Diana Ross (American English: /d aɪ ˈæn ə ˈrɑː s/; UK: /ˈrɒs/; born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She is known as the "Queen of Motown" and was the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes. The Supremes became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They are still the most successful female group in history, with 12 number-one pop singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

After leaving The Supremes in 1970, Ross began a successful solo career with the release of her debut solo album, which was named after her. From 1972 to 1980, Ross recorded four top ten albums, with her most successful being the album Diana. Over a 15-year period, Ross released 12 top ten singles, six of which—"Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Touch Me in the Morning," "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," "Love Hangover," "Upside Down," and "Endless Love"—reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. At the time, this made her the female solo artist with the most number-one songs in the United States. Ross also had international success with songs such as "I'm Coming Out," "Chain Reaction," "If We Hold on Together," and "When You Tell Me That You Love Me."

Ross has also been recognized for her acting. Her first major role was in the film Lady Sings the Blues (1972), where she played Billie Holiday. This performance earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination, making her the first African-American actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for a debut film role. The film's soundtrack became her only solo album to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. She also appeared in the films Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978), and later in the television films Out of Darkness (1994) and Double Platinum (1999).

In 1976, Billboard named Ross the "Female Entertainer of the Century." Since starting her solo career in 1970, Ross has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Between 1964 and 1981, she sang on 18 number-one U.S. singles. In 2021, Billboard ranked her the 30th greatest charting artist of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. Her hits as a member of The Supremes and as a solo artist combined place her among the top-five artists on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart from 1955 to 2018. She has also had a top 75 U.K. hit single for 33 consecutive years (1964–1996).

In 1988, Ross was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Supremes. She is one of the few performers with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ross has received many honors, including a Special Tony Award in 1977, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and 2023 (becoming the first woman to win the award twice, the latter as a member of The Supremes), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Early life

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the second of six children born to Ernestine (née Moten; January 27, 1916 – October 9, 1984) and Fred Ross Sr. (July 4, 1920 – November 21, 2007). Her mother gave her the name Diane, but the birth certificate had a mistake and listed her name as Diana. Her family and friends in Detroit called her Diane for her entire life. Ross grew up with two sisters, Barbara and Rita, and three brothers: Arthur, Fred Jr., and Wilbert, who was also known as Chico. Ross was raised in the Baptist faith.

Ross and her family first lived at 635 Belmont St. in the North End area of Detroit, near Highland Park, Michigan. Her neighbor was Smokey Robinson. When Ross was seven years old, her mother became very sick with tuberculosis. Ross’s parents sent their children to live with Ernestine’s parents, Reverend and Mrs. William Moten, who were the pastor and wife of Bessemer Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama. After her mother recovered, Ross and her siblings returned to Detroit.

On her 14th birthday in 1958, Ross’s family moved to the Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, a working-class neighborhood in Detroit, where they settled on St. Antoine Street. Ross attended Cass Technical High School, a school that focuses on preparing students for college, located in downtown Detroit. She wanted to become a fashion designer and took classes in clothing design, millinery, pattern making, and tailoring. In the evenings and on weekends, she also took modeling and cosmetology classes and joined the school’s swim team. In 1960, the Hudson’s department store in downtown Detroit hired Ross as its first African-American bus girl. To earn extra money, she also gave hairdressing services to her neighbors. Ross graduated from Cass Tech in January 1962.

Career

When Ross was 15 years old, she joined a group called the Primettes, which was the sister group to a male vocal group named the Primes. A member of the Primes, Paul Williams, introduced Ross to music manager Milton Jenkins, who helped her join the Primettes. Other members of the Primettes included Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Betty McGlown, who was Williams' girlfriend. In 1960, the Primettes won a talent competition in Windsor, Ontario. Robert Bateman, an A&R executive and songwriter, invited them to audition for Tamla Records.

Before Bateman offered them the opportunity, Ross had asked her former neighbor, Smokey Robinson, to help arrange an audition. Robinson agreed, but only if the Primettes allowed him and his group, the Miracles, to hire Marv Tarplin, the Primettes' guitarist, for an upcoming tour. Tarplin played in Robinson's band for over 30 years. In her autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow, Ross wrote that she believed this was "a fair trade."

Berry Gordy, in his autobiography To Be Loved, described how he was heading to a business meeting when he heard Ross singing "There Goes My Baby." He was so impressed by her voice that he stopped and asked the group to perform the song again. However, after learning how young they were, Gordy advised them to finish high school before trying to get signed by Motown.

With help from Richard Morris, the group recorded two songs for Lu Pine Records, with Ross singing lead on one of them. During this time, the group visited Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters daily, offering to help with Motown recordings by providing hand claps and background vocals. During the group's early years, Ross also worked as their hairstylist, make-up artist, seamstress, and costume designer.

In late 1960, the group replaced Betty McGlown with Barbara Martin. They were then allowed to record their own songs at Hitsville, including "After All," "I Want a Guy," and "Who's Loving You." In January 1961, Gordy agreed to sign the group, but only if they changed their name. Janie Bradford, a Motown secretary, asked Florence Ballard to choose a new name. Ballard selected "Supremes," because it was the only name on the list that did not end with "ette." Ross was not happy with the name, as she worried it might confuse people with a male group also named the Supremes. Gordy signed the group under their new name, "Supremes," on January 15, 1961.

In 1962, the group became a trio after Barbara Martin left. In late 1963, the group had their first hit with "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," which reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. At the end of the year, Gordy made Ross the group's lead singer.

In June 1964, the group scored their first number-one hit with "Where Did Our Love Go" while on tour with Dick Clark's Cavalcade of Stars. Between August 1964 and May 1967, Ross, Wilson, and Ballard sang on ten number-one hit singles, all of which also reached the UK Top 40. The group became Motown's most successful vocal act in the 1960s.

Ross began answering media questions that were originally aimed at Ballard or Wilson. She also pushed for higher pay than her colleagues. In 1965, she started using the name "Diana" after discovering a mistake on her birth certificate, which surprised Ballard and Wilson, who had only known her as Diane. In July 1967, Florence Ballard was fired from the Supremes by Gordy after difficulties with behavior, weight, and alcoholism. Cindy Birdsong from Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles was hired as Ballard's replacement. Gordy renamed the group "Diana Ross & the Supremes" to charge a higher performance fee for a solo star and a backing group. Although Gordy considered letting Ross pursue a solo career in 1966, he changed his mind because he believed the group's success was still too important. Ross remained with the Supremes until early 1970.

As the lead voice of the Supremes, Ross was the central figure in a well-organized team, following directions from Berry Gordy and Motown. She sang about love's pain without showing personal suffering, but her lyrics, such as "You keep me hanging on" and "Where did our love go?" were not softened. Instead, she brought energy and life to these songs, which became her greatest gift. No matter how she was styled or what she said, Ross always showed she was alive.

The group appeared as singing nuns in a 1968 episode of the NBC TV series Tarzan. Between their 1968 single "Forever Came Today" and their final single with Ross, "Someday We'll Be Together," Ross was the only Supremes member featured on many of their recordings, often accompanied by session singers called the Andantes or other musicians. Wilson and Birdsong continued to sing on recordings. During this time, Gordy pushed Ross hard, and she began suffering from anorexia nervosa, as described in her autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow. In 1967, Ross collapsed onstage during a performance in Boston, Massachusetts, and had to be hospitalized for exhaustion.

In 1968, Ross began performing as a solo artist on television specials, including TCB and G.I.T. on Broadway, The Dinah Shore Show, and a Bob Hope special. In mid-1969, Gordy decided Ross would leave the group by the end of the year, and she began recording her first solo work in July. One of her first plans for a solo career was to introduce a new Motown act publicly.

Though she did not claim to have discovered them, Motown's publicity department credited Ross with finding the Jackson 5. She introduced the group during public events, including The Hollywood Palace. In November, Ross confirmed her split from the Supremes in Billboard. Ross's first solo recording, "Someday We'll Be Together," was released as a Supremes recording and became the group's final number-one hit on the Hot 100. It was also the last number-one Billboard Hot 100 single of the 1960s. Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 14, 1970.

In May 1970, Ross released her eponymous debut solo album. Her first solo single, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)," was a moderate top 20 hit, while her second single, a new arrangement of Ashford & Simpson

Personal life

Ross has been married twice and has five children. In 1965, Ross started a romantic relationship with Berry Gordy, who was the leader of a music company called Motown. Their relationship lasted several years and resulted in the birth of Ross’s oldest child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein, in August 1971. In January 1971, two months before Rhonda was born, Ross married Robert Ellis Silberstein, a music industry executive. Silberstein raised Rhonda as his own daughter, even though he knew she was not his biological child. When Rhonda was 13 years old, Ross told her that Berry Gordy was her biological father. Before that, Rhonda called Gordy “Uncle B.B.”

Ross and Silberstein had two daughters together: Tracee Joy Silberstein (also known as Tracee Ellis Ross) and Chudney Lane Silberstein, who were born in 1972 and 1975, respectively. Ross and Silberstein divorced in 1977. In 2023, Smokey Robinson, a musician, said in an interview that he had a romantic relationship with Ross for about one year while he was married to his first wife, Claudette. Robinson said Ross ended the relationship because he still loved Claudette, who was a friend of Ross’s. When asked about Robinson’s story, Ross’s representative did not comment.

From 1980 to 1983, Ross dated Gene Simmons, who is the bassist and co-lead singer of the band Kiss. In 1985, Ross met her second husband, Arne Næss Jr., a businessman from Norway. They married the following year. Ross became the stepmother to Næss’s three older children: Katinka, Christoffer, and Leona Naess, who is a folk singer. Ross and Næss had two sons together: Ross Arne (born in 1987) and Evan Olav (born in 1988). Ross and Næss divorced in 2000 after news reports revealed that Næss had a child with another woman in Norway. Ross said Næss was the love of her life. In 2004, Næss died in a mountain climbing accident in South Africa. Ross remains close to her three ex-stepchildren.

Ross has seven grandchildren. She was raised in the Baptist church. In her 1993 autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow, Ross wrote that her first performances were at the Bessemer Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama. Her maternal grandfather, Pastor William Moten, and his wife raised her and her siblings there while her mother was sick with tuberculosis.

In December 2002, Ross was arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in Tucson, Arizona, while receiving treatment for substance abuse at a local rehabilitation center. She later served a two-day jail sentence near her home in Connecticut.

Legacy

Diana Ross has influenced many artists, including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Madonna, Jade Thirlwall, Questlove, Olivia Dean, Melanie Chisholm, Ledisi, Lisa Stansfield, and the Ting Tings. Many of Ross's songs have been covered or used in other songs. For example, the song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" appeared in the movie Chicken Little. Jennifer Lopez and Amy Winehouse have also performed or recorded this song. Janet Jackson used parts of "Love Hangover" in her 1997 song "My Need" from the album The Velvet Rope. She had also used parts of "Love Child" and "Someday We'll Be Together" in her 1993 songs "You Want This" and "If" from the album Janet. The song "Love Hangover" was also used in Monica's 1998 hit "The First Night" and by artists such as Will Smith, Master P, Heavy D, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. The song "It's Your Move" was used in 2011 by Vektroid in her song "Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing" from her album Floral Shoppe. The song "It's My House" was used by Lady Gaga in her 2020 song "Replay" from the album Chromatica. According to the music database WhoSampled, Ross's music has been used in over 754 songs and covered by artists in more than 399 songs. Excluding her work during the later years of her time with the Supremes, her solo songs have been used in 682 songs and covered in 333 songs.

Many works of art have been inspired by Ross's life and career. The character Deena Jones in the play and film Dreamgirls was based on Ross. Motown: The Musical, a Broadway show that began in 2013, tells the story of Berry Gordy founding Motown Records and his relationship with Ross. Ross was played by Valisia LeKae in 2013, Lucy St. Louis in 2016, Candice Marie Woods from 2017 to 2019, and Deri'Andra Tucker in 2021 in the play Ain't Too Proud. Other portrayals of Ross include Holly Robinson Peete in The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992), Bianca Lawson in The Temptations TV mini-series (1998), Michelle Williams in American Soul (2019), and Kat Graham in the film Michael (2025).

As a member of the Supremes, Ross's songs "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "You Can't Hurry Love" were named among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. These songs were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, and entered the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Supremes at number 96 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time."

As the lead singer of the Supremes and as a solo artist, Ross earned 18 number-one songs (12 with the Supremes and 6 as a solo artist). Ross is the only female artist to have number-one songs as a solo artist, as part of a duet (with Lionel Richie), as a member of a group (the Supremes), and as part of a group performance ("We Are the World" by USA for Africa). Ross's voice from her 1980 song "I'm Coming Out" was used in the 1997 song "Mo Money Mo Problems" by Notorious B.I.G.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named Ross the "female entertainer of the century." Ross has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one for her work with the Supremes and one for her solo career. After her 1983 concert in Central Park, a playground named "Diana Ross Playground" was created in her honor in 1986.

Berry Gordy asked Ross to introduce The Jackson Five to the public. Over time, people mistakenly believed Ross discovered the group, and Gordy kept this idea as part of Motown's marketing plan. The group's first album was titled Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5. While others, such as Motown producer Bobby Taylor and singer Gladys Knight, claim to have discovered the Jacksons, Ross accepted her role and became a close friend to Michael Jackson, acting as a mother figure to him.

On January 24, 1985, Kaufman Astoria Studios honored Ross by naming Studio 4 after her. The studio, now called the Diana Ross Building, was recognized for Ross's role in helping save it from being destroyed through her work in the musical The Wiz. In 2006, Ross was one of 25 African-American women honored at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball, a celebration of their contributions to art, entertainment, and civil rights. Ross is considered one of the "Five Mighty Pop Divas of the Sixties," along with Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves, and Dionne Warwick. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Ross at number 87 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Awards and nominations

From 1971 to 2022, Ross was nominated for 13 Grammy Awards but did not win any, making her one of the most well-known artists who never won a Grammy.

In addition, Ross received two more Grammy nominations as a member of the Supremes in 1965 and 1966. Her 1981 song "Endless Love," which she performed with Lionel Richie, was her only nomination for Record of the Year.

In 2012, Ross received her first Grammy for lifetime achievement. Eleven years later, in 2023, Ross became the first woman to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as both a solo artist and as a member of a group. This happened after she and the late Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, other founding members of the Supremes, were honored with the same award.

Ross also won seven American Music Awards between 1974 and 1983. In 2017, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the same organization and performed at the event for the first time since 1986.

In 1976, Ross was honored with the title "Female Entertainer of the Century" at the Rock Music Awards, which was her first lifetime honor at age 32. In 1982, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1994, the Supremes also received a star on the same walk.

In 1988, Ross was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, other founding members of the Supremes.

In 1993, Guinness World Records recognized Ross as the most successful female artist in the UK with the most charting songs.

In December 2007, Ross was given a medal by the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.

On November 16, 2016, Ross was named one of 21 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Tours

• The Music Legacy Tour (2023)
• Beautiful Love Performances: Legacy 2024 (2024)
• Diana Ross: A Symphonic Celebration (2025)
• Diana in Motion (2026)

• Superconcert of the Century (with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) (1996–97; 1999)
• Return to Love Tour (with former members of the Supremes) (2000)