Diana Ross is the illustrious Motown diva who genuinely never stops giving. Her voice still gives me the chills when I hear her sing, even at the age of 77.
This is the tale of the magnificent native of Detroit who, by the time she was in her teens, was already a global superstar.
No matter where you are from in the world, music is a language everyone can understand. You may be taken to unexpected locations and experience feelings you weren’t expecting.
Music has a profound impact on me personally. Some genres engage in it more than others, and some artists are able to do it solely through their vocals.
A Motown icon is Diana Ross.
Diana Ross is one of those performers. Over the years, the Motown legend has performed, acted, and sung, bringing happiness and love to all who hear it and giving those who doubt themselves hope.
In the United States and throughout the rest of the world, she is a pioneer and a significant role model. She was one of those celebrities who showed that anything is possible, no matter where one starts.
Diana Ross began her career in Detroit and quickly rose the success ladder. She now has multiple million dollar homes spread out across the US. She has undoubtedly encountered personal challenges along the way, but the path to fame hasn’t always been smooth.
The life of the adored Diana Ross can be found in this account of how she came to be where she is today.
Diana Ross, the sixth child of Fred and Ernestine Ross, was born on March 26, 1944, at the Hutzel Women’s Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Both her mother and father served in the US Army in the past.
Diana Ross in her youth.
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 that time, she was already a rising star.
Ross volunteered at the enormous Hudson Department Store in Detroit when she was a teenager. Its astounding 2,124,316 square feet made it the second-largest department store in the US, just behind Macy’s in New York.
Diana Ross was raised in a close-knit family, but she was surrounded by many other talented musicians. She grew up in the Brewster-Douglass neighborhood and befriended people like Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin.
Ross’s friend Mary Wilson signed her up for the Primettes while she was still a high school student. We’ll get to their incredible success story in a moment, but they would soon adopt the name The Supremes.
launch of a musical career.
Diana Ross had just joined the group at that point, and she wanted her friend Smokey Robinson to hear them.
Speaking on Steve Harvey’s TV show, Smokey referred to her as “my baby” and said, “I’ve known her since I was probably eight years old.”.
I took her to Motown. When she was about to receive her high school diploma, she called and said, “Hey Smokey, I got a group, I want you to hear us.”.
As a result, Diana and her group sang at Smokey’s house.
Smokey confessed, “I loved them.”.
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 her band mates. They soon had something going that put them in the same league as The Beatles.
with Motown Records.
The Supremes would soon take the place of The Primettes. The band had a deal with Gordy Jr.’s Motown Records. Where Did Our Love Go, one of their first No. 1 hits, came in 1961.
The group continued to perform, and in 1964 they created history. The Supremes were the first musical act to have four additional singles at the top of the charts when they released 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 revolutionary release from the now unstoppable group. There was one concert that musicians had to play if they wanted to connect with a larger audience.
The Supremes: Diana Ross.
The Ed Sullivan Show featured The Supremes frequently, and Ed himself adored the band. It was on this show that The Beatles made their debut in the United States. More frequently than any other Motown group, they made over 16 appearances on the program.
“At first, because he was young, there was some distance, but once he realized we were kind of, you know, nice girls, he grew very close to us. Mary Wilson of the Supremes said, “He really liked that.
It took assistance for The Supremes to become well-known across the nation, and Ed Sullivan provided that assistance. They competed with The Beatles at the top of the charts in 1964.
However, there was discussion about the members going in different directions three years later. Ross left the group in November of 1969.
She made her last and final appearance in January 1970, after the group had recently changed its name to Diana Ross and the Supremes.
Diana Ross had 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’s career as a soloist.
She issued her self-titled debut album in May 1970. With songs like Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, it rose quickly through the charts.
Her first solo No. 1 was the former of those two songs. 1 song. Later, she would be considered for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance.
Ross quickly made the move into the Hollywood film industry. She portrayed Billie Holiday in Billie Holiday Lady Sings the Blues, and for her work, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
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 significant breakthrough album in 1980. The album Diana, which Nile Rodgers produced, was a huge hit. The No. 1 hit song Upside Down was on the platinum-selling album. 1 on the Billboard chart and the No. I’m Coming Out, 5 tracks.
I’m Coming Out was written by Neil Rodger. After visiting a transgender nightclub where there were many Diana Ross impersonators, he was inspired to write the song.
“I’m Coming Out.”.
That the Motown icon had such a sizable LGBT fan base astounded him.
“Wait a minute,” I reasoned. 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, according to Rodgers.
“No one necessarily associates Diana Ross with this issue’s front lines, but the gay community and her gay fans adore and idolize her. ”.
The most well-known radio host in the world at the time, Frankie Crocker, didn’t like the album. She was worried that if people thought Diana was really coming out, it would destroy her career. It became one of her most cherished songs, though, and became a huge hit.
Rodgers added, “Diana is definitely not homophobic. She is among the most awesome people you will ever meet. It was just that she now 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 continuously released albums and hit songs. She was nominated for a total of 12 Grammy Awards, but she didn’t take home a single trophy.
Laureates for Diana Ross.
She was set to win music’s highest honor in 2012 though. A decade after winning the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement, Diana Ross was given an exclusive invitation to the White House for an evening of high drama.
President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, there. Additionally, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award 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.”.
“It changed my life when I first saw someone on television like Diana Ross, who was glamorous and beautiful and literally represented possibility and hope. ”.
There have been two marriages for Diana Ross. She got married to music industry executive Robert Ellis Silberstein in 1971. Two kids were born to them both.
Tracee Ellis Ross, their first child, was born in 1972, and Chudney Ross followed three years later.
Family of Diana Ross.
Additionally, Diana Ross and Berry Gordy gave birth to a daughter, Rhonda Ross Kendrick. But when she was born in 1971, they decided she would be brought up by Diana and her ex-husband Robert.
After their divorce, she wed Norwegian businessman Arne Naess Jr. in 1986. Ross Naess and Evan Ross, their sons, were born in 1987 and 1988 respectively.
Diana Ross, who is currently 77 years old, is cheered up every day by her many grandchildren. Her daughter Tracee Ellis Roos may be the biggest star among her children who have all essentially entered the entertainment industry.
She claimed that when she was younger, becoming a singer was her only dream. But because of her famous family name, she was afraid of failing.
Tracee, who won a Golden Globe for her performance in the 2014 television series Black-ish, recalled an emotional moment with her mother Diana Ross when she first heard her daughter sing to Oprah Winfrey in the early 2020s.
It was “one of the most beautiful moments” in Tracee’s life, she said.
“She came out of the house, came out of the garage, got in my car, closed the windows, and I was like, ‘Okay, here it is, mom, here’s me,'” Tracee recalled.
When she turned to face me with tears streaming down her face, she pushed my arm. Then she added, “Finally.”.
The house Diana Ross grew up in.
Detroit served as Diana Ross’s home city. Her childhood home had been listed on the market for just over ten years at a price of $132,500 that the investor was looking to get.
The investor didn’t know the house was once Diana Ross’s childhood home, according to real estate broker Darin McLeskey, but it certainly made it more expensive. It was claimed that just eight months prior, he had purchased it for $1,800.
house with two stories at 633 Belmont St. has four bedrooms, 2,112 square feet, and a stone façade painted a light color.
Broker Darin McLeskey told the Detroit Free Press that “it’s generating a lot of interest.”. However, there are a lot of nosy individuals who simply want access to a famous person’s home. ”.
So, where does Diana Ross currently reside?
First off, given how difficult it is to ascertain her exact residence, it is simple to say that the renowned musician has done a great job maintaining her privacy.
Ross has lived in Greenwich, Connecticut’s posh Belle Haven neighborhood for a long time. Residents of the region include Judge Judy and Kathy Lee Gifford.
Diana Ross — house.
The Greenwich Time reported that she bought the waterfront mansion in Belle Haven in the 1920s in 2006. The estate includes two apartments, a hot tub, a pool, a tennis court, 11 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, and all of these amenities. However, a year later, the listed the mansion for sale with a $39.5 million asking price.
Ross was forced by the real estate market in 2009 to lower the asking prices for her estate, also known as “Quarry Farm.”.
In the 2018 annual report from Bloomberg on the country’s 100 richest cities, Greenwich came in at number seven.
Mark Pruner, a sales representative for Berkshire Hathaway N.P., said, “There are a lot of senior-level executives who live here. E. claims properties. It usually is quieter money. Not many of our names are in bold. Old Greenwich residents favor avoiding having their names mentioned in the media. ”.
Diana Ross is rumored to have renovated a mansion in West Hollywood prior to the nuptials of her son Evan.
