Donna Summer, queen of disco, dies of cancer at 63

Donna Summer, the multimillion-selling singer and songwriter whose hits captured both the giddy hedonism of the 1970s disco era and the feisty female solidarity of the early 1980s, died of lung cancer Thursday at her home in Naples, Fla. She was 63.
With her doe eyes, cascade of hair and sinuous dance moves, Summer became the queen of disco — the music's glamorous public face — as well as an idol with a substantial gay following. Her voice, airy and ethereal or brightly assertive, sailed over dance floors and leapt from radios from the mid-1970s well into the 1980s.

She riffled through styles as diverse as funk, electronica, rock and torch song as she piled up 14 Top 10 singles in the United States, among them "Hot Stuff," "Last Dance" and "She Works Hard for the Money." In the late 1970s, she had three double albums in a row that reached No. 1, and each sold more than a million copies.
Summer won a total of five Grammy Awards for dance music, R&B, rock and gospel. Her recorded catalog spans the orgasmic moans of her first hit, "Love to Love You Baby," the streetwalker chronicle of "Bad Girls," the feminist moxie of "She Works Hard for the Money" and the religious devotion of "Forgive Me," a gospel song that earned her another Grammy.

Well into the 2000s, she continued to appear on the dance-music charts: three songs from her last studio album, "Crayons," in 2008, reached No. 1 on the dance chart, as did her final single, "To Paris With Love," in 2010.
Through it all, Summer's voice held on to an optimistic spirit, and she garnered loyal fans. In 2009 she performed in Oslo at the concert honoring the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama.

On Thursday, the president released a statement, saying, "Her voice was unforgettable, and the music industry has lost a legend far too soon."
She is survived by her husband, Bruce Sudano, three daughters — Brooklyn Sudano, Amanda Sudano and Mimi Dohler — and four grandchildren. She is also survived by a brother and four sisters.
"This music will always be with us," Summer said in 2003. "I mean, whether they call it disco music or hip-hop or bebop or flip-flop, whatever they're going to call it, I think music to dance to will always be with us."

Donna Summer, the queen of disco

1983: Donna Summer films the video for Unconditional Love in London with Musical Youth

1996: Donna Summer during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London

Disco queen Donna Summer, whose pulsing anthems such as I Feel Love, Love to Love You Baby and Bad Girls became the soundtrack for a glittery age of sex, drugs, dance and flashy clothes, has died. She was 63.

11 August 1979: Donna Summer performs at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles

The double album Bad Girls, containing the hit singles Hot Stuff, Dim All the Lights and the title track, was released in 1979

1979: Donna Summer clutches the trophies she won at the American Music Awards

1978: Donna Summer appears in the film Thank God It's Friday

LaDonna Adrian Gaines was born on 31 December 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts. She moved to Germany in the late 60s and changed her name when she divorced Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer, anglicising his surname.

Her breakthrough album, Love to Love You Baby, containing a 17-minute version of the title track, was released in 1975

Miss Adrian......
I have no right to claim any big friendship or really even knowing her.
She was a neighbor to me, through some mutual friends, when I worked in Florida a few years ago.
Yes, of course, she was Donna Summer!!, but then she sat down to lunch, we futzed over the chemicals in Diet Coke, split the salad, she showed me photos of her grandchildren.
We watched for sea turtles in this remote area we were in, watched the moon, had impromptu, casual dinners at her house. She was just a lovely regular neighbor lady who lived next door. Yes, she did occasionally break out into a spontaneous song so clear and pure that it would take your breath away, seriously give you chills, mostly gospel... she was highly spiritual, a family soul, lived for her girls, had the loveliest loving husband.
She came the Christmas eve I was there, to the mutual friend's house and launched into a spontaneous rap so hilarious, so brilliant, we all, damn gobsmacked fell on the floor in laughter and absolute amazement at her genius, but mostly her good heart.
It seems not long ago, and too short a time to hear cancer befell her and took her away.