Donna Summer - AIDS Was Sent By God To Punish Gays

Oh, here we go again.

COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP! COMPLETE FAIL BY TROLL OP!

Who’s the third woman she’s talking to?

No, her career was basically over by 1983. Could be the gays dumped her, but styles had changed also: New Wave then Hip Hop then Grunge... She was forever identified with Disco anthems.

She went to England in the late 80s and had some success with SAW.

Fuck you OP

So...did she say those shitty things or not???!

R6, No one can seem to offer the proof. I love her.

I'm not really going to discuss this but OP's quotes includes...

[quote] “At the time, I thought AIDS was a herpes pimple, like you get on your mouth." Donna Summer told Advocate

I take that to mean she was ignorant when she spoke and then got educated and changed her mind. Like many, many people seemed to do during that crisis.

Donna was on the shit list for 15 years at least. OP knows that and is trolling. OR OP IS A BLUBBERING FAT RETARDED TROLL WHO CAN'T LOOK UP INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET.

R4, yes , she had her greatest success in the 70s. But she was one of the very few artists who still did fairly well in the 80s, including 4 top ten hits.

She’s been dead for a decade. No need to cancel her.

It's never been proven that she said this. There has never been a tape to confirm she made these comments.

She sued in 1991 and she gave a passionate, teary-eyed press conference denying every saying what she had been accused of saying.

She went on Joan Rives pre QVC talk show in the early 90s & did the ol' non-apology routine when Rivers brought it up.

Donna said that she heard gay men have said worse things blah blah blah.

I never liked her after that & I had her '89 comeback album at the time.

^ This one.

[quote]“At the time, I thought The AIDS was a herpes pimple, like you get on your mouth." Donna Summer told Advocate

FIFY

Gay guys started wasting away in late1981. Surely she was aware of that, surrounded by dancers, makeup artists, hair stylists... That's some cold sore!

Interesting that she denied saying it but also admitted that there was a conversation after a concert. She said that, at the time, she was not aware people died of AIDS yet I'm pretty sure people know by 1983 that people were dying of this disease. So, she basically admitted that she had made some type of reference to AIDS and she was ignorant about it.

I sense that legally she didn't want to admit exactly what she said about AIDS but I do think she said something.

*knew

She said it, we all knew it.

That is messed up. And I really liked her music.

She was pissed because people thought she was a dude.

Didn’t she say it started when, post-concert, an AIDS patient asked her to pray with him, a third person got angry, & Donna snapped to him like, “if you weren’t having so much sex this wouldn’t be happening?”

Like black people don't have a lot of sex.

[quote]I sense that legally she didn't want to admit exactly what she said about AIDS but I do think she said something.

I have no trouble believing that in her born-again fervor of that period, she said something.

The question is whether she ever moderated her beliefs, or just learned to shut up about them.

She was a diva. Getting cancelled came later.

A few weeks back, I think it was International Woman's Day, Debby Boone was a guest DJ on SiriusXM's 70s channel, selecting her favorite female singers of that decade; her second selection was Donna Summer's MacArthur Park, and she spoke about being close friends with Donna and attending church together. I immediately thought of this controversy and realized it was likely true. Oh, well, I still love her music.

The 80’s was so cruel to gays

R23 newsflash, black people are gay too moron.

She crashed with “The Wanderer” but I feel like she’d have sustained with “I’m A Rainbow” because that had some great songs and was shelved.

She said it on the radio.

Like black breeders don't have a lot of sex.

Many people in the early days were frightened by leading scientists who said, with authority, that AIDS could be spread by hugging or kissing, "household contact"

I remember these comments being announced on the Oz TV show Hey! Hey! It's Saturday! back in the 80s. After the host had read them out there was a long, shocked pause, then the voiceover guy said, "Who's gunna do her hair NOW?"

in 95, I saw her perform in Hotlanta. Thousands of gay people. I had no idea how religiously bent she was.

I vividly remember the day Donna gave her press conference, & remember thinking, ok, she probably said some shit, but I’ve always loved her so let’s give her a break. Wasn’t her sister standing next to her during this?

It stands out for me because it happened on my bday, October 1st. I thought it was 1992 but I guess it was 1991. That’s another reason I cut her some slack!

Part of the animus comes from someone perceived to be a gay icon turning fundamentalist. I felt so betrayed when I learned Jane Fonda became born again in the early 2000s (?), I don’t know if she’s really religious/spiritual now, but she joined a church & I think sued when her pastor outed her as a member. Same thing when crazy Nina Hagen went quasi-fundie. You think to yourself: how could you do this to me? I get the same sinking feeling when I learn a pornstar I have the hots for is gay for pay. I guess the moral of the story is, it’s not about me.

Someone on one of the fourteen million anti-trans threads said that a lot of the racists on this thread were the same posters as the anti-transers over there, and they were right. What a mess of a thread.

It's weird that this is what Dataloungers want their forum to be, but go off I guess.

I'm not into destroying people's lives for stupid things they said in the past, which they deny saying, and which they *definitely* don't still think or believe as their lives evolve and progress. I've said and believed many stupid things in the past that I now regret and that I now don't believe. Everyone should be allowed to move on from their failings.

The Advocate (mid 80s) Summer and Smoke by Adam Block

"Donna Summer is not homophobic," a closeted gay executive at her record company insisted recently, sounding terminally exasperated. "She's just a dumb [anatomical expletive deleted]."

Charming, but that wasn't exactly the kind of official response to angry complaints over the lady's public remarks that fervent fans were looking for. They had crowned the pinch-nosed diva the queen of disco back in 1975, when the amyl set owned that music. The lady was gay royalty.

To be fair, Donna Summer never asked to be acclaimed as heroine of the homos, and I don't recall even fanatics looking to her for political leadership or wisdom. Her Moroder/Bellotte hits ("Love To Love You, Baby," "I Feel Love," "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff" were divine let's fuck anthems set to relentless disco rhythms. Of course, gay men were pioneers at treating mindless, marathon fucking as a courageous political activity.

In 1980, after five years as a reigning voice of the disco scene, Summer began to take control of her own career. She sued her manager, left her record company, remarried and became a "born-again" Christian. In 1983, touring behind her comeback smash "She Works Hard For The Money," Summer had graduated from the gay discos to suburban arenas. She was also making small talk between numbers. Gay fans followed her to the burbs, and if the shows struck them as careful and gutless, her remarks astonished and enraged many.

There were reports of Summer reminding the crowd, "It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," a line I thought belonged to Anita Bryant. She reportedly told gays in her audience, "I'll pray for you tonight." And when questioned about gay rights, she is reported to have responded, "I've seen the evil homosexuality come out of you people... AIDS is your sin," finally closing, "Now don't get me wrong; God loves you. But not the way you are now."

Some fans were livid. An angry account appeared in the Village Voice. In England, DJ/producer Ian Levine banned her music from Heaven, the popular disco, and called for a total boycott in the British pop press. Summer and her management stonewalled the issue. The aforementioned gay exec proudly claims that he personally "got her to drop that idiotic 'Adam and Steve' crack."

When outspoken gay/socialist trio Bronski Beat covered Summer's "I Feel Love" on their debut LP, the issue resurfaced. My esteemed colleague John Bryant (Male Review) noted once that once Bronski Beat were told of her remarks, they responded in disgust, "Donna Summer is dead," but continued to perform the song. The notion of gay men making the song their own didn't cut much ice with Bryant, who thundered that Summer's royalties from Bronski's version "go to the right-wing Christian Hate Campaign through Summer's donations and promotion." Bryant was appalled to find that DJs ad L.A.'s popular gay discos Probe and Studio One refused to ban her discs. His requests for an interview with Summer went unanswered.

This spring, Lorne Michaels and the other organizers of an AIDS benefit in New York reportedly contacted David Geffen to see if his record company wanted to provide an act for the show. Summer reportedly volunteered but was rejected by organizers because of her by now infamous remarks. That rejection apparently shook Summer from her complacency.

Though Summer declined a request from THE ADVOCATE to be interviewed on the subject, Warner Brothers sent a statement from the singer to both the Village Voice and to our own pop music desk. This was not a retraction, but an apology.

"It is very difficult for me to believe this terrible misunderstanding continues. Since the very beginning of my career, I have had tremendous support and friendship from many in the gay community. It is a source of great concern to me that anything I may have said has cast me as homophobic. My medium of expression is music, all I can ask for is understanding as I feel my true feelings have been misrepresented. As a Christian, I have nothing but love for everyone and I recognize it is not my place to judge others. I believe with all my heart and soul that AIDS is a tragedy for all humankind. A cure must be found and all of us have to do whatever we can to help."

Summer isn't ready to celebrate homosexuality or even condone it. The irony is that so many gays, celebrating their sexuality to her performances, assumed that she, too, rejoiced in it. Her music is very much the property of the people who scored their life to it. They own it as profoundly as she does. But the don't own her, not her religion, her politics nor her royalty checks.

When fans identify with music they adore, and with the artists who make it, that doesn't insure that the artist sees herself through their eyes, or – if she does – that she likes the image. Somehow I don't think Donna Summer's dream was ever to be a musical standard bearer for butt-fucking, urban nightclubbers. What hurt gay fans was that she didn't seem to have developed any real compassion for them (at least until this belated statement was issued).

Reborn, Summer seemed to have blithely accepted the Christian bigotry of the Christian right towards gays as gospel. If that made Summer's understanding of gays painfully shallow, it also showed how facile gay fans have been in celebrating glamour and the very idea of stardom. The equation is as simple as pop gets: Summer had a glossy package to sell. We were buying.

So what's love got to do with it? Isn't it a bit much to get all huffy about the contents when you were only shelling out for the package? After all, Summer's still singing about love, and you can still dance to it.

Right, and love does have lots to do with it, because that's where the bitterness erupted: from the breach between the sensual sexuality she once celebrated and the Christian exaltation she has replaced it with. In the worst of worlds, the first devolves to simple greedy lust, the second to righteous bigotry; and though curiously similar, they are inevitably at loggerheads. In the best of worlds, the two aren't at odds; both are illuminated by compassion and gratitude. Donna, and her fans, seem to have lost sight of that.

Summer got caught in the middle of a public dialog between gay lib and the new Christian right, between gay fans expectations of the queen of disco and those of her fellow Christians. And she handled it badly. But Donna Summer is no more a homophobe than many other more tactful artists, and no more of a dumb [anatomical expletive deleted] than many of her gay fans. Those are the unpleasant truths that the glare of the disco-ecstasy Summer swept in on conveniently obscured.

Now isn't it about time she put out an album we could care enough about to consider raising the roof – or boycotting?

© The Advocate Copyright 1997-2021

^exactly. Obama was anti-gay marriage & Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law. I love them both & am so glad they evolved!

Summer's letter to ACT UP. It's mostly Bible quotes.

The comments seem to be from an Atlantic City concert in 1983. Music critic Jim Feldman's report of the full quote is a little different than what was published in the Advocate article in 1989.

[quote]He then quotes Summer telling the crowd in 1983, “It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” and as telling gays in her audience, “I'll pray for you tonight . . . I've seen the evil homosexuality come out of you people . . . AIDS is your sin . . . Now don't get me wrong; God loves you. But not the way you are now.”

She was basically, "Love the sinner, hate the sin". She still kept her gay fans at arm's length. She wouldn't come out and say "I support gay marriage" or "I wouldn't be here without my gay following". She would release dance songs to the clubs, and specifically gay clubs, but I wouldn't call her an ally. And I'm a fan, but she never embraced her gay fans like someone like Madonna or Cyndi.

You are either with us or you are against us. You don't get a pass because you are talented.

That's why the cancer got her.

She never said she loved the gays, did she ?

She got that from the air pollutants after the 9/11 attack in NYC.

Because IT NEVER HAPPENED.

You think it was second hand smoke that dun er in?

Her beliefs and her constant reframing of them were gross. Summer had the career she deserved. Over by 1990. She sang the music that millions of gay men got infected to. Bitch. Some people are as willfully dumb as Donna Summer. Then and now. Her religious fanaticism would never once allow her to make any genuine amends. Of course she said it, and worse. The bitch still cashed the cheques. Gay men and some scuzzballs in gold chains WERE her fanbase.

She had a very good voice but no feeling for anything when she sang. She's not one of the great singers by many, many miles. If she was - her career would not have ended with Disco.

Her place in history MUST include her homophobic comments and beliefs. And so it does. Ancient disco gays who survived Donna Summer's soundtrack to the plague should be ashamed to defend her.

To me it’s akin to the Richard Gere “story.” A friend of a friend was there & heard her say this thing…a fraction of what was truly said. Then like the telephone game, it gets repeated & passed on & snowballs into something much bigger & more terrible.

If she did say this at an actual concert, wouldn’t there be more accounts that lined up exactly? Wouldn’t the crowd have erupted into mass chaos?

She reportedly believed that 9/11 was a spiritual attack on Christians and believed her cancer came from the smoke and toxins from that attack. This is what was reported at the time of here death - we never heard that directly from her or from any named person. It was also reported she was never a smoker. I personally knew someone, young, who died of lung cancer without ever having smoked. There are other causes than smoking; environmental toxins, genetic causes and even HPV

^sing it sister

She was part of the soundtrack from my youth. Great vocal quality, sexy and feminine. Even with all that, I guess she didn't deserve the accolades .

Of course people get lung cancer who never smoked. This is hardly news.

Donna Summer was an AIDS victim.

r13 the typical transition from hag to frau...

see it with a lot of celebs especially when their star dims..

they gain popularity in the mainstream they no longer need the gays and the gays move on...

mainstream tires of their drama

and then the homophobia comes out as they've only just realized the gays have gone...

to which they use that as currency for their move into their next group

if they ever regain entry into queersphere or the mainstream

some of them them will recant but most don't and instead pretend it never happened, they were misquoted or edited, or you intepreted it wrong and other gaslighting shit.

^ the typical transition these days is not to religion but feminism especially if they were the type to make fun of humorless and bitter fraus.

there's better examples but Margaret Cho is one. She ditched the feminists to move into intersectional and now it's the asian grievance crowd -- not the people speaking on asian hate crimes or school discrimination, no, but those upset they can't get laid by mascular queens.

Rose McGowan really milked that transition out then ditched them for the rightwing..

Sex joy

Rose McGowan is a fascist now?

How many music critics do you think were at her Atlantic City concert, r52? One was there, he quoted her, it's been posted already.

[quote]Wouldn’t the crowd have erupted into mass chaos?

You're asking if a crowd in 1983 would have erupted into mass chaos if someone said AIDS was gays' fault? They were hearing it every day on the news, pal.

I just read Andy Warhol's Diaries and two socialite women told him straight to his face to stay away from them because they didn't want to get sick. This was 1981 and 1982, I believe.

I’m In control (finger on my pussy)

The FUCKED UP and ANNOYING idiocy of this thread is OP sets up a FALSE HISTORY:

"So wasn't Donna Summer cancelled. Instead the gay community continued to embrace her - why?"

Gays cancelled her. They were angry for YEARS. They brought it all the time.

Why do fucktard low IQ DLers created threads based on trolling falsehoods. And you all reply.

SHE WAS FUCKING CANCELLED FOR YEARS.

Fuck off OP.

I never believe everything I hear - ever!

I love her music and chose not to believe the thread bare rumors of what she may or may not have said about AIDS in the early stages of the evolution of the disease. She did set the record straight. I even watched her do it during a lead in segment on Entertainment Tonight in 1991.

I adore the artistry of Ilse Koch's crafting. I know in my heart Ilse felt bad, in the end, about the excesses of the Nazi regime. B ut she was ignorant herself, and she believed that recycling human skin into beautiful and useful handicrafts was good work and moral work and contributing to her homeland's war effort.

r62 she went feminist on the heels of metoo and really having nowher else to go... she had already burnt some bridge and then set fire to the rest. one part was trying to make herself as the sole or biggest victim of metoo but laid it heavy on how gays used and abused her, built her celebrity up and discarded her like trash when she devoted her life to them because gay men are even worse than str8 men.... didn't get all the attention, so she jumped ship and went to the right -- her excuse after the tranny freakout bookstore incident was the lgbt was out to get her as she moved her way rightward because they were likely willing to pay. Rumours from the other side is there were orgs that invited her to speak but they weren't going to pay her 20k+ to do it. So, she went to the right to grift. . . even came out as republican but when they lost, she then claimed everything was a joke.

article on Rose:

rose 2.. she's said shit before and after to this effect too... but she's always talked some shit about somebody or feuding with someone (by the time, Charm ended, I'd have to assume people stopped returning her calls. Then there was the accident shortly after. . . picked up the madonna english roses act. Brief period of attempts at being posh but bitterness won out)

Sadly the born again BS fucked her up.

As it did Prince, who was likely bi and surrounded by gays and lesbians but did a 180 after he became a Jehovah.

OP you do not work hard fo yo money...

Try harder.

[quote] Her place in history MUST include her homophobic comments and beliefs. And so it does. Ancient disco gays who survived Donna Summer's soundtrack to the plague should be ashamed to defend her.

Donna was SURROUNDED by gays in her personal and professional life until its end. Most of them would vigorously refute your mischaracterizaion of her nature and her beliefs.

R79 you know absolutely nothing about Donna Summer and Prince in regards to their personal faith. As far as I’m concerned you’re the one whose fucked up!

^^whos

Geffen

Donna and Prince were both shameful. F them.

[quote]Gay guys started wasting away in late1981. Surely she was aware of that, surrounded by dancers, makeup artists, hair stylists.

Donna publicly came out as Born Again in January 1980, around the time her television special aired on ABC. She cleaned house shortly afterwards, even leaving her label and firing her manager. I don't think she was surrounded by many gay men for a long time after that.

Donna went through a period in the early-mid 80's of only wanting to work with Christians, in her band, on her records, etc. She made appearances on the 700 club, and joined a popular church in LA that included Debby Boone, Lisa Whelchel and Deniece Williams. ( Lisa mentioned this on her blog years back and said they played matchmaker to her and her ex-husband.) Music wise, she turned down several songs that became hits for other artists, including "What's Love Got to do with it" She turned down "I Had the time of my life" from Dirty Dancing because she thought it was about sex and was too raunchy. She stopped performing "Love to Love You Baby" and "I feel love" for many years. She expressed interest in doing a Josephine Baker movie, but then slammed Baker in an interview calling her a harlot.

These years were discussed extensively on the Donna Summer Tribute Message Board back in the 2000's. It wasn't a good time to be a Donna fan. According to those who attended the tour where these comments took infamously took place, they said they never heard her specifically say the AIDS, punishment comment. But they did hear a lot of preaching and the "Adam and Steve" comment, which they said was more a pathetic attempt at a joke, then straight sermonizing. You can view the "Hot Summer Night" show on Youtube. Apparently the shows that weren't taped were even more religious in tone.

In a fairly recent interview, Giorgio Moroder did say Donna Summer was uncomofortable with gay people.

Who's Holding Donna Now? God...or Satan?! 😈

[quote]I have seen the evils of homosexuality. AIDS is the result of your sins.

Love,

Donna Summer

R81 if it's fairly recent, perhaps you could locate the link for us?

“ ^exactly. Obama was anti-gay marriage & Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law. I love them both & am so glad they evolved!“.

Yep

Even in all of Donna Summer's vague denials, she only confirmed that she was a love the sinner hate the sin kind of bitch. And She LIED.

She made lots of anti gay remarks and did not condone the homosexual lifestyle preference.

Has nothing to do with OBAMA OR CLINTON. Both of whom are open minded people surrounded by gay friends and co workers for their whole lives.

Donna Summer was a BIGOT and a zealous Christian hater. A very stupid woman if you ever watch any of her passive aggressive attempts to defend herself.

Donna is not even one of the top 100 best female singers in recorded history. Give it a rest DISCO f@gs. Donna took your money - but she hated gay men. And she despised homosexuality. Except when as a born again Christian - she was full of LOVE. Once her career was CANCELLED.

She was the Queen of Disco. The Queen of our hearts. A legend. Donna.

This logically has never made sense - if she said it, why was there only one account of her saying it that everyone seemed to take as fact? The biggest pillar of this woman's fanbase was gay men, surely that's who mostly attended her concerts! Why are there no anecdotes from men who were there, or seemingly no angry reaction at her saying it to a crowd of gays, or any other publication/news source talking about those comments? I think this entire a scandal was a hit from David Geffen to end her career after her last album for him wasn't very profitable.

AIDS fundraisers turned Donna down when she sucked up and begged to perform to save her career and walk back her hate. Donna Summer was CANCELLED - back when it was called boycotting. The gays made her career and they took it away from her too. This was once highly effective.

It was not one account, R88. Don't be ridiculous. With every defense of herself she dug the hole deeper. Donna could never convincingly deny her zealotry or the bigotry of her beliefs. She was a fucking weird bitch. And she always sounded the same. Not in the good way.

Bitch couldn't transition to other styles of music, even with such a technically good voice. Sing Last Dance, one last time. Donna was successfully cancelled.

She's transitioned now - Disco is dead.

I don't think it was a hit on her career.

This is article from a gay publication talking about the rumor and the show, even interviewing someone who attended it. I agree with the woman who said that Donna's fervent born-again personality and the gays who saw the Republican party (rightly) as the enemy was simply a toxic mix that was bound to reach a boiling point in that era. And it just happened to explode at that after concert meet and greet.

I thought the Adam and Steve stuff was supposed to have been said at one of her concerts and reported in a magazine in the early 80s but no one was able to corroborate it.

Also when did she ever say anything about Josephine Baker this has never been reported anywhere. Also I knew she stopped performing love to love you baby for a long time but I never heard she quit performing I feel love live.

She left her label and management who were one in the same (Casablanca/the bogarts) because she thought they were ripping her off and she sued them. Plus Geffen offered her a huge contract to sign with him.

I’ve never heard she turned down or was offered what’s love got to do with it. The story was that she turned down “I’ve had the time of my life” because she hated the title of the movie dirty dancing not the songs lyrics.

Another thing I heard was that she turned down a lot of songs because wanted to have writing credits with her own material and limited the number of songs she recorded that she didn’t write.

Her daughters seem pretty liberal and well adjusted.

You sound OLD and CRAZY r91.

Donna hated fags.

R92 are you in there?

Giorgio Moroder gave an interview not long after Donna's death where he said she didn't like gays........

[quote]The elevator opens into Francisca and Giorgio’s apartment on the 21st floor of a Westwood high-rise. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the Santa Monica Mountains sprawl spectacularly in the distance. “At night, when the lights from the houses are all that you can see, the view reminds me of Ortisei,” says Moroder wistfully.

[quote]The Moroders have been living in this rented space for three years, having sold the Ice Castle when the mansion began to feel forbiddingly large. Candy Spelling, the widow of television mogul Aaron, is now a neighbor, although a reported $600 million fortune isn’t enough to make her smile at Francisca in the lobby.

[quote]For two years before she died (in 2012, from lung cancer), Donna Summer lived here, too, a couple of floors down. She and Moroder had grown apart after she’d switched labels. “David Geffen pushed her to make music that wasn’t right for her. It was a big mistake in my opinion,” says Moroder, who produced two slightly commercially disappointing Geffen albums for Summer before Quincy Jones took control on 1982’s Donna Summer.

[quote]Divergent personal beliefs turned that professional fissure into a fault. “Donna became quite religious,” says Moroder, as he strides past a wall of gold and platinum records. “She made me record a dance song about Jesus, dear God. And she really did not like gays — her attitude was sometimes difficult in the ’80s.” (Summer has denied ever making anti-gay statements.) “We were never ‘estranged,’ but for a long time we did not have the relationship we once did.”

[quote]Towards the end of Summer’s life, Moroder says that they would talk and text often after she moved into the building. “I saw her more in those two years than I had in the previous 20. It was lovely.”

R94, thank you, that is the interview I was referring to in my comment. I was surprised the interview didn't receive more attention for his comment on Donna.

Donna turned to Christianity because SHE was broken and needed healing. She believed in it and felt that it could help others who were in pain and suffering. She likely believed homosexuality was inconsistent with "God's plan." I don't think she ever said anything she intended to be hateful, she was thoughtless about the way she expressed herself.

I also think someone vicious with a grudge against her twisted her words into something hateful and breathed life into that rumor.

[quote] Her daughters seem pretty liberal and well adjusted.

One of her daughters is on a show on Magnolia Network, led by the annoying and evangelical Chip and Jojo Gaines, so while I have no personal knowledge of her, I would caution against assuming she is "liberal."

Interesting development - Donna's daughter Brooklyn Sudano is directing a documentary about her mother's life and career. She will co-direct the film with Roger Ross Williams, who won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short and is also an out gay black man.

Brooklyn sudano is putting together a documentary on donnas life. Her autobiography was painfully boring to read and I don’t expect any revelations or anything new to be discussed. The jukebox musical was fun but underwhelming.

Was Bruce as big of a bible beater as Donna was? He’s not religious on social media and his music is secular.

Joe Esposito was tapped to record I’ve had the time of my life with Donna, but once she turned it down he was dropped from the song since the idea was to have a “name” record it. I think bill medley and Jennifer Warnes agreed to record it at the last minute.

Joe and Donna would have done a good job on Time of My Life but I think the right singers recorded it.

Donna was so stupid to turn down I've Had the Time Of My Life. That song was a gigantic hit and would've made her a pile of $$$$.

Donna Summer was a particularly dumb woman. Watch her old interviews - she is so poorly spoken and completely lacking in any larger insight than the mundane topic of her career or new album. Donna was dumb. And a homophobic bigot.

Jennifer Warnes is a more evocative singer than Donnas Summers, so it all worked out for the best.

Joe Cocker would HATE dimestore christian evangelical Donna. Yikes and yuk. If she thought the title "dirty dancing" was too risque, what do you really think she thought of the GAY dick up inside the sodomy hole of another MAN?

Cancel the bitch. Only two old 80 year old WHITE gay men defending her here, anyways.

Donna is DEAD. She was cancelled for 25 years before the Lord punished her by giving her LUNG CANCER!!

We can't have a thread about any female singer on DL without that lunatic 'ancient white fags' twat spewing his lunacy. He's r102 and several other posts on this thread. Muriel needs to ban him. Total nutcase.

r102 may be a little over the top but they make some points. Donna did say and do some dumb things. Demon Music Group had to change their name to Driven by the Music in order to release their box set because it was believed Donna wouldn't want reference to the devil on her albums.

R103 IS one of the 80 year old ancient WHITE disco f@gs that torment us all. With his worn out holes and vague memory of getting laid. So he defends a mediocre homophobic singer in a bad wig? He lives what he knows. On most other subjects he is grossly RACIST.

Poor R103. A sad old man - always chirping along about niche antiquated singers and bitchy fag actresses. SUPERMODELS of the 1970s! Like his life is still a thing? Muriel needs to ban him.

The fact that this poster calling people "fags" and making homophobic and hateful remarks being allowed to post on a GLBT board is appalling. Is there any moderation at all?

I'd like to credit the incredibly perceptive poster above who noted there's a certain breed of female celebrity now who reaches expiry and instead of converting to Christianity, as past generations did, they become identity grifters. That's the new spirituality in modern western society; intersectional feminism, race and gender woo-woo.

Absolutely r107. A born again Christian would be a freak today, it's all about intersectionality etc. Demi Lovato is a good example. She got a ton of press for coming out as nonbinary and she's done a few other stunts to try and bolster her fading popularity, as her music and acting career is basically over.

Nobody needs to cancel Donna Summers any way. She and her music is mostly forgotten.

Someone left her cake out in the rain.

If you love Donna's music and it touches your spirit, it belongs to YOU and not to her. Especially now that she's dead and not getting Spotify royalties. Whatever she did and didn't say, that music and the way it makes you feel, is yours.

Donna received a demo of the song What’s Love Got To Do With It, she returned it to the writer of the song the next day along with a bible.

Is that true? What's offensive about that song? Sounds dubious.

I recall the bitch making similar comments on the Tom Snyder show, early 80's.

I'd like a link to the stuff r75 is talking about, I'd love to hear from people who worked with her. Somewhere, "most" gays who worked with her have talked about their experience, I take it? Can you point me in that direction, r75?

Not really, r106. The most that happens is someone gets grayed out for a couple of hours or something. If you complain to Mediapolis, 80% of the time they'll ignore you, 20% of the time they just delete the whole thread out of spite.

[quote]I also think someone vicious with a grudge against her twisted her words into something hateful and breathed life into that rumor.

Again, the person who reported it was Jim Feldman, music critic in the Village Voice in June 1983. Does anyone have any actual information that he lied about what she said? Or that the review has been misquoted? The paper isn't available in the Google News archives like it's supposed to be.

I can only get a partial view of the page, but there was an article in a 1991 magazine called "BLK" (it didn't last long) where Rex Wockner and Mark Haile report on Donna Summer suing New York Magazine for reporting that she'd made a homophobic comment. They interviewed Jim Feldman who "says he heard Summer make anti - gay comments too, at a summer 1983 concert in Atlantic City, N.J. "

Feldman is then quoted as saying, "I was assigned by the Village Voice ... to review the 'She Works Hard for the Money' album."

That's all I can see in the preview, but it looks like Feldman confirmed what he heard back in 1983. For anyone unfamiliar with Feldman, you should know that he was all about calling out straights for being homophobic. He once called out Josie Cotton for her song "Johnny Are You Queer?" and she responded back with a "fuck you" letter, and he happily published it in full in an article he titled "Josie Are You A Bitch?"

In one of Summer's statements, she doesn't name Feldman, but she said one journalist started the whole thing and is obviously referring to Feldman, then says "The guy who wrote it, I think he was angry at me for accepting God. But his attack wasn't on God; it was on me."

So, I mean, take that how you will, but it doesn't seem like the greatest argument to make. "He just didn't like me because I'm Christian" is a stupid thing to say, in my opinion.

I remember a joint print interview with Summer and Al Green where she defended gays and said her career depended on them.

R119 - when (what year) was that interview?

At least she went out with a good album. CRAYONS was fun and I did get to see her perform before she got sick.

HA HA, I guess she told you all.

Donna who?

Nothing can turn you into an absolute bitch like all that sanctimonious born again crap

Why are your Christians so unlike your Christ?

[quote] Nobody needs to cancel Donna Summers any way. She and her music is mostly forgotten.

Then why do we talk about her incessantly at Datalounge? Her music is very much alive.

Her name is DONNA SUMMER

and not

DONNA SUMMERS

Actually

We will probably never know whether she made those anti-gay comments or not. The point is that it's completely plausible that she COULD have made them given her beliefs at the time. It's also clear from the many posts above that (unlike most current musical divas) Donna was not comfortable around gay people and did nothing to cultivate that fan base. I don't understand why some people here continue to worship her.

She gave a friendly shoutout to her gays on the Live and More album. It’s in the intro to “The Man I Love.”

[quote]Then why do we talk about her incessantly at Datalounge?

The real answer to this question is that we have trolls (or, in my personal opinion, just one troll) who have a list of a few dozen topics that they know will get a response, so they post about them repeatedly.

R129 No diva explicitly courted a gay audience until the late 80s, with Madonna, perhaps. So every single one before her should be disregarded?

"And maybe some of you men, too" is the entirety of the shout-out, r130.

SMH She has learned nothing about AIDS in forty years. Sad and pathetic.

If that disease was "sent" by anyone to kill gay men, then how come so many non-gays still die from it? Including babies who are born with it?

Oh well. Did we ever like her for her brains or her "kindness" or . . . . anything other than her voice and image?

R133, it may not seems like much, but to gaylings in the 70s it was HUGE.

[quote] SMH She has learned nothing about AIDS in forty years.

Well, she has been a wee busy what with being dead for the last several years

she couldn't lipsync worth a damn

Donna should have sewn a panel on the AIDS quilt, for all of her close "gay" friends. Guffaw.

Miss Patti, Aretha, Gladys, Dionne, JHud and Whitney were all god fearing church going women who fear god AND loved their gay fans. Well, Aretha didn't really give a fuck about nobody.

Tammy Faye was born again - and she WAS a gay MAN!

Donna was a dumb cow.

Her 70s catalog is impeccable. Her album tracks were just as good as her singles.

She was known for hating to lip sync and preferred to sing live. Stevie Nicks is the same way.

It couldn’t have gone unnoticed by Donna that Giorgio Moroder soared in the 80”s after their collaboration ended. I think she could’ve been a movie soundtrack queen in the 80s similar to Kenny Loggins.

Giorgio Moroder and Donna grew apart in the 80s because of her born again Christian religious fervor. Moroder had no time for that bullshit and he didn't want to hear Donna proselytize every five minutes. She also didn't want to sing any songs she considered "sinful" and Moroder had just had enough. He went his separate way from Donna and did songs with other artists that turned out to be big hits. Donna was a great talent, but she really lost her damn mind in the 80s with the Jesus stuff.

[quote] It couldn’t have gone unnoticed by Donna that Giorgio Moroder soared in the 80”s after their collaboration ended. I think she could’ve been a movie soundtrack queen in the 80s similar to Kenny Loggins.

David Geffen blew up the Moroder/Summer professional relationship. It has been speculated at DL that Geffen was also behind the anti-gay rumors about Donna. He was pissed at her because she recorded her biggest, most commercial hit of the 80s -- "She Works Hard For The Money" -- for her last Polygram album instead of saving it for a Geffen records release. Geffen never promoted any of her post-1983 albums because of that.

So Donna Summers was destroyed by an AIDS ridden FAG, R142? No wonder she hated the gays.

Donna never should've signed with Geffen. Elton John's tenure with Geffen was also not great.

[quote]So Donna Summers was destroyed by an AIDS ridden FAG, R142? No wonder she hated the gays.

^^you are absolutely vile

R145, that's the "Ancient White Fags" troll, that person is also Janbot.

I can’t remember the year or the publication r120.

R144: in 1980 there was huge hype around Geffen’s new label. He snagged all the biggies: Donna, Elton, John and Yoko. For Donna and Elton it was a slooooow road to successful sales. I wonder if she had other label offers?

R109 says you from inside your glass house.

I'm dead, R143. 😂

That was a hilarious comeback to that old fool who wants it both ways. Donna never hated gays - Gay men sabotaged her career?

[quote] Donna never should've signed with Geffen. Elton John's tenure with Geffen was also not great.

He also was not good for Joni Mitchell - they were once so close he was the "Free Man in Paris" she wrote about, but her Geffen records were mostly 💩.

[quote] For Donna and Elton it was a slooooow road to successful sales. I wonder if she had other label offers?

Donna had almost no hits at Geffen - following a string of gold and platinum singles, including 4 No.1 hits, for Casablanca. At Geffen she only hit the top 10 twice with "The Wanderer" and "Love Is In Control." However, under her contract with Casablanca/Polygram she owed them one more record so she recorded "She Works Hard For The Money" and it was a big hit. Rumour has it this angered David Geffen so much that the label did not promote her next two LPs and she had no additional hits with Geffen Records.

Geffen is an idiot. Shooting himself in the foot like that.

Donna wanted all the gays DEAD. That's why Jesus gave them AIDS.

How did this even go down at the concert? In between songs she was just like "I'm thinking of all the faggots in the audience. It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. This next song is from the upcoming soundtrack to Flashdance. It's called Romeo. 1-2-3!"

r155 the details have always been a little murky. What I've never understood is if the anti-gay stuff was really said in a concert setting, why it wasn't picked up on by news outlets. Donna Summer was a huge star at the time, certainly such inflammatory statements would've been reported in the media? At least I would think so.

If it happened today, where practically everybody is recording the concert on their phones, it would be all over the internet.

Definitely r157. One thing about today's world is that nothing can really be ambiguous anymore. Everybody has a camera everywhere they go and things can be uploaded to Twitter in two seconds.

I believe it was Geffen who started the rumor as a petty little bitch. Helen Reddy also crossed him and none of her early 80s outputs were successful.

I guess she was mad she had to work hard for the money.

Geffen Records was an awful label. He thought all he had to do was spend big on big talent but the team that needed to promote thise artist's work were incompetent. More often than not, when Geffen had a hit, it was a hit in spite of it being on that label and probably would have been a bigger hit on a better run label. While Summer's "Wanderer" album likely wouldn't have been a huge hit anywhere, abd I never felt the love fir the unreleased "I'm a Rainbow" album Geffen refused to release, her album with Quincy Jones should have been bigger. However, its not accurate that after Summer"s huge hit with Mercury abd She Works Hard for the Money in the middle of her Geffen-era, that Geffen stopped promoting her. Her 85 album, which acted as her follow-up to the Mercury's album, was heavily promoted--but in terms of Geffen Records, where good careers went to die until another label couod resuscitate them--it just wasn't enough. They got a high visibility Workd Premiere Video slot NTV promoted in advance for weeks for "There Goes My Baby". The wrong single with which to launch a good mid-80's album, Cats Without Claws. The second single, the high-energy Supernatural Love, should have been the album's first, but again--Geffen. It was after the failure of this album that Geffen essentially gave up on her, leaving All System Go, her 87 album, mostly unpromoted. But Summer, Elton John, Aerosmith all had their least successful eras while signed to Geffen. And Irene Cara lost her career suing Geffen and Al Coury of Network Records (to whom she was signed while Geffen released her album) for underpayment/non-payment of royalties and under-reporting sales. Geffen was a shitty label.

Donna performed a 10+ minute rendition of her song Woman from the She Works Hard for the Money album. The song is essentially about how women should serve their men. So it’s not surprising she had no love but sermons for the gays and no doubt she said something inflammatory.. She was probably pissed the gays followed her out to the suburbs. But she was a typical hypocritical cunt who sneered at gays but would take their money when she was greedy.

I love this single from 1987.

Was Donna Summers born a man? Is that why she hated the gays?

There was a rumour that she was born a man and i think she blamed the gay community for it. She was a typical hypocritical religious nut. In the '70s, she was probably a coke-snorting whore who fucked all over the world as she rose to superstardom and then when shit hit the skids she blamed her lifestyle and then got all judgy and born-again.

Geffen did that low-rent video for "Dinner With Gershwin" the same year Jody Watley stormed the charts and MTV with her debut. The song was good but a little out of step with how things were going in 1987. "All Systems Go" did have some lovely ballads though.

Donna Summer's music was really hit and miss in the 80s. As others have said, signing with Geffen was a mistake. She also needed better management, instead of her idiot husband. A professional, competent management team could've worked wonders. They would certainly have rebutted the anti-gay rumors immediately and not waited years to act. Donna made a lot of bad career decisions in the 80s.

That Gershwin song is NOT good. His estate should have sued. What the fuck is that? She looks and sounds stupid. In tune and on vocal pointe, that's all. The song is terrible.

Donna Summers is not as great a singer as the ancient gays remember. She had a great disco career. A well trained voice mixed with cold dark heart and not much musical intelligence. Without a beat and vast production, she was just a bit better than ordinary. Her voice held up well over the years because she was a clean living woman who didn't perform for 20 years.

Natalie Cole was 10X the singer that Donna Summers was. And Natalie didn't think that AIDS was god's punishment for buying Donna Summers records!

R161, I agree with absolutely everything you posted, except for your comments about Summer's first post-disco album. I loved that album, and admired Summer for trying to go in a different direction . Disco was over, and you didn't exactly see the Bee Gees and KC and the Sunshine Band racking up the hits in the 80s. Her first single, the title track of "The Wanderer" was a hit , getting to #3 on Billboard. Unfortunately, her follow-up "Cold Love" tried to establish Donna as a rock singer, and while I love the tune, most people didn't want to see her that way.

The Quincy Jones album was good, Her hit from it "Love Is In Control" was impossible not to like (and she looked fantastic singing this live), but did anybody else feel like this was a song meant for Michael Jackson?

Donna Summers looked a lot like young Michael Jackson with a bad pyramid perm. She was a MAN.

r168 is the 'ancient white fags' troll, again. With his usual insanity. Muriel needs to do something about that mess.

The Quincy Jones album deserved better, that was a very good album.

Donna and Michael Jackson, lookin' all 1982

With four top ten songs in the Eighties, can we say that Donna fared the best of her contemporaries post-disco?

She definitely fared better r174. Nearly all of them were over when disco was over.

R168 is a God around here. He speaks the truth. Old white RACIST fags like R171, with their diseased memories and worn out holes can't handle much truth about the worthiness of music from the times they were able to get fucked. 50 + years ago.

Donna Summers hated FAGS and blamed their AIDS plague on unholy sodomy. R171 addled brain conflates being face down in a bathhouse taking dick all night with Donna Summers being some great singer? Nope. She just happened to be blaring over the speakers when you could still pull some D I C K. 45 years ago, when you were 32.

Fuck off and change your diaper old man.

Natalie Cole was and is 10X the singer that Donna hoped to be. Nothing Cole couldn't sing. She had the career that Donna Summers wanted.

Barbra Striesand son said Donna Summer was his favorite singer - NOT his mother

Donna performed throughout her career. This "she didn't perform for 20 years" is nonsense. I think one of the reasons Donna got lazy in the studio was that she saw the benefits of touring. Why try to compete with younger singers when she could tour when she wanted? She was a clean-living woman but she also kept her voice in good shape for touring. And she had enough classics to keep people coming back.

r178 don't listen to that troll, he's insane.

Disco songs are not classics. Last Dance is just a good song. What else did she have that remained relevant?

Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole, Aretha, Teena Marie, Janet, Paula Abdul and Madonna ran the world in the 80s and 90s.

Donna was already a PBS special concert fundraising 'event'

Classics, my ass. Donna Summer was a casino performer. Who turned out one failed record after another. Her cover of the Forever and ever and ever Sarah Brightman song - was SO embarrassing. Bitch could belt out but couldn't string a musical phrase together. Donna had a good voice but was a limited vocalist.

That song about Gershwin is one of the worst videos and songs I have ever seen from the 80s. No bueno.

Poor r180.

I Feel Love is considered one of the most influential songs of all time. Both Kylie and Madonna covered it on their tours.

She Works Hard for the Money is still used in commercials.

Last Dance is the last song for many weddings and celebrations.

Love to Love You Baby was used in Beyonce's Naughty Girl.

Who are you r180? Tina Charles?

r180 is also the 'ancient white fags' troll, on one of his sockpuppet accounts. His language is very distinctive. Unfortunately, we can't have a thread about any female singer without him shitting all over it.

Did you last get fucked to Love to Love You Baby, the month it was released R182? We think so.

Why are you so attached to the FAG hating Donna Summers who accused your OLD generation of gay men of being inflicted with AIDS as god's punishment?

Is some disco song worth that?

Shame on you.

Donna did a great song called Love On and On for the Studio 54 movie (the one with Ryan Phillippe) but when she saw a rough cut of the movie she refused to let her song be used (she thought the movie was "sinful" or some such bullshit) which is a shame because this song is as good as her 70s stuff and could've been a bit hit.

Could've been a BIG hit. Sorry.

The best song from 54. It makes a great disco song! Written as an elegiac folk tune, it's also a beautiful biting ballad, a Johnny Cash from the grave song of remorse and even a GOOD Streisand recording!

Donna needed great hooks to her songs because she wasn't a very musical singer and had no feeling to deliver lyrics. Some singers are given good voices but no brains. She could pound home a beat. Until she gave that up. For Jesus. Donna Summers really does suck. She invested nothing but sound to her singing. Had no understanding of lyrics at all. Take away the beat and bitch suddenly didn't know how to sing.

Donna Summer was the lead soprano for the Vienna Light Opera before she was famous. She certainly could sing, and do it beautifully.

Until there's audio or video proof, I will refrain from judgement.

Donna Summer was a very gifted singer. Beautiful voice and she kept it her entire career.

If she had really said that at a concert, there would have been a ton a firsthand reports by gays.

But there aren’t any.

Rumor is Geffin started it because she left his label

I don’t think I’ve Had the Time of My Life or What’s Love Got To Do With It would have been hits with Summer singing them.

Her voice didn’t have the grit for the latter.

She tended to pick songs with idiotic lyrics.

Donna was dumb. Among other weaknesses.

I’ve never heard that she turned down what’s love got to do with it nor the story about pulling her song from 54, because the movie was “sinful” it was a movie about studio 54 I don’t think she was naive enough not to think it wouldn’t be controversial.

Also wasn’t dinner with Gershwin added in at the last minute because Geffen didn’t think the album had any hit songs.

She didn't leave the label r190. As has been said in this thread, she was with Geffen in 1983. She still owed her previous label, Casablanca, another album to finish her contract and I believe it was part of the court settlement. Instead of giving them an album of lesser songs, she gave them She Works Hard for the Money, her biggest hit since... her Casablanca days.

Geffen was probably pissed. I don't believe he started the rumour. But I'm sure he didn't mind that she was getting bad press.

If Donna Summer had had professional, competent management at the time the rumors started (instead of her idiot husband) they would've been in full Crisis Mode and immediately staged press releases and interviews to refute the rumors. They would've alerted Donna at the first sign of trouble and met with her to draft a comprehensive plan of response RIGHT AWAY to get the message across that she didn't say those things. That's the job of a manager. The whole situation could've been taken care of so easily.

This is why good managers are important.

R126 her streaming numbers aren't that good at all compared to say Whitney Houston or, I know I know, Madonna , who has had over 800 million streams this year alone, in less than 5 months, on the big streaming platforms (Spotify, YouTube, Pandora)

[Quote] Also wasn’t dinner with Gershwin added in at the last minute because Geffen didn’t think the album had any hit songs.

Another stupid song

Yeah r196 Donna Summer has been totally forgotten. Okay.

After disco, she was rudder-less, jumping from producer to producer. Sure she had a number of hits but nothing stylistically that says “Donna Summer.”

I was giving a ride to my college senior niece and her three friends—none of them had even heard of Donna Summer. I forced them to listen to her greatest hits during the car ride.

r199 22 year-olds barely even know who Madonna or U2 are, why would they know Donna Summer? This generation isn't like previous generations - they are totally unfamiliar with anything that happened before they were born, with a few rare exceptions like Star Wars.

How much of donnas career downtown Bruce sudano”s fault? I mean he seems innocuous enough. Just a theory but after her experiences with the bogarts perhaps she wanted someone who was family to manage her affairs?

She did patch things up with Joyce bogart and was working or going to work with the Bogarts son on a project.

[quote]They would've alerted Donna at the first sign of trouble and met with her to draft a comprehensive plan of response RIGHT AWAY to get the message across that she didn't say those things. That's the job of a manager. The whole situation could've been taken care of so easily.

But she did say those things.

[quote] It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. I have seen the evils of homosexuality. AIDS is the result of your sins.

Bogart's son produced some of the Crayons songs.

Donna could've had a stellar career in the 80s. She turned down Flashdance, What's Love Got To Do With It, Take My Breath Away, I've Had The Time of My Life. God knows what else. Throw in some Pointer Sisters, Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston and she could've been bigger in the 80s than the 70s. She should've never parted with Giorgio Moroder. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

She would've killed it on Take My Breath Away. That was stupid, stupid, stupid of her to alienate Moroder. He got exasperated with her Christian insanity and they didn't have much of a relationship for many years. They didn't really get close again until just a few years before she died. She missed out on a lot of hit songs in the 80s.

I think it was Rick James, disguised as Donna Summer, who made those comments. After all, he definitely copied her hair did.

Bullshit OP.

The nasty queen who started the rumor admitted he lied before his death.

OP = it's the same when DL thinks Tom Daley or DLB --whose own behavior (and their friendship with BS) are somehow "acceptable". Or how DL loves Buttigieg even though he has never lifted a finger for LGBT. Or how DL drools over CMBYN even though it was clearly a story of statutory rape. Or how DL thought Bohemian Rhapsody was a masterpiece even though it was directed by Bryan Singer and factually inaccurate.

R200 they definitely know who Madonna is, look at her streaming numbers, she's the most streamed female artist to debut pre 1990, Whitney Houston is second

So far in 2022, Madonna has had nearly 800 million streams alone

Madonna is a stream of piss, thanks for playing.

On Spotify, just to put things in perspective, Madonna has 21.6 million monthly listeners followed by Whitney with 20.5 million

Celine Dion is at 12 million, Cher is at 9 million, Tina Turner around 8 million, Donna Summer and Janet Jackson are both a little over 5 million, Streisand is under 4 million, Bette Midler is at 2.2 million

So "irrelevant, has been" (according to twisted DL logic) Madonna has more people that seek her out on Spotify and listen to her music monthly than Tina Turner, Donna and Janet COMBINED

[quote]What I've never understood is if the anti-gay stuff was really said in a concert setting, why it wasn't picked up on by news outlets. Donna Summer was a huge star at the time, certainly such inflammatory statements would've been reported in the media?

Everybody (or maybe just one persistent little shit) keeps saying this, and I keep wondering just WHO the FUCK is posting on DL lately? Because saying some offhanded "Adam and Steve" shit in 1983 in Atlantic City would NOT have made the news. Everyone was saying "Adam and Steve" crap back then. Morton Downey Jr made a career out of it. Andrew Dice Clay made a career out of it. No one really called them on it much, occasionally someone would, but it was usually given the "Donahue" treatment of "is being gay wrong? our panel of five sexuality experts, all over the age of 65, and one gay dude who says AIDS doesn't exist will discuss it today... on Donahue."

I just cannot get over how fucking stupid it is for someone to keep saying, over and over again, that the news would have reported on one snide comment about gays.

[quote]I believe it was Geffen who started the rumor as a petty little bitch.

The proof of the quote originating in a review in Village Voice has already been posted. So what, you think Geffen paid Village Voice to lie about Summer saying a common (for the time) "Adam & Steve" remark?

I'm just astonished at how stupid Dataloungers are these days.

R193, yes, and after Dinner With Gershwin was added, it still didn’t have any hit songs

I thought All Systems Go was strong enough to be a single and I liked Dinner With Gershwin too. That, State of Independence (the original We Are The World) and Unconditional Love just missed cracking the Top 40.

While she may have said Adam and Steve, I highly doubt the rest about AIDS and evil gay

r212 it would've made the local newspapers at least.

Agree R217 or possibly a concert reviewer. Also people recorded these concerts and sold them as bootlegs to other fans and collectors.

[quote]it would've made the local newspapers at least.

Only if they had someone go and review the concert.

The news media wasn't as celebrity driven as it is now. Hard to believe, but there was a time when US and world affairs actually dominated the news cycle and took precedence over Hollywood triviality. The only time hollywood made headline news was when something major happened.

Donna's tasteless comments wouldn't have sufficed a national outrage in that day.

r219 every newspaper had an arts and entertainment section.

I love when she used this breathy sexual falsetto like voice. She rarely used it when she became born again.

Her falsetto is even better here

It's not fair to compare Donna's streaming numbers to Whitney and Madonna's. Donna was never anywhere near as popular as those divas. I'd say her numbers are good for someone who probably didn't sell more than 50 million globally (for perspective, Madonna has sold ~250 million). And whoever said this generation doesn't care about anything before it is incorrect. As I've posted before, Guns N Roses, Metallica, AC/DC, Michael Jackson and ESPECIALLY Queen have massive streaming numbers. Queen is in the top 40 most streamed artists on Spotify. Since Spotify is mostly used by Gen Z and Millennials, it's fair to say those artists are still very popular among the younger generations.

Off-topic question re Spotify and other streaming services: is there a site that calculates all the streaming numbers for songs and ranks them from the original year they were released?

R224, this is the clsoest thing I can find (look at spotify data tools on the left side of the screen)

R224, my bad, I meant right-side of the screen!

[quote] It's not fair to compare Donna's streaming numbers to Whitney and Madonna's. Donna was never anywhere near as popular as those divas.

In her time, she was just as popular. She had EIGHT top 10 pop singles between 1978 and 1980, four of which went to No.1. In that same two year stretch she had three No.1 multi-platinum double-albums. That was unprecedented for any female artist. The only thing that stopped her was the virulent anti-disco backlash.

Memories of a gay guy who knew Donna Summer in the 80s and according to him she wasn't homophobic:

[quote]At some point during the meal, the conversation came around to a subject that seemed painful to Donna, the alleged homophobic comments that she’d made about AIDS being God’s revenge on gay people. Of course, I had heard the rumors which had been repeated so many times they seemed to have acquired an air of legitimacy and, what’s worse, had had a negative impact on Donna’s career, upsetting her core fan base to such an extent that some had turned their back on the woman they had once regarded as “the Queen.”

[quote]Paul practically screamed to me, “Look at this table, David,” with a huge gesture pointing out six gay men, one well-adjusted husband and Donna Summer. “I ask you, is this what the dinner table of a homophobic person would actually look like?” He had a point, but then, I’d never believed the rumors in the first place. “Really, David,” Donna said, her voice quiet and touched with sadness, “I love everyone,” she added defensively, “I would never, ever make a comment like that.” I thought it was odd that she felt compelled to set the record straight to me, a starstruck assistant. “No woman in my position could even function for a day without gay men in her life. I love my gay friends.” “You see,” Paul added, “She never said that about gay men. She loves us.”

[quote] In her time, she was just as popular.

This isn't true though. She obviously had a lot of hit singles but none of her albums were anywhere near as popular as Like a Virgin, True Blue or Whitney Houston. Her best selling album is Bad Girls which went double platinum. I'm guessing at most it sold another 5 or 6 million globally. Nowhere near what Madonan and Whitney were selling.

Madonna changed everything for female artists. No female artist sold as more as Madonna did previously. Donna Summer was as successful as a female artist got in the pre-Madonna era.

She was canceled , you stupid fucker.

Donna Summer did reach the heights that Whitney and Madonna did. From late summer of 1978 until the spring of 1980 Donna was arguably the biggest selling female artist in the world. And she broke records.

She was the first female singer to have the number one album and song simultaneously on the Billboard (in 1978 AND 1979)

She was the first artist to have triple back to back number one double albums (all three of which went multiplatinum)

Over that year and a half she had:

Four number one hits

Seven gold and platinum singles

Her movie theme Last Dance won the Oscar and the Golden Globe.

Excuse me, EIGHT gold and platinum songs in a year and a half, which was unheard of for any female artist at that time.

There was a reason she duetted with Streisand.

She was also the first black female artist to have a video played in heavy rotation on MTV.

The woman had an absolutely phenomenal voice. So refreshing to hear a naturally soulful voice on dance tracks.

Whitney and Donna died three months apart. Donna barely even made the news. She had been a cancelled legacy act for 25 years by then.

Donna was also the first female artist (with Streisand) to have a number 1 song duet with another female.

Streisand wouldn't dare share a stage with a great singer like Whitney or Aretha.

She and Celine never even met when they did "Tell Him." And Celine is a much better singer than Barbra or Donna Summers.

Donna and Barbra were a successful piece of business. But it's a dumb song and Streisand sounds particularly stupid on that song.

Obviously the Donna Summers troll is Janbot. Same style of arguing, mustering of minutia with no thought for the quality or integrity of the music or performer.

Streisand is an asshole, but she did sing some disco dreck, so why not ride on Donna's ass for a BIG hit?

Donna Summers did have a pretty great voice. But she was a Xtian Monster who was and is PERMANENTLY cancelled.

Barbra and Celine recording that duet.

The ancient white fags troll is some type of failed musician/singer with a GIANT chip on his shoulder. Now he's nearly middle-aged, wondering what happened to his life, and takes his misery and bitterness out on everyone.

Madonna is the Queen of Pop.

Donna Summer is the Queen of Disco.

Whitney Houston is THE VOICE.

These women were pioneers. Legends. Show some respect!

The tone and power of Donna Summer's voice was incredible.

Before she was famous, Donna did a cover of Sally Go Round the Roses, which was very good.

Before Love To Love You Baby, Donna had a moderate hit in continental Europe called Lady Of the Night, a song about a hooker that she wrote herself.

Celine and Barbaric NEVER recorded "Tell Him" in the same studio or CITY.

Don't talk to me about someone I know well, fool @ R239. They made a video pretending to sing together later, after the song took off. Barbaric pretended to "mother" lovely Celine - who blew Streisand out of the water vocally.

The song became a bit of a hit and was to be sung LIVE, as a duet, at the Grammy Awards. They were nominated. But Barbra won't take the stage with anyone who sings much better than she can. She never has. Celine is a beautiful girl and a sweet thing. Barbra cancelled the rehearsal and then....

Barabas came down with the "flu." Just hours before the LIVE performance!

Barbaric also went to the bathroom to take a PISS when Celine sang HER lame song from the Mirror Has Two CHINS at the Oscars. Barbra was too "shy" to sing her own song? No. Natalie Cole was supposed to sing it. But she got sick. So, Celine agreed to sing it - the same night she performed her worldwide hit, My Heart Will Go On. Theme from Titanic - Barbra suddenly had to pee. For a half hour.

Her 60 year old fat ass ego hated that a younger and vastly more talented and popular vocalist was singing her song. That she refused to perform.

Streisand and Celine never recorded Tell Him together. Not in the same place and never at the same time. Got it R239? You're dumb. The vaseline coated video they did where Celine plays the dutiful acolyte is like all of Streisand's other "duets." Pretend shit.

JLo's rider stipulates there must be two compliments before every question. Streisand requires STARS to genuflect on film and then record a video PRETENDING they actually sang the song together.

Celine worships Streisand as a singer - but was shielded from what an asshole human being she is. Naturally this collaboration benefitted her career a lot. But Celine was a far bigger star than Barbra. Still is.

[quote]Streisand and Dion were scheduled to perform their duet at the ceremony for the 40th Grammy Awards, at which the song was nominated; this was intended to be the song's first live performance. However, the performance was canceled due to Streisand contracting the flu once again. The ailment prevented Streisand from attending the rehearsal with Dion prior, although Streisand claims that she had originally intended to attend to performance nonetheless. Streisand's spokesperson said that the singer is "extremely disappointed that she won't be able to sing because of her continuing flu and fever.

Donna would not have been cancelled if her bigotry wasn't true.

She was not just cancelled by the fans. Even her denials are full of hate. fcuk her.

Whitney died the night before the Grammys in a bathtub at a hotel where right below her mentor was throwing a star studded party. The day before she was fighting in public with a love rival.

Donna quietly died of lung cancer that only family and a few close friends knew about.

Granted Donna wasn’t the headline making superstar that she was in the 70s, but she also wasn’t the public spectacle and train wreck Whitney Houston was the last decade of her life.

Donna would never have approved of Whitney having the greatest love 💕of all!

For Christ's sake, it's Donna Summer NOT Donna Summers!

Ignore that troll r249. He's a nutcase.

How am I troll exactly?

[quote]It's never been proven that she said this. There has never been a tape to confirm she made these comments.

Because no one in the 70's had a smartphone with video or even a wireless phone for that matter.

[quote]She sued in 1991 and she gave a passionate, teary-eyed press conference denying every saying what she had been accused of saying.

So did Liberace about not being gay, and he won. Apparently he was not gay and she never said that.

Donna Summer was nowhere near Madonna's popularity level at her peak

Madonna's Like a Virgin album became the biggest selling album in history by a female artist, and then Madonna's follow up album True Blue beats her own record and at 26 million worldwide it's still the biggest selling album by a female artist of the 80s decade, I think that ONE album may have even outside Donna 's entire career album sales

Madonna was also the fist solo female artist to do and sell out a bonafide stadium tour with her 1987 tour

YouTube has lots of clips and news reports on the sheer mania that surrounded Madonna back then, department stores like Macy's had Madonna lookalike contests for God sakes, as practically every female teen dresses like her, I don't think Target will be having Billie Ellish lookalike contests these days

When Madonna opened her 1987 tour in Japan the police and ambulance had to be called as people were fainting and passing out trying to get to Madonna

Madonna's initial dominant run from 1984-1992 is still a run that no female artist has ever came close to equaling in terms of popularity, commercial sales, critic praise, influence and impact

By 1988 just 5 years into her career, Madonna was already in the Guinness Book of Records as The World 's Most Successful Female Artist of All Time, just 5 years in her career!

True Blue also entered Guinness for going #1 in 28 countries, which Guinness called unprecedented and for spending 36 consecutive weeks as the #1 selling album on the European album charts, a record it still holds

Of course R253. Fucking nuts to compare Donna Summer to Madonna's popularity and influence. Donna had some dance hits in the 70s. Madonna changed the world.

You chose your stats and phrasing well. Because of course:

5. Adele 21

4. Celine Dion, Falling Into You

3. Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill

2. Shania Twain, Come On Over

1. Whitney Houston's, The Bodyguard OST -

Are the actual top selling albums by any woman of ALL time.

It ain't the 80s anymore.

But Whitney Houston is still #1.

It's well-known that Donna Summer's first album with Geffen records almost bankrupt the label. They had to layoff several executives because her album cost so much money and it was such an epic failure. It was said to be one of the most expensive albums to produce ever. Geffen didn't have as much money to promote other artists after that. I'm sure Elton was furious with Donna.

Quincy Jones did not come cheap, especially since he was coming off of his blockbuster success with Michael Jackson at the time. I remember reading a Rolling Stone review at the time which said that her voice got lost in Quincy's big productions, despite having a bigger voice than Michael's. I think Michael's voice worked better with Quincy because it was higher and cut through all the noise, whereas Donna had a thick mezzo which couldn't cut through all that production.

R254 yes but as a whole, Madonna still sold more albums than Whitney or any woman in history and has he biggest tour at the box office of all time by a female artist which happened in 2008/2009 when she was 50, the $408 million grossing Sticky and Sweet tour, whicg made more money than Whitney's entire touring career COMBINED and sold over 3.5 million tickets

Madonna's 1990 first greatest hits album is also still the biggest selling greatist hits album by a solo artist male or female of all time with over 30 million copies sold

As a hole, Madonna will always come first.

Donna Summers was an awesome singer. Who cares if she hated the aids faggots. That was her choice.

Her surname did not have an 's.' It is "Donna Summer" like the season.

[quote] Quincy Jones did not come cheap, especially since he was coming off of his blockbuster success with Michael Jackson at the time.

Donna Summer's 1982 album was released before Thriller.

Careful R259, you don't want R250 to call you a troll.

The Donna Summer album is great.

R260, Have you heard of Off the Wall? Also, everyone in the industry knew that Thriller was going to be one of the biggest albums of all time even before it was released. Quincy was working on Thriller and Donna's album at the same time. He was the most expensive producer at that time.

Of course I've heard of it. But he didn't have the receipts from Thriller yet. Your statement makes it sound like it was 1984. And the albums he produced between Off The Wall and Thriller didn't come close to matching the success of Off The Wall.

Even if she hated the faggots and their aids, I always loved Donna Summers. Like George Michaels, she will always be a fag hag.

Where did Donna Summer summer? The Cape? She was a Boston gal.

Summer was only temporarily canceled because disco was cancelled.

She overcame that with a full career of big hits even after that/

R267 Has delusional cuntbrain. Summers hated the fags and hated their aids. That got 'er canceled.

^ Correct. ^

I’m listening to Dinner With Gershwin right now. Eyes after that.

Dinner with Gershwin is a stupid song with one of the stupidest videos of all time

^ Correct. ^

Oh lord. Same tired shit here. DLers defend and make excuses for people they like being bigoted assholes. Joan Rivers is a saint according to the cretins of DL.

What’s amazing is that no matter how much money they threw into the Donna Summer album with Quincy is that the best they could do for singles was Love Is In Control and State of Independence. Neither was horrible, but not great either. Where was Rod Temperton when they needed him?

Donna never should've pissed off Giorgio Moroder. If they had continued as a team, they would've made some great music together in the 80s.

Oops …. Rod Temperton did write the first single

Looks like you had your finger on the post button too quickly.

I think State of Independence is brilliant but people wanted bops from Donna. She and Moroder set the template for Laura Branigan and Irene Cara, and Donna would have smashed with ‘80s Moroder-produced pop. She Works Hard for the Money was a hit because it was upbeat and catchy. People wanted that from Donna.

Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger) made it to the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Plus it was an r&b sounding single instead of the standard disco or rock sound from Donna. I love it.

So what?

^^^So what! I love that song, asshole!

Irene Cara was no great singer. Boring as fuck and What a Feeling is a song that D R A G S. You keep waiting for it to take off and get better.

Ditto Laura Branigan.

Ditto Donna Summer in the mid 80s and forever. When does the party start? She should have recorded some real Gershwin, instead of that crap.

Janet Jackson, MJ, Madonna, Paula Abdul and even Miss I'm Your Baby Tonight Houston had the grooves and bops of the 1980s.

R282 go hide your ugly ass in the woods!!

Irene Cara, Laura Branigan and Donna all told r282 to go away when he stalked them.

I was born in 1983. Donna Summer's career was over by then. Thanks for playing R284.

R285 go douche

[quote]She and Moroder set the template for Laura Branigan and Irene Cara, and Donna would have smashed with ‘80s Moroder-produced pop. She Works Hard for the Money was a hit because it was upbeat and catchy. People wanted that from Donna.

Cats Without Claws had some pretty good stuff on it, but they went with an anemic rendition of There Goes My Baby as the lead single. When it didn't even crack the top 20, it killed any interest in the album.

But Supernatural Love and Oh Billy Please had hits written all over them.

Cara and Branigan couldn't handle their cocaine well. Is she having a seizure?

R285 I don’t care if you were born in 1903, 1983, 2013 or are incubating until 2023. You’re still a basic bitch who is limited.

The Supernatural Love video is glorious, but sadly doesn’t seem to be available on YouTube still

Supernatural Love video. Oh so 80s!

I remember the Grammy Awards where Donna was nominated for Best Female Vocalist for "She Works Hard For The Money" and Linda Ronstadt was up for her first collaboration with Nelson Riddle doing standards, which turned into a surprise big hit album. Everyone assumed one of these two divas would win, but who did they give it to....Irene Fucking Cara. I couldn't believe it.

^^R292 did you shit your pants and sit in it until the end of the show?

Gloria, Flashdance, Self Control, Let's Hear It For The Boy, Total Eclipse of the Heart, On My Own, Take My Breath Away, Piano in the Dark, I've Had The Time of My Life and One Moment in Time would've suited her well.

Donna should've done the Flashdance and Fame themes instead of that drip Irene Cara.

I was having a good day and then I read an insulting post from who? R 2 fucking 92, that's who!

Whitney sounds amazing there R282. Thank you! She is the GOAT.

She most always sounded amazing, but I've never seen a video of her singing Dance With Somebody, LIVE, as it was recorded. But Better. Because that what she most always did. She ususually changed it up because her talent and her heart were much greater than just a pretty good record.

Donna Summers never really progressed past her basic dance music. A few poorly conceived and produced later albums. Was she really born a man? Because she looks like Arsenio Hall with AIDS at R291. Maybe this is why Donna hated gays and blamed our elders for AIDS as Gods punsisment? Was s/he infected back in her cocaine fueled disco days before she transitioned?

RIP.

[quote] she looks like Arsenio Hall with AIDS

I cannot stop laughing.

[quote] Oops …. Rod Temperton did write the first single

Temperton didn't give Donna his "A" material.

r297 is the 'ancient white fags' troll, talking to himself @r282. This nutcase's language is identical on all his sockpuppet accounts, and posts are always in the same threads. I don't think the idiot knows how trolldar works.

Donna technically had a better voice, but Irene was the better singer. Irene had emotion and could interpret lyrics. Donna's voice was cold and loud and had little shading or nuance to it.

Donna Summers was wildly popular but had the misfortune of of being seen as a Disco relic. Timing is everything and she came out before the explosion of MTV and music videos.

Irene Cara was a competent singer, but nothing special. Donna Summer was technically a great singer.

[Quote] Was she really born a man? Because she looks like Arsenio Hall with AIDS at [R291].

You have severe mental health issues.

Temperton offered rock with you to Karen carpenter before Michael Jackson and she turned it down.so I don’t think it was a matter of not giving her A material.

I don’t think anyone was that surprised that Irene Cara won the Grammy. What a feeling was one of the biggest songs of the year.

Flashdance was a HUGE thing. Big hit movie, it influenced fashion, it was a big cultural moment at the time.

No one can feel sorry for you anymore R300. We all know who you are and how many devices you post from. People don't feel much for Donna Summers. She could sing disco well.

She was a nostalgia act. Her popularity was over 40 years before she died. I'm sure you can relate.

Donna Summers was consumed with hatred and judgment and a stubborn stupidity for most of her life. I'm sure you can relate, R300.

When "Gloria" first came out, a lot of people assumed it was Donna singing the song.

This is the first time I ever saw Donna Summers. She sounds great and the song is her usual. The season that the great Fantasia won American Idol! I was in college. Paula was loving the nostalgia of Donna. Respect for the elders. ❤

Donna, like Whitney, couldn't fucking dance.

Between the two Negresses, Whitney and Donna Summers, Donna was the better singer. She never lost her voice after a few years due to crack like Whitney.

I read somewhere a couple of years ago that Pet Shop Boys wanted to record an album with Donna, right after the Dusty and Lisa collaborations. Apparently her management refused.

I think she's lipsyncing in R309's clip. It sounds exactly like the Live and More version from 1999.

I wish I could find the original Jim Feldman review of her Atlantic City concert from the Village Voice (June 21 or 22, 1983) but it doesn't seem to be online anywhere. Any DL sleuths want to head to the NYPL and dig it up?

A (closeted) record exec quoted in a July 1985 issue of the Advocate sums up my feelings: "she's just a dumb [anatomical expletive]."

Black women are the most homophobic people on earth so this doesnt surprize me.

r314, That is not true at all. I think black women are actually the most LGB friendly than any other demographic when they do surveys. It wouldn't be a regular day on DL without a vast generalization. Don't let the Boqueshas you encounter be representative of all black women, or try moving out of a major city-- theres still lots of homophobic white people.

She made great slutty coke music 🎶 for 5 years!

I love her album with Quincy Jones, but in retrospect it seems a bit overproduced--way too many computerized instruments

I wonder what the marvelous Negress Donna Summers thought of the duet super fag George Michaels did with Aretha. LOL.

Brenda Russell (Piano in the Dark) wrote Dinner with Gershwin. Here is her version. ❤👍🤩

r318, You have issues.

Brenda's version is lackluster.

. BOf course you can't r298, because you wrote it. Your sockpuppet accounts are very obvious.

Just went through the June 1983 issues of the Village Voice — no mention of Donna nor any bylines for Jim Feldman. If she did in fact make homo-negative comments, maybe it was during her tour for the Wanderer in June 1981–too early for an AIDS reference…

She supposedly made the comments at the June 10th show in Atlantic City. Maybe it was in the first July issue?

Mmm. I dunno R324, maybe, but I think reporting about her alleged comments would have shown up in the June 21st issue (which everyone cites as the issue where Feldman's piece appeared) or, at the latest, June 28. I don't think it would have taken the Voice--or any weekly publication--an entire month to relay this.

I was an extra in one of Donna Summers's videos, just started college at the time. Not much to tell, other than I have a close up photo of her somewhere. Even the extras were pushing and fawning all over her at the time. This was AFTER he well known Anti-gay statements that was common knowledge at the time.

^ They thought she was Arsenio Hall.

R327 Donna Summers looked absolutely nothing like Assenio Hall, stupid fuckcunt. You suck at trolling.

R328, that poster sounds like someone who thinks all black people look alike.

They do all look alike but not in this case.

[quote] I was an extra in one of Donna Summers's videos,

I'm sorry, but her collection of videos are among the worst ever made

When I was a lil baby dyke I'd always dreamt that Donna Summers was my tampon and I loved sticking her in my virginal cunt.

Which video, R326?

[quote]AIDS Was Sent By God To Punish Gays

Only the ones too dumb to use a condom.

Arsenio was prettier than Donna, but the resemblance is remarkable.

R335 You are fucking sick.

She could've as big of a career in the 80s as she had in the 70s if she hadn't signed with Geffen and had better management.

Nope.

[quote][R129] No diva explicitly courted a gay audience until the late 80s, with Madonna, perhaps.

***AHEM***

***AHEM***

***AHEM***

r338 Donna turned down a number of songs that went on to become huge hits for other artists. She could've had a much bigger career in the 80s if she'd had a manager who said to her "what kind of stupid bitch are you? YOU ARE DOING THIS SONG!"

Listening to "Cats Without Claws" now. The sound is very 1984, a few good songs that should've gotten more air play. The liner notes in this reissue talk about Geffen basically ignoring the album and doing little promotion. At this point she was doomed being on Geffen's label.

It's interesting that Donna Summer's career took a nosedive at the same time Madonna became famous.

I just discovered the song "Cold Love" from the Wanderer, I've had it on repeat all day. It's interesting how she and Linda Ronstadt both tried to sound like Pat Benatar in 1980. Donna and Linda could have done a solid duet as they leaned into their inner frau-iness in the '80s.

Last year the album "I'm a Rainbow" was given a remix treatment -- I like the Jean Toniqe mix of "Back where you Belong" and even the remix of the title track isn't bad, gives it a gospel flavor. It's on Apple Music

Grand Illusion from The Wanderer is a masterpiece.

Cold Love is a great song. Should have been bigger. I have never been a big fan of the song The Wanderer. But I think the rest of the album is very strong, even I Believe in Jesus (I can just imagine Giorgio's face when Donna said I want to record this LOL).

R344: Can you imagine an 18 minute extended remix of Grand Illusion? It would melt our brains from aural pleasure.

It has become my favourite track on the album r345. So haunting, so mysterious, so hypnotic. Interesting that they didn't do any extended versions in 1980 of any of the Wanderer songs. They really wanted to distance themselves from the disco sound.

[quote] even I Believe in Jesus (I can just imagine Giorgio's face when Donna said I want to record this LOL).

Moroder said he hated doing it, in the interview linked in this thread.

Grand Illusion is the only song on Wanderer I can get down with

[quote] Grand Illusion from The Wanderer is a masterpiece.

Love, Love, Love "Grand Illusion"!

Donna Summers Sucks. A few great nostalgia disco songs from the 70s or whenever she was popular. Before most of our times. She sang a could ballad too, but with the disco feel.

Donna Summers couldn't really sing popular music at all. She didn't have the chops. To compare her to Ronstadt or Madonna or even Pat Benatar is ludicrous. Donna had big notes and beautiful tone, but couldn't sing a real song for shit. She was always clipping her sound, except for the long high notes where she pulled the mic away from her face and the background singers sang them for her. Donna Summers was called out on this many times in concert. A cheap trick. She was a trained singer but an indoctrinated woman. I think she had Aspergers, for real. She has the classic facial and behavioral features. She didn't seem to get that she was continually offensive and inarticulate. She was a judgemental bitch and a singer incapable of putting any emotion into a song. That's what killed her career. That, and her well documented hate speech against gay men and AIDS patients.

She had the success she deserved. It was considerable. Great producers on those records. Disco records. It's a finite success. She was a big fishface in that small pond, but a footnote amongst great female singers.

Some elder elder elder GAY here loves her SO much!! God Bless You.❤

Summers was descended from extreme slavery. Her cuntiness was well earned.

It was nice that in the last couple years of her life, Donna and Giorgio were able to put their differences behind them and they saw quite a lot of each other.

Her voice really was breathtaking. Her early hits were whisper coo singing, but then she showed her full range and people were shocked at how good she really was.

Summers did whisper coo? I am so fucking sure, cunt.

What is your problem r353?

Donna, indeed, sang whisper coo in her early years. Love to Love You Baby and Try Me I Know We Can Make It were based on the sexy, whisper coo singing of Donna.

Donna could sing

Janet can’t

R354 Whisper coo is reserved on DL only for the horrible non-singing Jackson slut Jabba Jackson. Donna singing sexily in her slutty songs is not fucking whisper cooing.

Its just Janbot tryna act like someone else invented whispering to legitimize it. Janet is very talented but is not a natural singer. DS had a beautiful voice with range.

Whispercoo*

Whisper coo is not an actual word. It is just a DL truism. There is no proper way to spell it, so fuck off.

Has anyone seen the video of Donna joining Barry Manilow on stage to do a duet of Could It Be Magic? She is very heavy, so I assume it was near the end for her, but her voice sounds as great as ever.

Speaking of live performances, she seems to be at her most appealing (physically) when she did "Love Is In Control" . Slim and sexy.

Donna gained a lot of weight in her last years.

No one left the cake out in the rain. They brought them all over to Donna's.

She's been dead for 10 years. Doesn't seem like it's been that long.

She DOES look like Arsenio Hall! And he's a GAY!

Donna made the mistake of NOT publicly supporting gay rights and AIDS causes, after her alleged homophobic statements. She could've held benefit concerts, and donated her money and time. Her lack of involvement fueled the controversy.

As DLers i think we have a little Donna Summer in all of us. That spite and hatefulness, reeeear. Lol

Donna Summer is legendary and fabulous.

For you, R358

Oops, meant R368

Bump

Yes, I remember this back in the day. Her career was in decline, AIDS was on the rise, she went Christian and tried to disassociate herself from her gay disco fan base, and she dissed the gays. She was obviously trying to gain mainstream acceptance in the Reagan era.

Why is the OP deleted? Sad to see DL trying to deny this ever happened.

R372, it’s also black homophobic culture

r373 As someone who was there at the time, all us hip gay guys knew she jumped the shark with "Bad Girls" and we stopped listening to her.

Yeah, she sought acceptance from the black church.

I wonder how religious Donna's daughters are? I'm More curious about Mimi, who had to indure the whole shit show of her mum's fame in the 70s and didn't actually live with Donna until the later part of the 80s.

The link at R90 puts it to rest, really. During an in depth discussion with an angry activist that got heated, she DID say something about a "reckless lifestyle." But she never ever said anything about AIDS being divine retribution. She basically said AIDS was of the devil.

Frankly, her "reckless lifestyle" comment is fair. But I'm positive she regretted saying it, and having the discussion at all.