Born on March 26: Diana Ross, forever Supreme

She was born in 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, a historic dual capital of the automobile industry but more importantly perhaps, the capital of soul with the Motown label.

As a little girl, Diana's dreams were filled with princesses in long, dazzling dresses and not with concerts in front of ecstatic crowds. During her teenage years, she initially gravitated towards technical studies in fashion and cosmetology, among others. This early interest probably explains why she has always paid particular attention to her appearance and stage wardrobe.

But the music bug also excited the young girl brimming with energy. She started off with the vocal group The Primettes, a mere support act for The Primes, the male version of the group. At the dawn of the 1960s, the Motown label, created by Berry Gordy, was enjoying its first successes. Naturally, with a helping hand from her neighbour Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross did everything she could to secure an audition. Even though he wasn't invited to that meeting, in his memoirs, Gordy recalls being stopped in his tracks, almost petrified, when he heard the young girl's voice singing "There Goes My Baby" a cappella with her friends. Upon learning their age, however, he advised them to complete their secondary studies before coming back to see him. A contract awaited them, but it was for later. Stubborn and determined, the kids didn't take his advice and went back to the aptly named Hitsville label studios almost every day. Their perseverance eventually paid off, and Berry Gordy himself supervised the recording of their first track "I Want A Guy". When the record was released in early 1961, Diana was barely 17, but the Supremes were well and truly born. The quartet, which quickly became a trio, remains the most popular female group in American music history. They placed no fewer than twelve songs at the top of the Billboard charts: "You Can’t Hurry Love", "Stop In The Name Of Love", and "Where Did Our Love Go" belong to their collective imagination and have been covered by dozens of other artists, including Soft Cell and Phil Collins.

When she decided to leave the Supremes in 1970, Diana Ross didn't relinquish her status as an undisputed star and slightly workaholic diva. Since her eponymous album in 1971 and her classic "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough", the singer has always turned everything she sang into gold. In a richly abundant discography, we recommend the soundtrack of the film "Lady Sings The Blues", in which she portrays Billie Holiday (1972); "Diana & Marvin" (1973), her duet album with Marvin Gaye, or "Diana" (1980), for which Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (Chic) crafted a host of utterly unmissable tracks such as "Upside Down", "I’m Coming Out", "My Old Piano" and "Tenderness". An essential milestone in her career...

As she celebrates her 81st birthday today, the diva continues to perform on stage, never hesitating to share her greatest classics with the audience. A (very) great lady...

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Diana Ross on stage at Forest National in Brussels (Belgium) on 9 June 1997