The Donna Summer story...

Some personal info...

She is the third of seven children. (One boy and six girls - imagine the fights over that bathroom!  LOL)

She was married briefly in the early 70s to Helmut Sommer, with whom she had one child - Mimi Sommer.

She was married to songwriter Bruce Sudano with whom she has two children, Brooklyn and Amanda Grace Sudano. They married on July 16, 1980 and remained together the rest of Donna's life.

Over the years Donna maintained homes in Los Angeles, Connecticut and New York, but most recently she and her family had homes in Tennessee, Florida and Los Angeles.

Throughout her adult life, Donna had a passion for making videos - be it silly skits with the crew while on tour, or home movies with the family in her off time. Some of these films became the basis for the 2023 documentary, Love To Love You Donna Summer.

Donna passed away on May 17, 2012 from lung cancer. She was laid to rest near her Nashville home. At the time of her death she was survived by her husband Bruce, 3 married daughters and 4 grandchildren.

Some career info...

In 1974 Donna had her first European hit with The Hostage.

In 1975 Donna had her first American hit with Love To Love You Baby.

Donna wrote or co-wrote a significant number of her hits and album tracks.

In 1980, Donna became the first artist to sign with the newly formed Geffen records.

Donna was also an accomplished painter whose works sell for thousands and thousands of dollars.

Donna wrote several musicals including the much anticipated, Ordinary Girl - an autobiographical story. At this time, none of Donna's musicals has been publicly performed (outside of a few songs performed as part of her regular concerts.) There were plans before Donna passed away to bring Ordinary Girl to Broadway.

In 2003 Donna released her autobiography called: Ordinary Girl: The Journey.

In 2018 Summer: The Donna Summer Musical opened on Broadway. It was a jukebox biographical piece using Donna's music to tell her life story. Donna was portrayed by 3 actresses that represented Donna at different ages. Although it included none of the songs written for it, this is probably as close as we will ever get to seeing Ordinary Girl released.

In 2023, daughter Brooklyn Sudano in collaboration with Roger Ross Williams and HBO released a documentary about Donna's life called Love To Love You Donna Summer.

Grammy Awards:

Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Female for MacArthur Park

Nominated for Album Of The Year for Bad Girls

Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Female for Bad Girls

Nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for Dim All The Lights

Nominated for Best Disco Recording for Bad Girls

Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Female for On The Radio

Nominated for Best Inspirational Performance for I Believe In Jesus

Nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance Female for Love Is In Control

Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Female for She Works Hard For The Money

Nominated for Album Of The Year for the soundtrack to Flashdance.

Won Best Inspirational Performance for Forgive Me

Won Best Dance Recording for Carry On

Nominated for Best Dance Recording for I Will Go With You

Other achievements:

Donna was the only artist ever to guest host Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

Donna was the first female artist to have three number one singles in one year.

She was the only artist to date to have three number one platinum double albums in a row.

To date, Donna  racked up 11 gold albums and 3 platinum albums (2 of which went double platinum). Additionally, she has has 12 gold singles and 2 platinum singles. (Check out www.riaa.com for a complete list of certifications.)

Donna had 14 top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and 4 of those reached number 1.

She picked up 3 American Music Awards in 1979 for Favorite Female Vocal Pop or Rock, Favorite Single Pop or Rock (Bad Girls), and Favorite Female Vocalist for Soul Music.

In 1980 Donna received the NAACP Image Award.

In 1992 Donna was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Her most recent CD, Live & More Encore yielded back to back number 1 dance hits and was certified gold in Spain.

In 2008, she became the only artist to have a number 1 dance hit in every decade since the 1970s.

In 2013 she was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame - an honor that would have made her so proud. Previously she had been nominated for the classes of 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

In 2024 She was posthumously honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy (the Grammy Awards organization.)

Over the years Donna has quietly contributed her time and money to various organizations. What follows is a list of just a few who have publicly benefited from Donna's generosity:
 

• Music For UNICEF for whom she donated the proceeds of Mimi's Song.

• Youth With a Mission which helps children with AIDS.

• Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang which helps terminally ill children.

• Music Cares which is an organization with contributes to AIDS research.

• AMPHAR-AIDS for whom she did an art exhibition in a gay nightclub called Time Square.

• The Neil Bogart Memorial Fund for Cancer & AIDS for whom she has a special memorial set aside for her mother.

• The Gay Men's Health Crisis for whom she did a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall and raised over $400,000.

• T. J. Martell Foundation for whom she contributed a song for a compilation Christmas album.

• Dance=Life for whom she contributed a song for a compilation album.

• Another appearance at Carnegie Hall with Barry Manilow in his benefit for the Gay Men's Health Crisis.

• VH1's Save the Music Foundation. 

• Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in Chicago (the concert plus auctions held that night raised over $1.4 million).

• Several  concerts in 2000 to benefit local hospitals.

• National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance for whom she contributed a song for The Best Of The Summer Concert Series Volume 1 CD.

• The For All Kids Foundation for whom she donated one song on Another Rosie Christmas.

• Race To Erase MS for whom she did benefit concert in 2 consecutive years with other artists (part of which was televised on VH1), several public service announcements (which aired on VH1), and she donated a song to their 2001 CD, Keeping The Dream Alive.

• In 2003 Donna performed at the annual White Tie & Tiara Ball to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

I truly hope all of the publicity pays off. Disco being declared "dead" was an assault on both the gay and black communities. Disco music was devalued by the dominant, white, heterosexual male, heavy metal/country western culture. Donna was stigmatized along with all of it. I believe that she is truly one of the most talented and gifted singers/songwriters ever. While she was ostracized by the gay community in the 80's for apparently making anti-gay remarks (which she denies) she did recently perform a benefit concert in New York for the Gay Men's Health Crisis. I hope that will help put some of the ugly rumors to rest. I see Donna's triumphs as triumphs for minorities of all types, whether they be people of color, gay people or people who have voices made to soar with synthesizers (ahh, synthesizers: another devalued gift of music). For that matter, "talented Christian Divas who have a primarily gay audience." Or, "talented Christian Divas who are in their 50's and have a primarily gay audience." (If Cher and Tina can do it, so can Donna, who has much more range and lung power; not to say that Cher's new CD is not a completely awesome piece of dance [read as "disco"] "electronica"). Donna set the stage for techno-synth and electronic music, and the dominant culture is trying to erase her from the history books by ignoring her contributions, devaluing them and devaluing her audience. In 1979, she sold over 4 million copies of a double-album ("Bad Girls", priced at nearly $17.00). At the time, a black-female artist having a multi-platinum-selling album was practically unheard of (let alone having several). She had the first extended play single. She was brilliantly blending her tracks together more than a decade before Janet's "Rhythm Nation" hit the air waves. She "reinvented" herself with every album when Madonna was posing for nude pictures to make a living. Does she, Whitney or Janet ever give her credit? And on and on and on. (Or should I say "Love On And On," which, according to Cathy at the website is in heavy rotation on WKTU in New York--I was fortunate enough to get a pirated copy of the single from Perfect Beat, before they were "told" to stop selling it). The song is a testimony to both how Donna set the stage for today's current dance music as well as a testimony to the fact that she can still do it better than anyone else--SHE HAS THE MAGIC!!!!

So, step aside KISS, your former-fellow Casablanca recording artist is staged for a comeback. And if only a small one, it will be a great victory for all of "us." (How odd that all of the boys who tortured me in school for being gay and for loving Donna Summer could not see the irony in their own worship of a band called "AC/DC.").

When I am done with graduate school, I am going to write a book about this....