Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (American English: ; UK: ; born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of 12 number-one pop singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo career with the release of her eponymous debut solo album. Between 1972 and 1980, Ross recorded four top ten albums with her most successful studio release being the album Diana. In a fifteen-year span, Ross recorded twelve top ten singles with six – "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Touch Me in the Morning", "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", "Love Hangover", "Upside Down" and "Endless Love" – topping the Billboard Hot 100, making her the female solo act with the most number-one songs in the United States at the time. Ross achieved international success with later songs such as "I'm Coming Out", "Chain Reaction", "If We Hold on Together", and "When You Tell Me That You Love Me".
Ross has also achieved mainstream success and recognition as an actress. Her first role was her Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Billie Holiday in the film Lady Sings the Blues (1972), which made her the first African-American actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for a debut film performance. The film's soundtrack became her only solo album to reach number-one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978), and later appeared in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999).
Ross has sold over 100 million records worldwide as a solo artist, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Between 1964 and 1981, Ross sang on eighteen number one US singles. In 2021, Billboard ranked her the 30th greatest charting artist of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. Her hits as a Supreme and a solo artist combined put Ross among the top-five artists on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart from 1955 to 2018. She has scored a top 75 U.K. hit single for a record 33 consecutive years (1964–1996). In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes, and is one of the rare performers to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is the recipient of a Special Tony Award in 1977, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and 2023 (becoming the first woman to win the award twice, the latter as a member of the Supremes), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
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Early life
Diana Ernestine Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the second of six children born to Ernestine (née Moten; January 27, 1916 – October 9, 1984) and Fred Ross Sr. (July 4, 1920 – November 21, 2007). Her mother named her Diane, but the birth certificate was mistakenly filled out with the name Diana. Her family and Detroit friends have continued to call her Diane. At the time she was born the family lived in Black Bottom. Ross grew up with two sisters (Barbara and Rita) and three brothers: Arthur; Fred Jr.; and Wilbert, also known as Chico. Ross was raised Baptist.
Ross and her family resided at 635 Belmont St., in the North End section of Detroit, near Highland Park, Michigan, where her neighbor was Smokey Robinson. When Ross was seven, her mother contracted tuberculosis, causing her to become seriously ill. Ross's parents sent their children to live with Ernestine's parents, the Reverend (pastor of Bessemer Baptist Church) and Mrs. William Moten in Bessemer, Alabama. After her mother recovered, she and her siblings returned to Detroit.
On her 14th birthday, in 1958, her family relocated to the working-class Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects, settling at St. Antoine Street. Ross attended Cass Technical High School, a four-year college and preparatory magnet school, in downtown Detroit, and, aspiring to become a fashion designer, she took classes in clothing design, millinery, pattern making, and tailoring. In the evenings and on weekends she also took modeling and cosmetology classes and participated in several of the school's extracurricular activities, including its swim team. In 1960, Hudson's downtown Detroit store hired Ross as its first African-American bus girl. For extra income, she also provided hairdressing services to her neighbors. Ross graduated from Cass Tech in January 1962.
Career
1959–1970: The Supremes
At fifteen, Ross joined the Primettes, the sister group to a male vocal group called the Primes, after she had been brought to the attention of music manager Milton Jenkins by Primes member Paul Williams. Among the other members of the Primettes were Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Betty McGlown, Williams's girlfriend. After the Primettes won a talent competition in 1960 in Windsor, Ontario, A&R executive and songwriter, Robert Bateman invited them to audition for Tamla Records.
Prior to the Bateman offer, Ross had approached her former neighbor Smokey Robinson about setting up the audition. In turn, Robinson agreed as long as they allowed him and his group, the Miracles, to hire the Primettes' guitarist, Marv Tarplin, whom Ross had discovered, for an upcoming tour. Tarplin ended up playing in Robinson's band(s) for the next 30-plus years. In her autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow, Ross wrote that she felt that this had been "a fair trade".
According to Berry Gordy in his autobiography, To Be Loved, he recalled that he had been heading to a business meeting when he happened to hear Ross singing "There Goes My Baby", and that Ross's voice "stopped me in my tracks". He approached the group and asked them to perform it again, but, after learning how young they were, Gordy advised them to finish high school before trying to get signed by Motown.
With help from Richard Morris, the group recorded two tracks for Lu Pine Records, with Ross singing lead on one of them. During this time, the group began coming to Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters every day, offering to provide extra help for Motown's recordings, often including hand claps and background vocals. During the group's early years, Ross served as its hairstylist, make-up artist, seamstress, and costume designer.
In late 1960, having replaced McGlown with Barbara Martin, the Primettes were allowed to record their own songs at Hitsville, including the doo-wop ballads "After All", "I Want a Guy" and "Who's Loving You". In January 1961, Gordy agreed to sign the group on the condition they change their name. Songwriter and Motown secretary Janie Bradford approached Florence Ballard, the only group member at the studio at the time, to pick out a new name for the group. Ballard chose "Supremes", reportedly, because it was the only name on the list that did not end with "ette". Upon hearing the new name, the other members were not impressed, with Ross telling Ballard she feared the group would be mistaken for a male vocal group (a male vocal group was, indeed, named the Supremes). Gordy signed the group under their new name on the Motown imprint on January 15, 1961.
1970–1980: Solo career and films
In May 1970, Ross released her eponymous debut solo album. While her debut solo single, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", was a moderate top 20 hit, her second single, a striking new arrangement of Ashford & Simpson's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" became her first number-one solo single on the Billboard Hot 100 and was her first song to receive a Grammy nomination. Despite the debut's success, Ross only experienced moderate US chart success with her two subsequent studio albums, Everything Is Everything and Surrender.
Ross's chart success was much more impressive in the UK where she scored her first number one solo hit there with the soul ballad "I'm Still Waiting". In the first two years of her solo career, Ross recorded five top 20 UK singles and four top ten singles out of six releases. Later in 1971, Ross starred in her first solo television special, Diana!, which included the Jackson 5.
In 1972, Ross made her first film venture with Lady Sings the Blues, a loosely based biography on singer Billie Holiday. Following its opening that October, Ross won critical acclaim for her performance in the film. Jazz critic Leonard Feather, a friend of Holiday's, praised Ross for "expertly capturing the essence of Lady Day". Ross's role in the film won her Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. The soundtrack to Lady Sings the Blues became just as successful, reaching number one on the Billboard 200, staying there for two weeks, and selling two million units. In November 1972, Ross sung the song "When We Grow Up" for the children's album, Free to Be... You and Me.
In 1973, three years after her first US chart-topper, Ross returned to the top of the US pop charts with the Michael Masser-produced ballad "Touch Me in the Morning". Its subsequent parent album of the same name became her first top ten album on the Billboard 200. Later in the year, a highly anticipated duet album with label mate Marvin Gaye, Diana & Marvin, found international success.
During her first solo world tour that year, Ross became the first entertainer in Japan's history to receive an invitation to the Imperial Palace for a private audience with the Empress Nagako, wife of Emperor Hirohito. In April 1974, Ross became the first African-American woman to co-host the Academy Awards, with John Huston, Burt Reynolds, and David Niven.
1981–1987: Leaving Motown and RCA years
Ross began negotiations to leave Motown at the end of 1980. After over 20 years with the label, Ross received only US$250,000 as severance. RCA Records offered Ross a $20 million, seven-year recording contract, which gave her complete production control of her albums. Before signing onto the label, Ross allegedly asked Berry Gordy if he could match RCA's offer. Gordy stated that doing so was "impossible". Ross signed with RCA on May 18, 1981. At the time, the contract was music history's most expensive recording deal.
In October 1981, Ross released her first RCA album, Why Do Fools Fall in Love. The album sold over a million copies and featured hit singles such as her remake of the classic hit of the same name and "Mirror Mirror". Shortly thereafter, Ross established her production company, named Anaid Productions ("Diana" spelled backwards), and also began investing in real estate and touring extensively in the United States and abroad.
Before the release of Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Ross hosted her first TV special in four years, Diana. Directed by Steve Binder, the concert portions of the special were filmed at Inglewood, California's 17,500-seat The Forum indoor stadium and featured performances by Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Dallas actor Larry Hagman, music impresario Quincy Jones and members of the Joffrey Ballet. In early 1982, Ross sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XVI and appeared on the musical variety show Soul Train. The episode, devoted completely to her, featured Ross performing several songs from Why Do Fools Fall in Love.
On May 6, 1982, Ross was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She followed up the success of Why Do Fools Fall in Love with Silk Electric, which featured the Michael Jackson-written and -produced "Muscles", resulting in another Top 10 Grammy nominated success for Ross. The album eventually went gold on the strength of that song. In 1983, Ross ventured further out of her earlier soul-based sound for a more pop rock-oriented sound following the release of the Ross album. Though the album featured the Top 40 hit single, "Pieces of Ice", the Ross album did not generate any more hits or achieve gold status.
On July 21, 1983, Ross performed a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, aired live worldwide by Showtime. Proceeds of the concert would be donated to build a playground in the singer's name. Midway through the beginning of the show, a torrential downpour began. Ross tried to continue performing, but the severe weather forced the show to be stopped after 45 minutes. Ross urged the large crowd to exit the venue safely, promising to perform the next day.
1988–1999: Return to Motown
In 1988, Ross chose to not renew her RCA contract and had been in talks with her former mentor Berry Gordy to return to Motown. When she learned of Gordy's plans to sell Motown, Ross tried advising him against the decision, though he ended up selling it to MCA Records in June of that year. Following the sale of the company, Ross was asked to return to the Motown label with the condition that she have shares in the company as a part-owner; Ross accepted the offer.
That same year, Ross was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes alongside her former singing partners Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard. She also recorded the theme song to animated adventure drama film The Land Before Time (1988). "If We Hold on Together" became an international hit, reaching number one in Japan.
Ross's next album, 1989's Workin' Overtime, was not a commercial success, despite the title track reaching the top three of the Billboard's Hot Black Singles chart. The album peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard Hot R&B Albums chart, and achieved top 25 chart placings in Japan and the UK. Subsequent releases, The Force Behind the Power (1991), Take Me Higher (1995), and Every Day Is a New Day (1999) all failed to achieve major success in America, selling around 100,000 copies each.
In 1991, Ross became one of the few American artists to have headlined the annual Royal Variety Performance, performing a selection of her UK hits before Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. This marked her second appearance at the Royal Variety Performance, the first being in 1968 with the Supremes.
The Force Behind the Power sparked a comeback when the album went platinum in the UK. led by the No. 2 UK hit single "When You Tell Me That You Love Me". The album produced 9 singles across international territories, including another Top 10 UK hit "One Shining Moment". In 1993, Ross returned to acting with a dramatic role in the television film, Out of Darkness. Ross won acclaim for her role in the TV movie and earned her third Golden Globe nomination.
In 1994, One Woman: The Ultimate Collection, a career retrospective compilation, became a number one hit in the UK, selling quadruple platinum. The retrospective was EMI's alternative to Motown's box set Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs. Ross performed during the opening ceremony of the 1994 FIFA World Cup held in Chicago, and during the pre-match entertainment of the 1995 Rugby League World Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
2000–2003: Supremes reunion
Ross reunited with Mary Wilson first in 1976 to attend the funeral service of Florence Ballard, who had died in February of that year. In March 1983, Ross agreed to reunite with Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. The Supremes did not rehearse their performance for that evening, due to time constraints. A scheduled medley of hits was cancelled.
Instead of following producer Suzanne de Passe's instructions to recreate their choreography from their final Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Wilson (according to her autobiography) planned with Birdsong to take a step forward every time Ross did the same, then began to sing lead on the group's final number-one hit song, "Someday We'll Be Together", on which Wilson did not perform.
Later, Wilson introduced Berry Gordy from the stage (unaware that the program's script called for Ross to introduce Gordy), at which point Ross subtly pushed down Wilson's hand-held microphone, stating, "It's been taken care of." Ross then re-introduced Gordy. These moments were excised from the final edit of the taped special, but still made their way into the news media; People magazine reported that "Ross [did] some elbowing to get Wilson out of the spotlight."
In 1999, Ross and mega-tour promoter SFX Entertainment (which later became Live Nation) began negotiations regarding a Diana Ross tour which would include a Supremes segment. During negotiations with Ross, the promoters considered the creation of a Supremes tour, instead. Ross agreed. As the tour's co-producer, Ross invited all living former Supremes to participate. Neither Jean Terrell nor late 1970s member Susaye Greene chose to participate. 70s Supremes Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were then touring as Former Ladies of the Supremes.
Ross contacted Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, who then began negotiations with SFX. Negotiations with Wilson and Birdsong (who allowed Wilson to negotiate on her behalf) failed when Wilson refused SFX's and Ross's offer of $4 million for 30 performances. Following the passage of SFX's final deadline for Wilson to accept their offer, Payne and Laurence, already negotiating with SFX, signed on to perform with Ross on the tour.
Laurence and Payne would later say that they got along well with Ross. The newly formed group performed together on Today and The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as VH1's VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross. The Return to Love Tour launched in June 2000, to a capacity audience in Philadelphia. The tour's final performance was at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The tour was cancelled by SFX shortly thereafter, due to mediocre ticket sales, despite glowing reviews from media as varied as Billboard magazine, the Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Times and The Village Voice newspapers.
2004–2019: I Love You and subsequent projects
In December 2004, Ross returned to television for the first time since 2002 when she performed for former Motown label mate Stevie Wonder during his Billboard Music Awards Century Award tribute.
Ross participated at the Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope TV concert to help raise money for the tsunami victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake the following January.
Ross launched her M.A.C. Icon makeup collection, as part of the beauty corporation's Icon Series that same month. Ross was honored that year by Oprah Winfrey as one of 25 black American women in art, entertainment and civil rights to be honored at her "Legends Ball", which later aired in May 2006 on ABC.
Ross returned to the record charts that year after recording duets with Rod Stewart and Westlife. With the former, she recorded the Gershwin standard, "I've Got a Crush on You", which reached number 19 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Songs chart, her first Billboard chart entry since 2000. With the latter, she re-recorded her 1991 hit, "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", which re-peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number one in Ireland. It remains her latest hit in both countries.
In March 2006, Ross received the TV Land Awards' Viewer's Choice for Television's Greatest Music Moment for her For One & For All 1983 Central Park concerts.
In June 2006, Universal released Ross's shelved 1972 Blue album. It peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart. That year, having signed with EMI/Manhattan Records, Ross released the album, I Love You, her first studio album since Every Day Is A New Day seven years earlier, where it reached number 32 on the Billboard 200 and number 16 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Ross promoted the album with a world tour throughout that year.
In June 2007, Ross received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards. Later that December, she received the Kennedy Center Honors medal. In August 2008, Ross performed at the opening of the US Open tennis tournament, as part of a tribute to Billie Jean King. Later in October that year, she headlined the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. Ross was the featured performer at the annual Symphonica in Rosso concert series, held at the GelreDome Stadium in Arnhem, Netherlands in October 2009.
2020–present: Thank You and Glastonbury
In May 2020, Ross released Supertonic: Mixes, a collection of nine of her greatest hits remixed by Eric Kupper and featuring her four consecutive number one hits on Billboard Dance Club Songs chart: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough 2017", "I'm Coming Out/Upside Down 2018", "The Boss 2019", and "Love Hangover 2020". In July, "Supertonic: Mixes" was also released on CD and crystal-clear vinyl LP.
Ross released her twenty-fifth studio album Thank You in November 2021. It was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and contains her first original material since 1999's Every Day Is a New Day. The album returned Ross to the UK albums chart where it debuted and peaked at number seven, producing her best chart performance there since Take Me Higher peaked at number ten in 1995.
In May 2022, she released the single "Turn Up the Sunshine", a collaboration with psychedelic pop band Tame Impala. The track is the lead single from the Jack Antonoff-produced original soundtrack album of the film Minions: The Rise of Gru. With the exception of this track, the album primarily features new spins on classic 1970s hits by artists such as Brittany Howard, St. Vincent, H.E.R., and many others.
On June 4, 2022, Ross appeared as the finale act at the Platinum Party at the Palace in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. On June 10, Ross kicked off the UK leg of her Thank You Tour at Cardiff Castle. On June 26, Ross appeared live on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival.
Thank You received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, her first competitive Grammy nomination since "Muscles" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1983.
In 2023, Ross returned to London's Royal Albert Hall for performances on October 14 and 15, and again in April 2024. Ross was among the musicians to participate in an Eminem-produced concert celebrating the grand reopening of the Michigan Central Station on June 6. The event was streamed live on Peacock. Additionally, a one-hour primetime re-broadcast was shown on NBC on June 9 at 7:00 p.m.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Ross has been married twice and has five children. Ross became romantically involved with Motown CEO Berry Gordy in 1965. The relationship lasted several years, resulting in the birth of Ross's eldest child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein, in August 1971. Two months into her pregnancy with Rhonda, in January 1971, Ross married music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, who raised Rhonda as his own daughter, despite knowing her true paternity. Ross told Rhonda that Gordy was her biological father when Rhonda was 13 years old. Beforehand, Rhonda referred to Gordy as "Uncle B.B."
Ross has two daughters with Silberstein, one of whom is Tracee Joy Silberstein (Tracee Ellis Ross), born in 1972. Ross and Silberstein divorced in 1977. In 2023, Smokey Robinson said in an interview that he and Ross had an affair lasting approximately one year while Robinson was married to his first wife, Claudette. According to Robinson, Ross ended the affair as Robinson admitted to still being in love with Claudette, a friend of Ross's. When asked about Robinson's story, Ross's representative had no comment.
Ross dated Gene Simmons, bassist and co-lead singer for the band Kiss, from 1980 to 1983.
Ross met her second husband, Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Næss Jr., in 1985, and married him the following year. She became stepmother to his three elder children, including folk singer Leona Naess. They have two sons together, including Evan Olav (born 1988). Ross and Næss divorced in 2000, after press reports revealed that Næss had fathered a child with another woman in Norway. Ross considers Næss the love of her life. Næss fell to his death in a South African mountain climbing accident in 2004. Ross remains close with her three ex-stepchildren.
Ross has seven grandchildren.
Religious views
Ross was raised in the Baptist church. According to her 1993 autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow, her initial performances were in the Bessemer Baptist Church of Bessemer, Alabama, led by her maternal grandfather, Pastor William Moten, who (with his wife) raised her and her siblings there during their mother's bouts with tuberculosis.
2002 arrest
Ross was arrested for DUI on December 30, 2002, in Tucson, Arizona, while undergoing substance abuse treatment at a local rehabilitation facility. She later served a two-day sentence near her Connecticut estate.
Legacy
Ross has influenced many artists including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Madonna, Jade Thirlwall, Questlove, Olivia Dean, Melanie Chisholm, Ledisi Lisa Stansfield
and the Ting Tings. Several of Ross's songs have also been covered and sampled. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" has been featured in the film Chicken Little. The song has also been covered live and on albums by Jennifer Lopez and Amy Winehouse. Janet Jackson sampled "Love Hangover" on her 1997 song "My Need" (featured on the album The Velvet Rope), having already sampled "Love Child" and "Someday We'll Be Together" by Ross & the Supremes on her 1993 tracks "You Want This" and "If" (both released as singles from the Janet album). "Love Hangover" was also sampled in Monica's 1998 hit single "The First Night" as well as being sampled by Will Smith, Master P (who also sampled "Missing You"), Heavy D and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, "It's Your Move" was sampled in 2011 by Vektroid for her song "Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing", which appeared in her ninth album Floral Shoppe under her alias Macintosh Plus. "It's My House" was sampled by Lady Gaga for her song "Replay" which appeared on the 2020 album Chromatica. According to the sampling music database site, WhoSampled, Ross has seen her music sampled over 797 times and covered over 422 times; sans her music in the latter half of her Supremes tenure, Ross's solo work has been sampled 720 times and covered over 351 times.
Various works have been inspired by Ross's career and life. The character of Deena Jones in both the play and film versions of Dreamgirls was inspired by Ross. Motown: The Musical is a Broadway musical that launched on April 14, 2013. It is the story of Berry Gordy's creation of Motown Records and his romance with Diana Ross. She was portrayed by Valisia LeKae in 2013 and Lucy St. Louis in 2016. Ross was also portrayed by Candice Marie Woods (from 2017 to 2019) and Deri'Andra Tucker (2021) in the stage play Ain't Too Proud. There have been many other portrayals of Ross in films, television and other media including Holly Robinson Peete in The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992), Bianca Lawson in The Temptations TV mini-series (1998) and Michelle Williams in American Soul (2019).
As a member of the Supremes, her songs "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "You Can't Hurry Love" are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, and entered into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the group at number 96 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
Awards and nominations
Between 1971 and 2022, Ross was nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards but never won one, becoming one of the biggest artists to never win a competitive Grammy.
In addition, Ross earned two additional nominations as member of the Supremes in 1965 and 1966. Her 1981 duet with Lionel Richie, "Endless Love", was her only Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.
In 2012, Ross finally received her first Grammy for lifetime achievement. Eleven years later, in 2023, Ross became the first woman to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as both a solo artist and as member of a group after she and fellow Supremes co-founders, the late Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ross is also the recipient of seven American Music Awards from 1974 until 1983. In 2017, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization and gave her first AMA performance since 1986.
While attending the Rock Music Awards in 1976, Ross received the special honor for "Female Entertainer of the Century", becoming her first lifetime honor at the age of 32. In 1982, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Twelve years later, in 1994, Ross's former group the Supremes also received a star in the same walk of Fame.
In 1988, Ross was inducted alongside fellow Supremes founding members Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1993, the Guinness World Records cited Ross as the most successful female charting artist in the UK.
In December 2007, Ross received a medal from the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.
On November 16, 2016, Ross was announced as one of the 21 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Stage
An Evening with Diana Ross (1976)
Tours
Headlining
The Music Legacy Tour (2023)
Beautiful Love Performances: Legacy 2024 (2024)
Diana Ross: A Symphonic Celebration (2025)
Diana in Motion (2026)
Co-headlining tours
Superconcert of the Century (with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) (1996-97; 1999)
Return to Love Tour (with former members of the Supremes) (2000)
Residency shows
