In the wake of the death of Donna Summer [5], the Queen of Disco, who died on Thursday after a struggle with breast and lung cancer, NewsOne [6] gathers 12 things we did not know about the star:
1) Donna Summer’s actual name was LaDonna Adrian Gaines. She married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer [7] in 1972, then divorced him three years later after he discovered that she’d had an affair with a German surrealist painter. Thereafter, she Anglicized her last name as “Summer.” [Source: Biography.com]
2) The sultry “Love to Love You Baby” recording artist had six siblings and was raised by staunch, take-no-mess, Christian parents in Dorchester, Massachusetts. [Source: Wikipedia]
3) Since disco music was not on the horizon during the sixties, Summer aspired to follow in the musical footsteps of the Motown girl groups of the times. She formed a group with a cousin and sister and they patterned themselves after the more popular singing groups of the times like The Supremes and Martha Reeves and The Vandellas. [Source: Wikipedia]
4) While working as a backup singer for the famed 70′s trio Three-Dog Night, Summer caught the eye of two record producers who helped her secure a deal with a European label. Summer’s first album, “Lady of the Night [8]” debuting in 1974 had some success in Europe but was never released in the States. [Source: Amazon.com]
Read more at NewsOne [6].
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