Obituary: Donna Summer

The woman who would become known as the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer was born in Massachusetts in 1948.



She began her life in the spotlight as a backing singer for 1970s trio Three Dog Night, releasing her first solo album in 1974.



She went on to become one of the defining voices of the era with a string of hits including I Feel Love, Last Dance, Bad Girls and She Works Hard For The Money.



Music critic Garry Mullholland described her voice in her 1977 song I Feel Love as a "skyscraping blend of American gospel and light opera".



"On the radio, I Feel Love's insistent ethereality smothered the orchestral funk of US disco and stood out so completely you found yourself riveted by its awe and its glowing ache. On the dancefloor, the effect was even more profound," he wrote in his book This Is Uncool.



She notched up a stack of awards during her long career, releasing LPs each year until 1984.



She had five Grammys to her name and was also the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one in the US charts.





Donna Summer won many awards including three at the American Music Awards in 1979 The Rolling Stone lists I Feel Love as one of the top 500 singles of all time.



"Its impact on dance music is incalculable. When Brian Eno first listened to this, he told David Bowie, 'I've heard the sound of the future'. Thanks to Giorgio Moroder's throbbing Moog synthesisers and Summer's epic-orgasm vocals, I Feel Love claimed tomorrow in the name of disco."



It all began when she stood up in church one Sunday in Boston and began to sing, reducing her father to tears.



"I discovered right then that God had blessed me. I had a talent. I knew I was going to be great," she told the Washington Post in a 1978 interview, when she was at the height of her fame.



But she wasn't always comfortable with the success, describing returning from a period in Europe to the US as walking "into this commotion".



"I got off the plane and there was all this frenzy. I didn't understand it, I was shocked and I almost had a nervous breakdown."



Her style and her music shaped the dance music that was to follow and influenced David Bowie as well as bands like Duran Duran