Diana Ross Biography
Diana Ross is an American singer and actress. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, she rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, who became Motown’s most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world’s best-selling. girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in US history, with a total of twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including, “Where Did Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, “Come See About Me”, and “Love Child”.
How old is Diana Ross ? – Age
The American singer is 77 years old as of 26th March 2020. She was born in 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, United States.
who are Diana Ross Parents? – Father and Mother
The American singer was the second-eldest child of Ernestine and Fred Ross, Sr.. Ross’s elder sister is American physician Barbara Ross-Lee. According to the singer, her mother actually named her “Diane”, but, a clerical error resulted in her name being recorded as “Diana” on her birth certificate. She was listed as “Diane” during the first Supremes records, and she introduced herself as “Diane” until early in the group’s heyday. Her friends and family still call her “Diane”.
who is Diana Ross Married to? – Husband
The American singer has been married twice and has five children. She became romantically involved with Motown CEO Berry Gordy in 1965. The relationship lasted several years, resulting in the birth of Ross’s eldest child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein, in August 1971. Two months into her pregnancy with Rhonda, in January 1971, Ross married music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, who raised Rhonda as his own daughter, despite knowing her true paternity.
Ross told Rhonda that Gordy was her biological father when Rhonda was 13 years old. Beforehand, Rhonda referred to Gordy as “Uncle B.B.”. The singer has two daughters with Silberstein, Tracee Joy and Chudney Lane Silberstein, born in 1972 and 1975, respectively. Ross and Silberstein divorced in 1977, and Ross moved to New York City in the early 1980s, after living in Los Angeles since Motown relocated to the area in the early 1970s.
The singer dated Gene Simmons, bass guitarist and singer for the band Kiss, from 1980 to 1983. They began dating after Cher, who had remained friends with Simmons following their break-up, suggested he ask Ross to help him choose her Christmas present. Simmons, in his autobiography, contends that he was not dating Cher when he met Ross.
Ross ended her relationship with Simmons when he gave Ross the erroneous impression that he had resumed his relationship with Cher. Simmons’ story differed in 2015 when he revealed that he fell in love with Ross while dating Cher, which ended Ross and Cher’s friendship.
She met her second husband, Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Naess Jr., in 1985, and married him the following year. Ross and Næss divorced in 2000, after press reports revealed that Naess had fathered a child with another woman in Norway. Ross considers Næss the love of her life. Næss fell to his death in a South African mountain climbing accident in 2004. Ross remains close with her three ex-stepchildren.
Diana Ross Family
The singer has seven grandchildren: grandson Raif-Henok (born in 2009 to her daughter Rhonda); grandsons Leif (born on June 5, 2016) and Idingo (born 2017), born to her son Ross Næss; granddaughters Callaway Lane (born in 2012) and Everlee (born October 2019) born to Ross’s daughter Chudney; granddaughter Jagger Snow (born in 2015), and grandson Ziggy (born in 2020) to her son Evan.
She became stepmother to his three elder children; Katinka, Christoffer, and folk singer Leona Naess. They have two sons together: Ross Arne (born in 1987) and Evan Olav (born in 1988).
Diana Ross Music Career
Following departure from the Supremes in 1970, the singer embarked on a highly successful, globally ground-breaking solo career in music, television, film and stage. Ross’ eponymous debut solo album that same year, featured the U.S. number-one hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and music anthem “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”. It was followed with her second solo album, Everything Is Everything, which spawned her first UK number-one single “I’m Still Waiting”.
She continued her successful solo career by mounting elaborate record-setting world-wide concert tours, starring in a number of highly watched prime-time television specials and releasing hit albums like Touch Me in the Morning (1973), Mahogany (1975) and Diana Ross (1976) and their number-one hit singles, “Touch Me in the Morning”, “Theme from Mahogany” and “Love Hangover”, respectively. Ross further released numerous top-ten hits into the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
She achieved two more US number-one singles, ”Upside Down” (1980) and “Endless Love” (1981), as well as UK number-one hit “Chain Reaction” (1986) and UK number-two hit “When You Tell Me You Love Me” (1991). In 2019, Ross made history by charting four more number-ones on the U.S. Billboard Dance Chart in just two years with remixes ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough 2017’ in January 2018, ‘I’m Coming Out/Upside Down 2018’ in August that year and ‘The Boss 2019’ in April 2019.
The singer has also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated performance in the film Lady sings the Blues (1972); she recorded its soundtrack, which became a number one hit on the U.S. album chart. She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978), later acting in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999). She was named the “Female Entertainer of the Century” by Billboard in 1976.
She is the only female artist to have number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist, as the other half of a duet, as a member of a trio, and as an ensemble member.
Billboard ranked her as 28th greatest Hot 100 artist of all time. Ross ranks among the Top 5 artists on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart from 1955 to 2018 when combining her solo and Supremes’ hits. She had a top 10 UK hit in every one of the last five decades, and sang lead on a top 75 hit single at least once every year from 1964 to 1996 in the UK, a period of 33 consecutive years and a record for any performer.
In 1988, the singer was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes. Guinness Book of World Records recognized her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts, with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. She was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
In December 2018, Ross consolidated her status as a dance diva by ranking #3 in the Billboard Dance Club songs Artists year-end chart. On February 10, 2019, the Recording Academy honored Ross at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
The singer performed “The Best Years of My Life” and “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”. In 2019 her song “The Boss” was remixed by Eric Kupper as “The Boss 2019”, and reached number one on Billboard’s Top Dance Chart on April 13.
On October 10, 2019, it was announced that Diana Ross would play the Sunday legends slot on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival for the festival’s 50th anniversary; however, the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In May 2020, Diana Ross released “Supertonic: Mixes”, a collection of nine of her greatest hits remixed by Eric Kupper and featuring her four back-to-back No.1 hits on Billboard Dance Club Songs chart: “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough 2017”, “I’m Coming Out / Upside Down 2018”, “The Boss 2019”, and “Love Hangover 2020”. In July 2020, “Supertonic: Mixes” was also released on CD and crystal-clear vinyl LP.
Diana Ross Net worth
The American singer has an estimated net worth of around $250 million as of 2021.