Donna Summer

During a time of changing attitudes and emerging technology, Donna Summer was a pioneer who celebrated life, love, and feminism. During the '70s and '80s, she proved that dance music could be as deep, sexy, propulsive, and life-changing as any other style of music. And when disco crossed over to the pop charts, she was a critical component with a string of hit singles and a role in the 1978 movie Thank God It’s Friday (for which she won an Academy Award for “Last Dance”). “Love to Love You Baby” and “I Feel Love” married synth-based compositions from collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte with her church-bred voice, laying a blueprint for DJs like Fatboy Slim, Calvin Harris, and David Guetta to follow. Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco and a voice for change —proving that women work hard for the money and demand respect; that an 8-minute pillow-talk session could be a hit; and that, sometimes, all we want is to work out our feelings on the dance floor at closing time.