In the wake of the death of Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, who died on Thursday after a struggle with breast and lung cancer, NewsOne 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 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” debuting in 1974 had some success in Europe but was never released in the States. [Source: Amazon.com]
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