The Queen of Disco Donna Summer Dies at 63

Disco diva Donna Summer has succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 63. Although the five-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter got her start in a psychedelic rock band in the ’60s, it was the disco heydays of the ’70s where she hit her stride. In 1975, Love To Love You Baby hit No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and Summer became a regular on discotheque play lists. It was her 1978 hit, Last Dance from the film Thank God It’s Friday, in which Summer starred, that garnered her first Grammy Award and an Academy Award for its writer. Iconic nightclub hits like Hot Stuff and Bad Girls followed, cementing Summer’s star status. 

Summer’s popularity continued into the ’80s, and greatest hits compilations, a Christmas album and Billboard Dance Chart hits followed in the subsequent decades. In 2004, she was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. Over the last decade, Summer appeared and sang in musical specials including America’s Got Talent, was a guest judge on Bravo’s Platinum Hit and even performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in honour of U.S. President Barack Obama. The disco era may have been short-lived, but Summer’s appeal seemed timeless. No doubt hits like her empowering anthem She Works Hard for the Money will endure on airways and in nightclubs.