Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco in the 1970s with a
pop/dance/rock sound that was a hybrid of American soul and
European synthesizer based music. Summer's musical career was
launched on stage in Munich, Germany, in productions of Hair and
Porgy & Bess. In Germany, she hooked up with producers, Giorgio
Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and delivered the orgasmic "Love to Love
You Baby" which brought her worldwide fame. Summer was the first
female artist to garner back-to-back multiplatinum double albums
and the first female artist to incorporate synthesizers as well as
the first artist to create an extended play song. Musically, she
diversified into pop and rock, while career-wise, she appeared in
the disco dud, THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY, for which the song, "Last
Dance" won a Best Song Oscar, as well as numerous American TV music
specials. Her career zenithed in 1980 with the release of the
critically-acclaimed record, THE WANDERER, a diverse fusion of rock
and dance which is still considered to be the forerunner of such
range of artists as Billy Idol, Whitney Houston and Alanis
Morrisette. But soon after 1980, Summer announced that she was a
born-again Christian. She was then accused of making anti-gay
comments, which were later proven to be false, which brought a
worldwide boycott of her music in dance clubs. Summer returned to
the Top of the Pop charts in in the late 80s and early 90s with
various dance hits. She recently ended her longtime association
with Polygram and moved to Nashville to work on country music and
to pursue her other passion, painting. In 1998, she won a Grammy
for Best Dance Single and has plans to launch a Broadway musical,
Ordinary Girl, based on her life.
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