is always giving. Even at the age of 77, listening to her sing still makes my skin tingle.
This is the story of the beautiful Detroit native who became a superstar when she was just a teenager.
No matter where on the planet they are from, everyone can communicate with one another through music. It may take you to places you had never imagined going and reawaken emotions you were unaware you had.
Diana Ross is a legendary Motown artist who is always giving. Even at the age of 77, listening to her sing still makes my skin tingle.
In Detroit, Diana Ross started her career, quickly moving up the success ladder. She now owns a large number of million-dollar homes scattered across the US. The road to fame hasn’t always been easy, and she undoubtedly faced some personal obstacles along the way.
This is the story of the beloved, how exactly did she get to where she is now.
Diana Ross, one of Fred and Ernestine Ross’s six children, was born on March 26, 1944, at Detroit’s Hutzel Women’s Hospital. Her mother worked as a teacher, while her father was a former US Army soldier.
At the Cass Technical High School in midtown Detroit, Diana first became interested in design and pattern-making when she was a young child. Her interests had changed to music by the time she graduated in 1962, though. At the time, she was already a rising star.
Ross worked at Detroit’s sizable Hudson Department Store while she was in her adolescence. Its astounding 2,124,316 square feet made it the second-largest department store in the US, just behind Macy’s in New York.
Although Diana Ross was raised in a close-knit family, there were many other talented musicians in her immediate vicinity. She made friends with Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin in the Brewster-Douglass neighborhood where she grew up.
Ross was added to a group called The Primettes when she was still a high school student by her friend Mary Wilson. We’ll get to their incredible success story in a moment, but they would soon perform as The Supremes.
Diana Ross had just joined the group at that point, and she wanted her friend Smokey Robinson to hear them.
Smokey said on Steve Harvey’s TV show, “She’s my baby, I’ve known her since I was probably eight years old.
She was my gift to Motown. When she was about to receive her high school diploma, she called me and said, “Hey Smokey, I got a group, I want you to hear us.”.
Diana then sang with her group at Smokey’s house.
I adored them, Smokey said.
They were very impressive in Smokey Robinson’s opinion. He was already associated with the band The Miracles, which meant he was familiar with key figures in the music business, most notably the late legendary producer and label founder Berry Gordy Jr.
He scheduled a test for Diana and the other members of her band. They soon began something that put them in competition with The Beatles.
with Motown Records.
The Primettes would soon adopt the name The Supremes. Gordy Jr’s Motown Records acquired the band’s contract. Where Did Our Love Go, a No. 1 hit in 1961, was their first No. 1 hit.
The group continued to release music, and in 1964, they created history. The Supremes were the first musical group to have four additional singles at the top of the charts with the singles Baby Love (1964), Come See About Me (1964), Stop! In the Name of Love (1965), and Back In My Arms Again (1965).
With the release of the number-one single You Can’t Hurry Love in 1966, Diana Ross and her adored group would reach new heights.
It ended up being a groundbreaking release from the group, which was by this point unstoppable. There was one concert that musicians had to play if they wanted to reach a larger audience.
On The Ed Sullivan Show, where The Beatles made their debut in the US, The Supremes were frequent guests, and Ed himself adored the band. More than any other Motown group, they made more appearances on the show—more than 16.
“At first, being young, there was a little distance, but he became very close to us when he realized we were kind of, you know, nice girls. Mary Wilson of the Supremes remarked, “He really liked that.
The Supremes received aid from Ed Sullivan in order to become well-known on a national scale and to achieve national recognition. At the top of the charts in 1964, they faced off against The Beatles.
But a discussion about the members’ diverging paths emerged three years later. Ross quit the group in November 1969.
She made her last and final appearance in January 1970, after the group had been renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes a few years earlier.
Diana Ross needed to start performing on her own. She had already achieved stardom with her girl group, but as we have seen throughout history, it can be difficult for some musicians to make the switch to being a solo act.
Not the case for Diana Ross.
Diana Ross, her self-titled debut album, was released in May 1970. With songs like Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand, it quickly climbed the charts.
Her first solo No. 1 was the former of those two songs. 1 song. Later, she’d be nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance.
Before long, Ross was making the switch to working in the Hollywood film industry. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress after she starred in Billie Holiday Lady Sings the Blues.
Later, she starred in movies like Mahogany (1973), and she shared a role in The Wiz (1978) with Anthony Perkins and Billy Dee Williams.
Diana Ross released her subsequent major breakthrough album in 1980. The Diana album was created by Nile Rodgers, and it was a huge hit. Upside Down, a hit single from the platinum-selling album that peaked at No. The No. 1 song on the Billboard chart and the No. I’m Coming Out has five tracks.
Writing I’m Coming Out was Neil Rodgers. After visiting a transgender nightclub where many Diana Ross impersonators were present, he was motivated to write the song.
I’m Coming Out, I say.
He couldn’t believe how many LGBT people were fans of the Motown icon.
“Wait a minute,” I said to myself. This would be a significant record if I wrote a song for Diana Ross that talked about a disenfranchised segment of her fan base and sort of made it for them, said Rodgers.
“No one necessarily considers Diana Ross to be on the front lines of this, but [the gay] community and her [gay] fans love and idolize her. ”.
The most well-known radio host in the world at the time, Frankie Crocker, didn’t like the album. Because she was worried that it might destroy her career, she didn’t want people to think that Diana was really coming out. But it turned out to be a popular song and one of her favorite songs.
That much is certain: Diana is not homophobic, said Rodgers. She is among the most awesome people you will ever meet. All of a sudden, she believed that we had announced her coming out. ”.
Diana Ross kept up her musical career, putting out several albums and appearing in films like Double Platinum (1999) and Out of Darkness (1994). Ross released album after album and hit song after hit song. She was a total of 12 times nominated for Grammy Awards, but she never took home a trophy.
She was set to win music’s highest honor in 2012 though. Four years after receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Diana Ross was invited to the White House for a very special evening.
President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, there. She also received Lifetime Achievement recognition at the 2017 American Music Awards.
Oprah Winfrey conducted an interview with Diana Ross in 2011. The popular talk show host began by discussing how much Diana Ross meant to her, and it ended with tears.
Oprah sobbed as she said, “Imagine, for me, being 10 years old watching The Ed Sullivan Show on welfare, with no possibility that I could ever sing, and watching her for the first time in a culture that had no Black people on television.”.
“When I first saw someone on television like Diana Ross, who was glitzy and gorgeous and literally represented possibility and hope, it changed my life. ”.
Diana Ross has wed twice. She got married to music manager Robert Ellis Silberstein in 1971. They were parents to two kids together.
Their first child, Tracee Ellis Ross, was born in 1972, and their second, Chudney Ross, was born three years later.
Berry Gordy, the father of Motown Records, and Diana Ross had a child together, Rhonda Ross Kendrick. But when she was born in 1971, they decided Diana and her husband at the time, Robert, would be her parents.
She did marry Arne Naess Jr. though, following their divorce. , a Norwegian entrepreneur. Their sons, Evan Ross and Ross Naess, were born in 1987 and 1988, respectively.
Diana Ross, 77, is now surrounded by a large number of grandchildren who make her smile every day. Of her children, Tracee Ellis Roos, who has more or less joined the entertainment industry, may be the most well-known.
She claimed that when she was younger, becoming a singer was her only dream. She was worried about failing, though, because of her well-known family name.
Tracee, who won a Golden Globe for her performance in the 2014 television series Black-ish, recalls an emotional moment with her mother while speaking to Oprah Winfrey in the early 2020s.
The first time Diana Ross heard her daughter sing.
It was “one of the most beautiful moments” in her life, according to Tracee.
“Okay, here it is, mom, here I am,” I said as she exited my car and the garage and shut the windows, Tracee recalled.
When she turned to face me with tears streaming down her face, she pushed my arm. “Finally,” she added.
Diana Ross was born and raised in Detroit. A little more than ten years ago, the investor put her childhood home up for sale, asking $132,500 in return.
Real estate broker Darin McLeskey claims that although the investor was unaware that the property had once been Diana Ross’s childhood home, it did raise its value. It was alleged that he had paid $1,800 for it only eight months earlier.
Located at 633 Belmont Street, the four-bedroom, 2,112 square foot house. has a stone facade that is light in color.
Broker Darin McLeskey told the Detroit Free Press that there was “a lot of interest” in the deal. “However, there are also numerous nosy individuals who merely wish to enter the residence of a famous person. ”.
So where does Diana Ross currently reside?
First off, it is easy to say that the well-known musician has done a fantastic job of keeping things quiet given how challenging it is to ascertain where she actually resides.
Ross has lived in Greenwich, Connecticut’s posh Belle Haven neighborhood for a long time.
She bought her 1920s beachfront property in Belle Haven in 2006, according to the Greenwich Time. The estate has two apartments in addition to 11 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, a hot tub, a pool, and a tennis court. But a year later, they listed the property for sale with a $39.5 million asking price.
In 2009, Ross was compelled by the housing market to lower the asking prices for her home, dubbed “Quarry Farm.”.
Greenwich ranked seventh in Bloomberg’s annual study of the 100 richest cities in America for 2018.
According to Mark Pruner, a sales executive for Berkshire Hathaway N.P., “a lot of senior-level executives live here.”. E. Properties, says. It usually makes for quieter money. There aren’t many boldface names among us. People in Old Greenwich prefer to keep their names out of the news. ”.
Before her son Evan’s wedding, Diana Ross is said to have renovated a home in West Hollywood.
We adore Diana Ross and her music utterly. She is a unique individual and a legendary Motown diva whose voice will endure forever.
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