She’s been sampled by Lizzo, Ne-Yo, Sza, and Beyoncé — and by rappers like Nas, Dr. Dre, Digital Underground, and The Game. It’s no wonder because Donna Summer was not just the “Queen of Disco.” She was a pop icon, the first Black woman with a music video played on MTV, and a five-time Grammy winner who scored 32 single hits on Billboard’s Hot 100.
And if you need an extra reason to cue up a playlist of classics like “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,” and “She Works Hard for the Money,” get the party started because December 31 marks what would have been Summer’s 75th birthday.
From her beauty to her voice, Summer seemed magical. I didn’t have the words for it then, but now I know what it was: she radiated stardom.
“Donna was what I would call a soul sister,” Nile Rodgers wrote in 2012 after Summers’ passing. “She was sophisticated, she had great taste, she was beautiful, she was cool, and she could sing her ass off. She had this thing … a swagger, that’s what it was.”
Indeed, in a 1978 appearance on “The Tonight Show,” her first time on the show after three years of smash records both in the United States and Europe, host Johnny Carson asked Summer if she ever imagined she’d become so famous.
“I always knew that I would be successful,” she replied. “It was never a question of whether or not I would be successful. It was just a matter of time.”
LaDonna Adrian Gaines sang Mahalia Jackson’s “I Found the Answer” in church at age 8 and never looked back. As writer and entertainment journalist Danyel Smith said so well in 2022 in a Donna Summer-centered episode of her “Black Girl Songbook” podcast, “All of Donna’s music is gospel-based rhythm and blues with Broadway bombast and soaring bravery.”
One of the points Smith makes is that the backlash against disco was a backlash against Blackness, particularly the voices of Black women. Because that’s predominantly what disco was: Black music sung by women like Donna Summer.
“So there was resentment, a lot of resentment about this phenomenon,” Smith said. And it came from the white rock music establishment and its white supporters.
The “Disco Sucks” movement no doubt hurt Summers deeply. Over the years, she struggled with mental health — racism, sexism, fame, abusive relationships, and people not recognizing her for the multi-talented artist she was all took a toll.
“I can sing songs like ‘Love to Love You, Baby,’ but I can also sing ballads, light opera, things from musical comedies, church hymns — all kinds of things. Plus I can write, act and think,” Summers told Ebony in 1977.
Her brilliance can be seen in how heavily she’s sampled by today’s artists.
Summer’s actually been sampled by Beyoncé twice: 2004’s “Naughty Girl” reimagines “Love to Love You,” and 2022’s “Summer Renaissance” is a sonic reincarnation of “I Feel Love.” Summer and her longtime collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Peter Bellotte are credited as writers on the track.
Bellotte told The Guardian in April that Summers is still “the best voice I’ve ever recorded. She’d sing with this incredible, intuitive feel. She would own a song immediately. Everything was always one take — she never struggled.”
While doing promotion earlier this year for “Love to Love You, Donna Summer,” her sister Brooklyn Sudano’s must-see documentary about their mom, Summer’s daughter Amanda Sudano told Access Hollywood that Bey’s performances have become a way for her kids to connect with their grandma.
“I’m like all for it. I love honestly,” Amanda said. Introducing Donna Summer to a new generation through Beyoncé? Yes, please.
And so Donna Summers’ legacy lives on through the artists she inspired and the joy she continues to bring to dance floors — with or without a disco ball — around the world.
But like so many of our Black geniuses, Donna Summer was gone too soon, and still hasn’t gotten all the flowers she deserves.
“Donna felt to me like a comet in the universe that came around and burned brightly and was reliable every time,” Nile Rodgers wrote. “I hope history winds up seeing Donna in the proper light, because she was the real deal: a mega musician.”