Diana Ross Biography

NAME: Diana Ross

OCCUPATION: Actress, Singer

BIRTH DATE: March 26, 1944 (Age: 67)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Detroit, Michigan

ZODIAC SIGN: Aries

Singer and actress. Born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. An accomplished performer, Ross began singing in a group with friends Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and Barbara Martin as a teenager. Martin eventually dropped out, but the remaining members of the group went on to become the internationally successful 1960s R&B and pop trio, the Supremes (which was later Diana Ross and the Supremes).

Signed to Motown Records by famed record producer and label founder Berry Gordy, Jr., in 1961, the Supremes scored its first number one hit with the song "Where Did Our Love Go?" (1964). In all the trio scored 12 number one hits, including "Stop! In the Name of Love" (1965) and "Someday We Will Be Together" (1969).

After recovering from Ballard's death, Ross went on to focus on her singing career and continued having more #1 songs, including "Upside Down". The following year she performed the theme song from Endless Love (1981), which was composed by Lionel Richie. That same year she left Motown Records and signed contracts with various record companies across the globe, and formed her own production company. The following year she released "Silk Electric," on which she sang "Muscles," a song written and produced by Michael Jackson.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book Of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history with a total of eighteen American number-one singles: twelve as lead singer of The Supremes and six as a soloist. Ross was the first female solo artist to score six number-ones. This feat puts her in a tie for fifth place among solo female artists with the most No. 1s on the Hot 100. She is also one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--one as a solo artist and the other as a member of The Supremes. In December 2007, she received a John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Honors Award.