Music Matters
Diana Ross is a Beatles-sized legend: Time to give this diva her due
To understand the the enormity of having a true diva like Diana Ross playing the Verizon Wireless Theater on Tuesday night is to first understand some simple mathematics: Two is better than one.
As in two Hall of Fame careers worthy of immortality in the history of Motown, R&B, disco and pop — as Ms. Ross has enjoyed, first with The Supremes and the as a solo artist — is at least one more than most anybody else could ever aspire.
Beginning as the leader of The Supremes in the 1960s, Ross changed pop music, not only leading the way in making this youthful movement a multi-cultural art form, but a multi-gender one as well. At the height of The Supremes power in the mid-1960s, Ross and her harmonic peers owned the charts and radio scoring No. 1 hits and selling albums with a frequency and volume enjoyed only by their white, male, British mop-topped peers, The Beatles.
"Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Stop! In The Name of Love," "You Keep Me Hanging On," "Love Child." All of these are former top-charting songs and form the spine of a very large discography that makes the The Supremes the still-reigning most successful female vocal group of all time. Their 33 Top-40 singles has meant sales of over 100 million records (and still counting).
And that only accounts for Ross' first decade in the music biz. Since going solo in 1970 she went back to the top of the charts with a cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" as well as songbird sonnets like "Touch Me in the Morning," and "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)." In the '80s she took disco dance floors by storm with the funky "Upside Down" and then melted hearts and helped couples make babies with her No. 1 duet with Lionel Richie, "Endless Love."
Along the way she earned Grammy nominations, an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for her 1972 portrayal of Billie Holliday in Lady Sings the Blues, and even a Tony award for a 1977 one-woman Broadway show. In more recent years she was honored with the very prestigious John F. Kennedy Center Honor for the Performing Arts Award and the Guinness Book of World Records declared her the most successful female music artist in history.
So, yeah, having Diana Ross in Houston is kind of a big deal.
If you can get to this show, then don't miss out. The opportunity to see an honest-to-goodness legend in person doesn't come around very often.
Diana Ross, 8 p.m. Tuesday at Verizon Wireless Theater
Tickets: $49-$139