Happy Birthday Diana Ross

Sometime during the day I saw a post on Facebook wishing Diana Ross a happy birthday.  For anyone who knows me or has followed my writing over the years, you know how I love Miss Ross.  She was my very first diva and the one person who helped me to learn that dancing is not only good exercise, but the ultimate freedom of expression for me.  Years ago I would have known that today was her birthday, but she really keeps out of the spotlight these days and you know me and music...there's just so much to love I don't always get around to the older stuff.

Every once in awhile, though, I get into a mood to listen to her.  Diana Ross' catalog is just so expansive, from her days with the Supremes to her early solo years to the disco days and her 80's RCA days and even a little beyond.  Like all music, her songs bring me back to places in my life and I am grateful to have had the experience of knowing her music.

So here's one of my first Diana Ross songs, from the first ever album of hers I ever bought, diana.  At the time, the song was a major radio hit and I was giving a new kind of music a try, because beforehand I was a disco sucks t-shirt wearing, KISS loving rock fan.  Within the first few listens I was in love, and it changed my musical tastes that remain to this day.  So Happy Birthday Diana, and thanks for the music!

Upside down

Boy you turn me

Inside out 

And round and round

Upside Down - Diana Ross by peakers

Check out some pieces I've written on Diana, too...

John's World

Remember Me

Divas

Yahoo Contributor Network

Diana Ross: My First Diva

Diana Ross' Top 20 Songs

Divas

diva - a celebrated female singer, a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and by extension theater, cinema and popular music.

P.S. - An extravagant admiration for divas is a common element of camp culture.

Wikipedia

perezhilton

We all know a few divas.  Though the term started out in the world of opera, these days it's more the second part of the above Wikipedia definition that gets our attention.  Further than that, though, the term 'diva' refers not only to a woman of remarkable talent, but one who is also a sort of bitchy, demanding princess.  In other words, a prima donna.

I'm a diva from head to toe 
And it's getting better everyday 
I dont cook, I dont wash dishes 
And I do not do windows 
cause I'm a uhhh diva 

I like shopping 
I hate going to the grocery store 
I hate washing clothes 
I like painting my nails 
It's excites me 

Club 69

Oh, and usually to be a diva one must also have at least a hint of glamour.  Throw all of these things together and the diva is especially popular among gay men.  We all just seem to love the spectacle of it all and almost every gay person I know has their own favorite diva.  

musicwalls

Here's a photo of my first and still dear-to-my-heart diva, Miss Diana Ross.  From her early days as a Supreme to the glamorous singer, movie star and all around entertainer she became in the 70', 80's and even 90's, Diana embodied the very ideal of what it means to be a diva.  

A diva is a female version of a hustla

Of a hustla

Of a of a hustla....

Beyonce

Yes, divas are anywhere and everywhere, and we've all got our favorites.  Some of the more traditional divas favored by my friends include the more traditional ones like Barbra Streisand, Liza Minelli, Marilyn Monroe (they don't all have to sing!), Cher, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston and more contemporaries like Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, and the list goes on and on and on...

breitbart

So come on, who's your favorite diva?

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