from the News & Observer
Always Supreme
by Mark Anthony Neal
Friday, March 11, 2011
Diana Ross was never the prettiest girl in the room. She was never the sexiest women on the screen. Ross was never the best singer on stage.
Yet for nearly 50 years, Diana Ross has been the epitome of American glamour and a role model for generations of R&B and pop divas trying to negotiate the pitfalls of celebrity and ever fickle audiences.
Ross brings her singular presence to a sold-out show at the Durham Performing Arts Center tonight.
Born Diane Ross in 1944, the singer grew up in the housing projects of Detroit. While still in high school, Ross joined a group called the Primettes (later renamed the Supremes) with Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson. The group was a sister group of the Primes, whose members would later become the legendary Temptations.
Ross' career was nurtured by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, where the images of black racial uplift were as much required as the fine tunes that Smokey Robinson and Holland-Dozier-Holland produced in the 1960s. Gordy called his label the "Sound of Young America." The Supremes, with Diana Ross singing lead, was Motown's flagship product.
Ross' legacy as one of the most important vocalists of the era would have been cemented had her career ended with her last hit recording with the Supremes ("Someday We'll Be Together") in 1969 and the group's 12 No. 1 Billboard 100 songs. But Ross and Gordy had greater designs. Ross' solo career, which began with the signature hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (both written by Ashford and Simpson) set the standard for pop divas.
Ross set her sights on Hollywood, earning Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for the biopic "Lady Sings the Blues," and later starred in "Mahogany" and a film adaptation of the musical "The Wiz."
In 1980, with her recording career treading water, she collaborated with producers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic to produce one of her greatest albums as a solo artist. Titled "Diana," the album produced hits including "I'm Coming Out," which became an anthem for gay and lesbian audiences.
Ross soon left Motown Records, signing with RCA, with one of the most lucrative contracts in the music industry at the time. She continued her success with a remake of Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and the song "Muscles," which was written by her close confidante, the late Michael Jackson.
One enduring image of Ross from that period was her performing in New York's Central Park in 1983 during a torrential rainstorm - the perfect representation of the old adage that the show must go on (though Ross did cut the show short, and returned to do a show the next day).
Over the past 20 years, Ross continued to record and tour, though her legacy is perhaps best represented by the success of her children. Daughter Tracee Ellis-Ross starred in the popular sitcom "Girlfriends" (2000-2008), and her son Evan, is earning rave reviews for his role in the film "Mooz-lum."
***
Mark Anthony Neal is a professor of black popular culture in the department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University.
Always Supreme
by Mark Anthony Neal
Friday, March 11, 2011
Diana Ross was never the prettiest girl in the room. She was never the sexiest women on the screen. Ross was never the best singer on stage.
Yet for nearly 50 years, Diana Ross has been the epitome of American glamour and a role model for generations of R&B and pop divas trying to negotiate the pitfalls of celebrity and ever fickle audiences.
Ross brings her singular presence to a sold-out show at the Durham Performing Arts Center tonight.
Born Diane Ross in 1944, the singer grew up in the housing projects of Detroit. While still in high school, Ross joined a group called the Primettes (later renamed the Supremes) with Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson. The group was a sister group of the Primes, whose members would later become the legendary Temptations.
Ross' career was nurtured by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, where the images of black racial uplift were as much required as the fine tunes that Smokey Robinson and Holland-Dozier-Holland produced in the 1960s. Gordy called his label the "Sound of Young America." The Supremes, with Diana Ross singing lead, was Motown's flagship product.
Ross' legacy as one of the most important vocalists of the era would have been cemented had her career ended with her last hit recording with the Supremes ("Someday We'll Be Together") in 1969 and the group's 12 No. 1 Billboard 100 songs. But Ross and Gordy had greater designs. Ross' solo career, which began with the signature hits "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (both written by Ashford and Simpson) set the standard for pop divas.
Ross set her sights on Hollywood, earning Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for the biopic "Lady Sings the Blues," and later starred in "Mahogany" and a film adaptation of the musical "The Wiz."
In 1980, with her recording career treading water, she collaborated with producers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic to produce one of her greatest albums as a solo artist. Titled "Diana," the album produced hits including "I'm Coming Out," which became an anthem for gay and lesbian audiences.
Ross soon left Motown Records, signing with RCA, with one of the most lucrative contracts in the music industry at the time. She continued her success with a remake of Frankie Lymon's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and the song "Muscles," which was written by her close confidante, the late Michael Jackson.
One enduring image of Ross from that period was her performing in New York's Central Park in 1983 during a torrential rainstorm - the perfect representation of the old adage that the show must go on (though Ross did cut the show short, and returned to do a show the next day).
Over the past 20 years, Ross continued to record and tour, though her legacy is perhaps best represented by the success of her children. Daughter Tracee Ellis-Ross starred in the popular sitcom "Girlfriends" (2000-2008), and her son Evan, is earning rave reviews for his role in the film "Mooz-lum."
***
Mark Anthony Neal is a professor of black popular culture in the department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University.
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