LaDonna Adrian Gaines, better known as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter who was born on December 31, 1948. During the disco era of the 1970s, she rose to prominence and became known as the “Queen of Disco,” with her music gaining a global following.
She grew up in the Mission Hill district of Boston. Her father worked as a butcher and her mother as a teacher. Summer made her performance debut at church when she was 10 years old, filling in for a vocalist who was unable to present.
She went to Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Boston, where she was popular and performed in school productions. Summer moved to New York City in 1967, only weeks before graduating, to join the blues rock band, Crow.
After a record company declined to sign the band because it was solely interested in the lead singer, the band opted to disband.
Donna Summer speak German?
Donna does, in fact, speak German. Donna Gaines auditioned in New York for a German theater version of the musical “Hair” in 1967, only weeks before she would have graduated from high school.
Donna Gaines was working in the music industry in Munich by this point, performing backing vocals at a small recording studio and making demo recordings.
