Donna Summer

Donna Summer was born LaDonna Adrian Gaines. She was the third of seven children and grew up in the Boston area of Mission Hill. As a child, she sang lead vocals in the church choir and, aged 18, landed a role in the German production of Hair in Munich. While doing session work, Summer met producer-songwriters Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. They collaborated on several pop hits before producing the hugely popular single “Love to Love You Baby” (1975). This became the first of more than a dozen hits in the United States for Summer.

She became known as the “Queen of Disco”, but also worked in pop, dance, and rhythm and blues music. Her hits included “I Feel Love”, “Bad Girls”, “She Works Hard for the Money”, “MacArthur Park”, “Hot Stuff”, and “Last Dance”. Summer was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 after her death the previous years from lung cancer. Summer’s first child, Mimi, was born during an early marriage while Summer lived in Germany. She went on to marry musician Bruce Sudano and they had two children, Brooklyn and Amanda.