Donna Summer

Summer was a rarity in the 1970s disco scene because her career began before the disco explosion and continued afterward. Even though she is one of the best-known artists of the disco era, Summer has covered different genres including R&B, rock and roll and gospel music, earning her Grammy Awards in those categories. Her work is still critically acclaimed, and she remains one of the few disco artists accepted by modern rock critics.

Born in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Summer began performing in her church's choir. She later joined a rock group called Crow. A few months before graduating from high school, Summer dropped out and joined the German productions of Hair, Godspell, and Show Boat over the next few years. She eventually settled in Europe, joining the Viennese Folk Opera and participating in numerous musicals.

After resettling in Munich, Germany, Summer married Helmut Sommer ("Summer" is an anglicization of his last name) and did various musical jobs in studios and theaters for several years. In 1971, Summer released "Sally Go 'Round the Roses", her first solo recording. The single was unsuccessful, however, and Summer had to wait until 1974 to launch a solo career.

In that year, she, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte (who met assisting Three Dog Night in the studio) worked together to produce "The Hostage", a European hit. Lady of the Night, Summer's first LP, was released in 1974 with moderate success in Europe.

Summer recorded "Love To Love You Baby", which was a huge European hit. Casablanca Records soon began distributing the single in the United States, and it became a sensation there as well. This was followed by an album, Love to Love You Baby, critically acclaimed then and now, notable for including a seventeen-minute version of the title track. This established a pattern that made Summer unusual in the disco world: she focused just as much, if not more, on full-length albums instead of singles.

Continuing to work with Moroder and Bellotte, Love Trilogy (1976) and the concept album Four Seasons of Love (1976) were hits, though not as popular as Love to Love You Baby. I Remember Yesterday (1977) included the memorable hit single "I Feel Love", the first hit song recorded with an entirely synthesized backing track. This song, which became a major hit, is enormously influential in the development of disco, electronica and techno music, thanks to Moroder's innovative production.

Once Upon a Time was released soon after I Remember Yesterday; it was another concept album, concerning the fairy tale of Cinderella. After acting (and releasing a Grammy-winning song on the soundtrack) in the comedy Thank God It's Friday, Summer released a live album Live and More, which became another smash hit album and included the 17-minute long studio recorded cover of "MacArthur Park".

In 1979, Summer performed "Mimi's Song" at the Music for UNICEF Concert, broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly. She donated the royalties from the song to UNICEF.

Summer's songwriting was showcased on Bad Girls (1979), which included a hit single in the title track, as well as "Hot Stuff", which won Summer the Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocalist. When a greatest hits album, On the Radio, became a #1 hit, Summer became the first artist with three consecutive #1 double albums.

Summer then decided to leave Casablanca and sign to Geffen Records, then just starting up. Her first Geffen album was The Wanderer (1980), which included more rock and roll and R&B influences. The follow-up album, I'm a Rainbow, was not released until 1996 because Geffen did not think it was good enough. Instead, Geffen had Summer drop Moroder and Bellotte, her longtime songwriters, and paired her with music sensation Quincy Jones on the self-titled album Donna Summer, which produced the dance hit "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)", a Top 40 hit "Woman in Me" and the Vangelis penned "State of Independence", which became a huge hit in Europe with its New Age feel and star chorus that included Christopher Cross and Michael Jackson. This song was the inspiration for Quincy Jones to later create "We Are the World".

In 1983, Summer released She Works Hard for the Money, which included a well-remembered hit in the title track.

Summer's career has not been without controversy. In the early 1980s, an unpublished rumor that she made anti-gay remarks alienated a large part of her fan base. However, Summer has often said in interviews that she never made the remarks attributed to her. In the late 1980s, the rumor was published in a news item and Summer took legal action. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Summer has continued to show her support of her gay fans with appearances at charity functions such as the GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis) benefit at Carnegie Hall.

Summer's career slowed in the 1980s with the arrival of two daughters. Her career picked up speed again in 1983 with "She Works Hard For The Money" and in 1989 with her Stock Aitken Waterman collaboration Another Place and Time album. The first single, "This Time I Know It's for Real", became a huge hit, first in Europe and later in the United States, and brought her back to the top of the charts. A new remix of "I Feel Love" was a big UK hit all over again in 1995.

In 1991, Summer released the CD Mistaken Identity, which included songs about racism (the title track) and the first Gulf War ("Let There Be Peace"). Throughout the 1990s, Summer continued recording; she performed a duet with Liza Minnelli ("Does He Love You?") and produced numerous dance hits such as "Melody of Love", which became the Billboard number one dance hit of 1994; "I Will Go with You", a cover of the beautiful Andrea Bocelli song "Con Te Partirò"; "You're So Beautiful", a club anthem she co-wrote with legendary DJ Tony Moran, as well as her #1 U.S dance chart hit "Love is The Healer".

In 1998, Summer was the first artist to receive a Grammy award for Best Dance Recording (for her hit "Carry On"). In 1999, Summer held a televised live concert on VH-1 called Donna Summer - Live and More Encore, in which she performed a medley of her original hits, as well as new material, including an updated version of "No More Tears", which she performed with Austrialian pop diva, Tina Arena. A CD and DVD of the concert was released shortly after.

In 2000, Summer performed the title track, "The Power of One", for Pokémon: The Movie 2000. This was subsequently remixed.

In 2003, Donna Summer released a greatest-hits compilation called The Journey, which rocketed into the UK Top 10 in the following year, thanks to her appearance on ITV1 show Discomania.

On September 20, 2004, Donna was among the first artists to be inducted into the newly formed Dance Music Hall of Fame in New York City. She was inducted in two categories: 1) Artist Inductees, along with fellow disco legends The Bee Gees and Barry White and 2) Record Inductees for her classic hit I Feel Love.

Summer added to her credits in October 2004, when she performed "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch at Game 2 of the 2004 World Series at Boston's Fenway Park.

As of 2005, Summer has received 5 Grammy Awards and 6 American Music Awards, as well as 24 gold and platinum certifications in the United States and 19 gold and silver certifications in Great Britain. In the summer of 2005, Donna toured for the first time in 5 years and launched her official Web site.

Today, Summer and her family make their home in Nashville, Tennessee, and New York.