Donna Summer (LaDonna Adrian Gaines)

Donna Summer (LaDonna Adrian Gaines)
(December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012)
Known by her stage name, Donna Summer,
Was an American singer, songwriter, and painter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the late 1970s. A five-time Grammy Award winner, she was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach No. 1 on the United States Billboard album chart and charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 12-month period. Summer has reportedly sold over 130 million records, making her one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.
Influenced by the Motown Sound. And influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, she became the front singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. Joining a touring version of the musical Hair, .
, Summer co-wrote the song “Love to Love You Baby” with Pete Bellotte. The song was released in 1975 to mass commercial success. Over the following years Summer followed this success with a string of other hits, such as “I Feel Love”, “Last Dance”, “MacArthur Park”, “Heaven Knows”, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, “Dim All the Lights”, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”, and “On the Radio”. She became known as the “Queen of Disco” and regularly appeared at the Studio 54 nightclub in New York City, while her music gained a global following.
Summer was described as the “undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom” who reached the status of “one of the world’s leading female singers.” In 2013, Summer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.