Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment.

The concept of experience generally refers to know-how or procedural knowledge, rather than propositional knowledge: on-the-job training rather than book-learning. Philosophers dub knowledge based on experience "empirical knowledge" or "a posteriori knowledge".

The interrogation of experience has a long tradition in continental philosophy. Experience plays an important role in the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. The German term , often translated into English as "experience", has a slightly different implication, connoting the coherency of life's experiences.

A person with considerable experience in a certain field can gain a reputation as an expert.

Certain religious traditions (such as types of Buddhism, Surat Shabd Yoga, mysticism and Pentecostalism) and educational paradigms with, for example, the conditioning of military recruit-training (also known as "boot camps"), stress the experiential nature of human epistemology. This stands in contrast to alternatives: traditions of dogma, logic or reasoning. Participants in activities such as tourism, extreme sports and recreational drug-use also tend to stress the importance of experience.

Types of experience

The word "experience" may refer, somewhat ambiguously, both to mentally unprocessed immediately perceived events as well as to the purported wisdom gained in subsequent reflection on those events or interpretation of them.

Some wisdom-experience accumulates over a period of time, though one can also experience (and gain general wisdom-experience from) a single specific momentary event.

One may also between (for example) physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, vicarious and virtual experience(s).

Physical experience

Physical experience occurs whenever an object or environment changes. In other words, physical experiences relate to observables. They need not involve modal properties nor mental experiences.

Mental experience

Mental experience involves the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term can refer, by implication, to a thought process. Mental experience and its relation to the physical brain form an area of philosophical debate: some identity theorists originally argued that the identity of brain and mental states held only for a few sensations. Most theorists, however, generalized the view to cover all mental experience.

Mathematicians can exemplify cumulative mental experience in the approaches and skills with which they work. Mathematical realism, like realism in general, holds that mathematical entities exist independently of the human mind. Thus humans do not invent mathematics, but rather discover and experience it, and any other intelligent beings in the universe would presumably do the same. This point of view regards only one sort of mathematics as discoverable; it sees triangles, right angles, and curves, for example, as real entities, not just the creations of the human mind. Some working mathematicians have espoused mathematical realism as they see themselves experiencing naturally-occurring objects. Examples include Paul Erdős and Kurt Gödel. Gödel believed in an objective mathematical reality that could be perceived in a manner analogous to sense perception. Certain principles (for example: for any two objects, there is a collection of objects consisting of precisely those two objects) could be directly seen to be true, but some conjectures, like the continuum hypothesis, might prove undecidable just on the basis of such principles. Gödel suggested that quasi-empirical methodology such as experience could provide sufficient evidence to be able to reasonably assume such a conjecture. With experience, there are distinctions depending on what sort of existence one takes mathematical entities to have, and how we know about them.

Emotional experience

Humans can rationalize falling in (and out) of love as "emotional experience". Societies which lack institutional arranged marriages can call on emotional experience in individuals to influence mate-selection. The concept of emotional experience also appears in the notion of emotional intelligence and empathy.

Spiritual experience

Newberg and Newberg provide a view on spiritual experience. Mystics can describe their visions as "spiritual experiences". However, psychology may explain the same experiences in terms of altered states of consciousness, which may come about accidentally through (for example) very high fever, infections such as meningitis, sleep deprivation, fasting, oxygen deprivation, nitrogen narcosis (deep diving), psychosis, temporal-lobe epilepsy, or a traumatic accident. People can likewise achieve such experiences more deliberately through recognized mystical practices such as sensory deprivation or mind-control techniques, hypnosis, meditation, prayer, or mystical disciplines such as mantra meditation, yoga, Sufism, dream yoga, or surat shabda yoga). Some "primitive religions" encourage spiritual experiences through the ingestion of psychoactive drugs such as alcohol and opiates, but more commonly with entheogenic plants and substances such as cannabis, salvia divinorum, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, DXM, ayahuasca, or datura. Another way to induce spiritual experience through an altered state of consciousness involves psychoacoustics, binaural beats, or light-and-sound stimulation.

Social experience

Growing up and living within a society can foster the development and observation of social experience. Social experience provides individuals with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own societies, as a society itself is formed through a plurality of shared experiences forming norms, customs, values, traditions, social roles, symbols and languages.

Virtual experience and simulation gaming

Using computer simulations can enable a person or groups of persons to have virtual experiences in virtual reality. Role-playing games treat "experience" (and its acquisition) as an important, measurable, and valuable commodity. Many role-playing video games, for instance, feature units of measurement used to quantify or assist a player-character's progression through the game - called experience points.

Immediacy of experience

Someone able to recount an event they witnessed or took part in has "first hand experience". First hand experience of the "you had to be there" variety can seem especially valuable and privileged, but it often remains potentially subject to errors in sense-perception and in personal interpretation.

Second-hand experience can offer richer resources: recorded and/or summarised from first-hand observers or experiencers or from instruments, and potentially expressing multiple points of view.

Third-hand experience, based on indirect and possibly unreliable rumour or hearsay, can (even given reliable accounts) potentially stray perilously close to blind honouring of authority.

Subjective experience

Subjective experience can involve a state of individual subjectivity, perception on which one builds one's own state of reality; a reality based on one’s interaction with one's environment. The subjective experience depends on one’s individual ability to process data, to store and internalize it. For example: our senses collect data, which we then process according to biological programming (genetics), neurological network-relationships and other variables such as relativity etc., all of which affect our individual experience of any given situation in such a way as to render it subjective.

Contexts of experience

Experience plays an important role in experiential groups.

Changes in experience through history

Some post-modernists suggest that the nature of human experiencing (quite apart from the details of the experienced surrounds) has undergone qualitative change during transition from the pre-modern through the modern to the post-modern.

Alternatives to experience

Immanuel Kant contrasted experience with reason: "Nothing, indeed, can be more harmful or more unworthy of the philosopher, than the vulgar appeal to so-called experience. Such experience would never have existed at all, if at the proper time, those institutions had been established in accordance with ideas."

Writing

The American author Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay entitled "Experience" (published in 1844), in which he asks readers to disregard emotions that could alienate them from the divine; it provides a somewhat pessimistic representation of the Transcendentalism associated with Emerson.

Art

In 2005 the art group Monochrom organized a series of happenings that ironically took up the implications of the term "experience": Experience the Experience.

See also

Customer experience

Empiricism

Experience economy

Experiential education

Experiential marketing

Perception

Thrill

References

External links

Lifelemon- share experience

The Experience Project

The Experience Wiki

Category:Sources of knowledge Category:Philosophy of science Category:Concepts in metaphysics Category:Perception Category:Consciousness

Name	Keyshia Cole
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Keyshia Myeshia Cole
Alias	KC, The Princess of Hip-Hop Soul
Born	October 15, 1981
Origin	Oakland, California
Instrument	Vocals
Voice type	Soprano (born October 15, 1981) is an American recording artist. She released her platinum selling debut album The Way It Is in June 2005, and her sophomore platinum album Just Like You in September 2007. Cole's third studio album, A Different Me was released on December 16, 2008, and is also certified platinum. She is also known for her reality/documentary series which aired on BET from 2006 to 2008, which depicted Cole navigating both her career and strained relationships with her biological mother and sister. Cole cites Mary J Blige and Brandy as her biggest influences and inspirations.
- align	"center"
- align	"center"
Name	Cole, Keyshia
Alternative names	Cole, Keyshia Michelle
Short description	Singer–songwriter
Date of birth	October 15, 1981
Place of birth	Oakland, California, U.S.

Category:1981 births Category:African American female singer-songwriters Category:American adoptees Category:American hip hop musicians Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American sopranos Category:Living people Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Oakland, California Category:Reality television participants

Name	George Carlin
Caption	Carlin in Trenton, New Jersey on April 4, 2008
Birth name	George Denis Patrick Carlin
Birth date	May 12, 1937
Birth place	Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Death date	June 22, 2008
Death place	Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, books, radio
Nationality	American
Active	1956–2008
Genre	Character comedy, observational comedy, Insult comedy, wit/word play, satire/political satire, black comedy, surreal humor, sarcasm, blue comedy
Subject	American culture, American English, everyday life, recreational drug use, death, philosophy, human behavior, American politics, parenting, children, religion, profanity, psychology, Anarchism, race relations, old age, pop culture, self-deprecation, childhood, family
Influences	Danny Kaye, Richard Pryor, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Hicks,Jim Norton, Sam Kinison, Louis C.K., Bill Cosby, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, Denis Leary, Patrice O'Neal, Adam Carolla, Colin Quinn, Steven Wright, Russell Peters, Jay Leno, Ben Stiller,
Spouse	Brenda Hosbrook(August 5, 1961 — May 11, 1997) (her death) 1 childSally Wade (June 24, 1998 — June 22, 2008) (his death)
Name	Carlin, George
Alternative names	Carlin, George Denis Patrick
Short description	Comedian, actor, writer
Date of birth	May 12, 1937
Place of birth	Manhattan
Date of death	June 22, 2008
Place of death	Santa Monica, California

Category:1937 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Actors from New York Category:Writers from New York Category:American atheists Category:American film actors Category:American humorists Category:American political writers Category:American social commentators Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American voice actors Category:American television actors Category:Atheism activists Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Former Roman Catholics Category:Free speech activists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American comedians of Irish descent Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Mark Twain Prize recipients Category:Obscenity controversies Category:People from Manhattan Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Actors from California Category:Writers from California Category:United States Air Force airmen Category:Comedians

Name	Diana Ross
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Diana Ernestine Earle Ross
Born	March 26, 1944
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Genre	R&B;, soul, disco, jazz, pop
Occupation	Singer, record producer, actress
Years active	1959–present
Label	Lu Pine, Motown, RCA, EMI
Associated acts	The Supremes, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, CHIC, The Temptations, Ashford & Simpson
Url	www.dianaross.com

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Ross served as lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her 1972 role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, for which she won a Golden Globe award. She won awards at the American Music Awards, garnered twelve Grammy Award nominations, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist on the chart; Madonna would surpass that feat six years later. Ross is one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of The Supremes. In December 2007, she received a John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Honors Award. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Early life

Diana Ross, the daughter of Ernestine (née Moten) (January 27, 1916October 9, 1984), a schoolteacher, and Fred Ross, Sr. (July 4, 1920November 21, 2007), a former United States Army soldier, was born at Hutzel Women's Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Ross said she didn't see her father until he returned from the service. Although her given name was "Diana", Ross went by "Diane" at home and school, and continued to use the name professionally until she was twenty-one.

After living at 635 Belmont Avenue in Detroit's North End for several years, Ross's family settled on St. Antoine Street in the Brewster-Douglass housing projects on Diana's fourteenth birthday in 1958. Ross aspired to be a fashion designer, and studied design, millinery, pattern-making and seamstress skills while attending Cass Technical High School, a four-year college preparatory magnet school, in downtown Detroit. In her late teens, Ross worked at Hudson's Department Store where, it was claimed in biographies, that she was the first black employee "allowed outside the kitchen". Ross graduated in January 1962, one semester earlier than her classmates. Ross' parents had a difficult marriage and separated when Ross was still in her teens.

Career

The Supremes: 1959-1970

In 1959, Ross was brought to the attention of Milton Jenkins, the manager of the local doo-wop group The Primes, by Mary Wilson. Primes member Paul Williams convinced Jenkins to enlist Ross in the sister group The Primettes, which included Wilson, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown. Ross, Wilson and Ballard each sang lead during live performances. In 1960, Lu Pine Records signed the group and issued the Ross-led single "Tears of Sorrow" backed with the Wilson-led "Pretty Baby".Soon after winning a singing contest in Winnipeg, Ontario, Ross approached former neighbor William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. for an audition at the label with which he recorded, Motown Records. The group garnered the audition and impressed Motown's CEO, Berry Gordy, Jr. (who arrived at the audition during the group's performance), but declined to work with the group due to them being underaged. Undeterred, the group would stand outside the label's Hitsville USA studios hoping to grab attention, eventually providing backing vocals & hand claps for many of Motown's more established artists. Meanwhile during the group's struggling early years Ross earned pay in the day as Berry Gordy's secretary. She also served at the group's main hair stylist, make-up artist, seamstress & costume designer during this period.

in 1965. Left to right: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross.]] In 1961, having already replaced McGlown with Barbara Martin, the quartet signed with Motown Records under their new moniker, The Supremes, chosen by Florence Ballard, who was the only member to be present when the group was offered a name change. Both Ross and Wilson initially disliked the name, afraid they would be mistaken for a men's group (Ruby & The Romantics' original name was The Supremes) but the name stuck regardless.

Following Martin's exit in 1962, the group remained a trio. In 1963, Ross became the group's lead singer, as Berry Gordy felt the group could "cross over" to the pop charts with Ross' unique vocal quality, and the Ross-led "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" became the group's first Billboard Top 20 Pop single. The Supremes hit number one with "Where Did Our Love Go", a song rejected by The Marvelettes, and then achieved unprecedented success: between August 1964 and May 1967, Ross, Wilson and Ballard sang on ten number-one hit singles, all of which also made the United Kingdom Top 40.

Gordy removed Florence Ballard from the group in July 1967 and chose Cindy Birdsong, a member of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, as her replacement. Shortly thereafter, he changed the group's name to Diana Ross & the Supremes.

Motown initially conceived of a solo career for Diana Ross in 1966, but did not act on it until 1968. Television specials such as TCB (1968) and G.I.T. on Broadway (1969) were designed to spotlight her as a star in her own right, and much of the later Ross-led Supremes material was recorded by Ross with session singers The Andantes, not Wilson and Birdsong, on backing vocals. By the summer of 1969, Ross began her first solo recordings. In November of the same year, three years after it was first rumored, Billboard magazine confirmed Ross's departure from the group to begin her solo career. That same year, Ross introduced Motown's newest act, The Jackson 5, to national audiences on the Hollywood Palace television variety program.

Ross recorded her initial solo sessions with a number of producers, including Bones Howe and Johnny Bristol. Her first track with Bristol, "Someday We'll Be Together", was tagged as a potential solo single, but it instead was issued as the final Diana Ross & the Supremes release. "Someday We'll Be Together" was the 12th and final number-one hit for the Supremes and the last American number-one hit of the 1960s. Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas on January 14, 1970.

Early solo career: 1970-1981

, featured her first solo number-one hit, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".]] After a half-year of recording material with various producers, Ross settled with the production team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the creative force behind Marvin Gaye's and Tammi Terrell's hit duets and Diana Ross & the Supremes' "Some Things You Never Get Used To". Ashford and Simpson helmed most of Ross's first album, Diana Ross, and continued to write and produce for her for the next decade.

In May 1970, Diana Ross was released on Motown. The first single, the gospel-influenced waltz, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)", peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, a fully rearranged cover of Gaye's and Terrell's 1967 hit, and another Ashford and Simpson composition, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", was an international hit, and gave Ross her first #1 pop single and gold record award as a solo artist. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. In 1971, Motown released Ross's second album Everything Is Everything, which produced Ross's first UK number-one solo single, "I'm Still Waiting". Several months later, Ross released Surrender, which included the top-20 pop hit, "Remember Me". That year, she hosted her first solo television special, Diana!, featuring guest appearances by The Jackson 5, Bill Cosby and Danny Thomas.

In 1973 Ross returned to number-one with the single "Touch Me in the Morning". The album of the same name became her first top five charted pop release. Later that same year, Ross and fellow Motown star Marvin Gaye released a duet album, Diana & Marvin. The duo scored an international hit with their cover of The Stylistics' "You Are Everything". Ross' 1974 follow-up album, Last Time I Saw Him, wasn't as successful despite the success of its country-tinged title track. Two years later Ross ventured into disco with "Love Hangover", which returned her to number-one. The self-titled parent album became another top five hit and included her previous number-one, the movie theme, "Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme from Mahogany)". Ross' subsequent follow-ups, including Baby It's Me (1977) and Ross (1978) fell off the charts soon after they appeared. Ross did have success with her first Broadway one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross. Her performance later won her a Tony. She was featured in TV special with the same name.

, was her final LP for Motown before leaving for RCA the following year.]] In 1979 Ross hired former collaborators Ashford & Simpson, who had left Motown in 1973 due to contractual issues with Berry Gordy, to overlook the production of her next album, The Boss. That album produced the hit title track and the modestly successful "It's My House". Ross' working relationship with Berry Gordy had deteriorated at that point as Gordy refused to be an executive producer of the project. In 1980, Ross hired Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the group CHIC to overlook production of her final contractual Motown album, diana. That album led to major success with "Upside Down" returning Ross to number-one on the pop charts for the first time since "Love Hangover". Its follow-up, "I'm Coming Out", was as successful and both songs found major success overseas.

In 1981, Ross decided not to renew her Motown contract only to discover that everything she thought she had owned was only leased to her by Berry Gordy. Ross accepted a $20 million deal with RCA in 1981, then the most lucrative contract in music. To complete contractual obligations, Ross recorded several songs with Lionel Richie, one of which, "Endless Love", led to the duo having an international number-one hit. The song was the theme song of the movie of the same name. Motown issued a compilation album, To Love Again, to compete with Ross' RCA debut.

Film career: 1972-1999

Though Ross had previously appeared in two films while a member of The Supremes, it wasn't until the early 1970s when Berry Gordy began to focus on making Ross an actress. In late 1971, Motown announced that Diana Ross was going to portray jazz icon Billie Holiday in a Motown-produced film loosely based on Holiday's autobiography Lady Sings the Blues (1956) written by Holiday and William Dufty. Some critics ridiculed Ross's casting in the role. Ross and Holiday were considered to be "miles apart" in vocal styling and appearance. Ross immersed herself in Holiday's music and life story; she knew little about Holiday and was not a big fan of jazz in general. Instead of imitating Holiday's voice, Ross focused on Holiday's vocal phrasing.

Opening in October 1972, Lady Sings the Blues was a major success, and Ross's performance drew favorable reviews. The movie co-starred Billy Dee Williams as Holiday's lover, Louis McKay. The cast also included comedian Richard Pryor as the "Piano Man". In 1973, Ross was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for "Best Actress". Ross along with fellow nominee that year Cicely Tyson, were the second African American actresses to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress after Dorothy Dandridge. Ross won the Golden Globe for Best Newcomer, but lost the Best Actress Oscar to her friend Liza Minnelli for her role in Cabaret. The soundtrack album for Lady Sings the Blues reached number one on the Billboard 200 for two weeks and shipped 300,000 copies during its first eight days of release. The double-pocket custom label record is one of Ross's best-selling albums of all time, with total sales to date of nearly two million copies.

In 1975, Ross again co-starred with Billy Dee Williams in the Motown film Mahogany. The story of an aspiring fashion designer who becomes a runway model and the toast of the industry, Mahogany was a troubled production from its inception. The film's original director, Tony Richardson, was fired during production and Berry Gordy assumed the director's chair himself. In addition, Gordy and Ross clashed during filming, with Ross leaving the production before shooting was completed, forcing Gordy to use secretary Edna Anderson as a body double for Ross. While a box office success, the film was not well received by the critics: Time magazine's review of the film chastised Gordy for "squandering one of America's most natural resources: Diana Ross".

In 1977, Motown acquired the film rights to the Broadway play The Wiz, an African-American reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although teenage Stephanie Mills, a veteran of the play, was originally cast as Dorothy, Ross convinced Universal Pictures producer Rob Cohen to have Ross cast as Dorothy. Because of Ross' age, the script was modified to make the protagonist a school teacher rather than a schoolgirl. Among Ross's costars were Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Nipsey Russell and Ted Ross. Upon its October 1978 release, the film adaptation of The Wiz, a $24 million production, earned $13.6 million at the box office. Though pre-release television broadcast rights had been sold to CBS for over $10 million, the film produced a net loss of $10.4 million for Motown and Universal. The film's failure ended Ross' short career on the big screen and contributed to the Hollywood studios' reluctance to produce the all-black film projects which had become popular during the blaxploitation era of the early-to-mid 1970s for several years. The Wiz was Ross' final film for Motown.

Ross had more success with movie-themed songs. While her version of Holiday's "Good Morning Heartache" only performed modestly well in early 1973, her recording of "Do You Know Where You're Going To (Theme from Mahogany)" gave Ross her fourth number-one hit in late 1975. Three years later, Ross and Michael Jackson had a modest dance hit with their recording of "Ease on Down the Road". Their second duet, actually as part of the ensemble of The Wiz, "Brand New Day", found some success overseas. Ross scored a Top 10 hit in late 1980 with the theme song to the 1980 film It's My Turn. The following year, she collaborated with former Commodores singer-songwriter Lionel Richie on the theme song for the film Endless Love. The Academy Award-nominated "Endless Love" single became her final hit on Motown Records, and the number one record of the year. Several years later, in 1988, Ross recorded the theme song to The Land Before Time. "If We Hold On Together" became an international hit reaching number-one in Japan.

Ross would be given movie offers over the years but reportedly turned them down because of either contractual obligations or fears of being typecasted. Ross had campaigned to portray pioneering entertainer Josephine Baker in a feature film even during her later years in Motown. However, in 1991, the feature film turned into a TV film with Lynn Whitfield playing Baker instead of Ross. Ross was also offered a role in an early adaptation of The Bodyguard with Ryan O'Neal. However, plans of this adaptation fell through. Years later, Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner assumed the roles of Ross and O'Neal in the 1992 film. In 1993, Ross returned to making movies with a dramatic role in the TV film, Out of Darkness. Ross won acclaim for her role in the film. In 1999, she and Brandy co-starred in the modestly received film, Double Platinum, which was released prior to the release of Ross' album, Every Day Is a New Day.

Later solo career: 1981-1999

was Ross's debut LP for Ross Records distributed by RCA Records.]] Diana Ross's RCA Records debut, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, was issued in October 1981. The album yielded three Top 10 hits including the title track "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", a remake of the 1956 Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers classic of the same name, and the single "Mirror Mirror". A third single, "Work That Body", hit the Top Ten in the UK. That success was repeated if only more modestly with the 1982 album, Silk Electric. Ross' recording of Michael Jackson's "Muscles" gave Ross another top ten hit. Ross' 1983 album, Ross, failed to produce any success.

On July 21, 1983, Ross performed a concert in Central Park for a taped Showtime special. Proceeds of the concert would be donated to build a playground in the singer's name. Midway through the beginning of the show, a torrential downpour occurred. Ross tried to keep on performing, but the severe weather required that the show be stopped. Ross urged the large crowd to exit the venue safely, promising to perform the next day. The second concert held the very next day was without rain. The funds for the playground were to be derived from sales of different items at the concert; however, all profits earned from the first concert were spent on the second. When the mainstream media discovered the exorbitant costs of the two concerts, Diana Ross faced criticism and poor publicity. Although representatives of Diana Ross originally refused to pay anything for the proposed playground, Ross later paid the $250,000 required to build the park. The Diana Ross Playground was finally built three years later.

In 1984, Ross' career was revived modestly again with the release of Swept Away. The title track became an international hit as did the ballad, "Missing You", which was a tribute to Marvin Gaye, who had died earlier that year. Her 1985 album, Eaten Alive, found success overseas with the title track and "Chain Reaction", while neither of the songs found success in America. Ross' 1987 follow-up, Red Hot Rhythm & Blues, performed worse. In 1988, Ross chose to not renew her RCA contract.

Motown Records was being sold by Berry Gordy for $60 million. Ross advised Gordy not to make the move. Before leaving Motown, Gordy offered Ross a contract back to Motown. Ross was at first hesitant to return to the label but agreed after Gordy offered her part-ownership of the label. Despite initial promotion, Ross' next album, Workin' Overtime, bombed. Subsequent follow-ups including The Force Behind the Power (1991), Take Me Higher (1995) and Every Day is a New Day (1999) produced similarly disappointing sales. Ross had more success overseas with the albums than she did in America. In 1994, Ross performed at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup, hosted in the USA. Her performance has become a running joke in football circles due to her obvious miming and for missing the goal from close range. In 1999, she was named the most successful female singer in the history of the United Kingdom charts, based upon a tally of her career hits. Madonna would eventually succeed Ross as the most successful female artist in the UK.

Later that year, Ross presented at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards in September of the year and shocked the audience by touching rapper Lil' Kim's exposed, pasty-covered breast, amazed at the young rapper's brashness.

Supremes reunions and Return to Love

In 1983, Ross reunited with former Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the television special . The three performed their 1969 number-one hit "Someday We'll Be Together", although alleged onstage altercations between Ross and Wilson became an issue during and after the taping of the special. A four-song Supremes set was planned but Ross, suffering from influenza, declined to rehearse with "The Girls" and stated that they would have to be happy just doing "Someday We'll Be Together". Before the special was taped later that evening, Wilson allegedly planned with Birdsong to take a step forward every time Ross did the same. This appeared to frustrate Ross, causing her to push Wilson's shoulder. Later, Wilson was not aware of the script set by producer Suzanne DePasse, in which Ross was to introduce Berry Gordy. Wilson took it upon herself to do so, at which point Ross pushed down Wilson's hand-held microphone, stating "It's been taken care of." Ross, then, introduced Gordy. These incidents were excised from the final edit of the taped special, but still made their way into the news media; People magazine reported that "Ross [did] some elbowing to get Wilson out of the spotlight."

The original Supremes were inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Original member Florence Ballard had died twelve years earlier. Ross was performing around the time of the induction ceremony and was unable to attend; Mary Wilson accepted the award. In 1999, Ross, Wilson and Cindy Birdsong held discussions about a possible Supremes reunion tour. These negotiations failed, and Ross hired late-era Supremes members Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne, who were touring as the Former Ladies of the Supremes, to participate. The Return to Love tour was launched in June 2000 but ended after just fourteen dates due to poor ticket sales.

Current work

Following successful European and American tours in 2004, Diana Ross returned to the Billboard music charts with two duets in 2005. "I've Got a Crush on You", recorded with Rod Stewart for his album The Great American Songbook, reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart. The second, recorded with Westlife, was a remake of Ross's 1991 number-2 UK single, "When You Tell Me You Love Me", and reached number 2 in the UK, just as the original had, and number 1 in Ireland. In January, 2005, M.A.C. Cosmetics named Diana Ross its beauty icon for 2005. In June 2006, Motown released the shelved Blue album, which peaked at number 2 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart. Ross' new studio album, I Love You, was released worldwide on October 2, 2006 and January 16, 2007, in North America, on the Manhattan Records/EMI label. Since its release in 2007, EMI Inside reports that I Love You has sold more than 622,000 copies worldwide.

honorees as she is recognized for her career achievements by then-President George W. Bush in the East Room of the White House Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007, during the Kennedy Center Gala Reception. From left are singer-songwriter Brian Wilson; filmmaker Martin Scorsese; Ross; comedian, actor and author Steve Martin and pianist Leon Fleisher.]] In January 2007, Ross appeared on a number of television shows across the U.S. to promote her new album and began touring in the spring. She appeared on American Idol as a mentor to the contestants Ross's United States "I Love You" tour garnered positive reviews, as did her European tour of the same year.

At the 2007 BET Awards, Ross was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by her five children and singer Alicia Keys. Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Chaka Khan performed musical tributes to Ross, covering several of her most popular recordings. During her acceptance speech, Ross lambasted the declining level of professional standards among the younger generation's musicians, as well as their overabundant use of vulgarity and profanity to garner press attention and record sales. Later that year, the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors committee, which recognizes career excellence, cultural influence and contributions to American culture, named Diana Ross as one of its honorees. Past honoree and fellow Motown alumni Smokey Robinson and actor Terrence Howard spoke on her behalf at the official ceremony that December, and singers Ciara, Vanessa L. Williams, Yolanda Adams and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks performed musical tributes. In February 2008, Ross was guest speaker at the Houston-based Brilliant Lecture series at The Hobby Center, Houston.

The lectures are designed to present prolific and influential characters to speak about their life and inspirations. During her lecture Ross stated that it is "unlikely" that she would undertake any further movie projects.

In May 2008, Ross headlined at New York City's Radio City Music Hall's 'Divas with Heart' concert event, which also featured fellow performers Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle. The following month she was a headliner at the City Stages music festival in Birmingham, AL, next to The Flaming Lips. The New York Times said about the duo, "the most incongruous headliners at an outdoor urban concert series, with the once-in-a-lifetime-at-most combination of Diana Ross and the Flaming Lips. Something for everyone, surely." She performed at two major events in the UK in July 2008: the famous Liverpool Pops Festival and the National Trust Summer Festival at Petworth House, West Sussex. On October 16–17, 2009, Diana Ross headlined the annual Dutch concert event, Symphonica in Rosso, in the 34,000-seat Gelredome Stadium, in Arnhem, The Netherlands. She was accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra. Each of the two concerts was sold-out.

Ross performed a cross-country tour in the summer of 2010. The "More Today Than Yesterday: The Greatest Hits" tour featured an all-new set list, stage design, and costumes galore, and was dedicated to her friend Michael Jackson who died in June 2009. The tour, which commenced on May 15, 2010, in Boston, Massachusetts, earned Ross excellent reviews in every city in which she performed, and concluded in Saratoga, California. An extended American leg of the tour began in September, 2010, and is scheduled to continue until March 2011, in Stamford, Connecticut. It is rumored that Ross will mount European & Asian legs of the tour.

Personal life

Ross' parents separated when Ross was seventeen. After twelve years of estrangement, the couple divorced in 1973. Ernestine Ross later married John Jordan in 1977. Fred Ross remained divorced, never remarrying. While Ross' mother was supportive of her career, her father was disappointed in her choice to be an entertainer rather than attend college like her other siblings. Biographies later stated Ross' drive was inspired by a lack of a support she felt from her father. Ross and her father's relationship repaired over the years until Fred Ross died in 2007. Ross' mother died in 1984.

Ross' elder sister Barbara found success as a doctor and in 1993, was appointed as dean of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, becoming the first black American woman to administer a medical school in the states. Rita Ross, Diana's younger sister, became a teacher. Brothers Arthur and Wilbert "Chico" Ross followed their sister into the recording industry and entertainment business, respectively; eldest brother Fred Ross, Jr. didn't go into show business. Brother Arthur was later murdered in 1996 in Detroit after being found bound and gagged along with his wife Patricia Robinson.

Ross married twice. Her first husband was music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein, whom she married in January 1971. They divorced in March 1977. In January 1986, after a romantic courtship, Ross married Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Næss, Jr.. After several years of legal separation, the couple were officially divorced in 2000. Næss was later killed in a mountain climbing accident in 2004. Ross attended the funeral.

Ross is the mother of five children. Daughter Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein was born on August 13, 1971, Rhonda's biological father is Berry Gordy. She is now married; her married name is Rhonda Ross Kendrick. Ross and Silberstein had two daughters: Tracee Joy Silberstein, born October 29, 1972 (now known as Tracee Ellis Ross) and Chudney Lane Silberstein, born November 4, 1975 (now known as Chudney Ross). Ross had two sons with Næss. Their sons are Ross Arne Næss (born October 7, 1987) and Evan Olav Næss (born August 26, 1988), now known as Evan Ross). In the summer of 2009, Ross became a grandmother when her daughter, Rhonda Ross-Kendrick, gave birth to a boy.

Rhonda and Tracee graduated from Brown University, and Chudney from Georgetown University. All have followed their mother to show business. Rhonda gained success as an actress in television movies and daytime soap operas. Tracee was a co-star of the UPN sitcom Girlfriends. Chudney is active in behind-the-scenes work and is also a model. Son Ross currently attends New York's Marist College, where he is a ski club member, and has not followed his siblings into show business. Youngest son Evan Ross is a successful actor, who starred in the films ATL and Pride (co-starring Terrance Howard) and the HBO film, "Life Support", co-starring Dana Owens (Queen Latifah) and his older sister, Tracee Ellis-Ross. He currently is starring in The CW's hit show "90210" playing the character named Charlie.

A month after the Lil Kim incident, authorities at London's Heathrow Airport detained Ross for "assaulting" a female security guard. The singer claimed that she had felt "violated as a woman" by the full-body search to which she was subjected. In retaliation, she was alleged to have touched the female airport security guard in a similar manner. The singer was detained but later released. In December 2002, Ross was arrested in Tucson, Arizona for drunk driving. She pleaded "no contest", and later served a two-day jail sentence near her home in Greenwich, Connecticut. Following the arrest and jail sentence, Ross stayed out of the American public eye during much of the following year. She performed a well-received set at Britain's Prince Charles' Prince's Trust concert, held in London's Hyde Park, in 2002, but would not return to touring until 2004.

Ross was a close friend and longtime mentor of Michael Jackson, with whom she co-starred in the 1978 film version of the Broadway musical, The Wiz (a remake of The Wizard of Oz). After Jackson's sudden death on June 25, 2009, Ross was named in his will as the custodian of his children in the event of the death of his mother, Katherine Jackson. Ross was invited to speak at the memorial held in Los Angeles on Tuesday July 7, 2009, but declined in a letter read by Smokey Robinson at the ceremony. Like Jackson's other close friends, Macaulay Culkin, Elizabeth Taylor, Quincy Jones, and Liza Minnelli, Ross stated that she wanted to grieve in private.

In popular culture

Ross was portrayed by actress Samantha Kaine in the 2004 VH1 film , a biographical film about Michael Jackson.

Actress Holly Robinson Peete portrayed Ross in the 1992 television mini-series .

In the 1996 film Phenomenon, Forest Whitaker's character, Nate Pope, is obsessed with Diana Ross.

In the 2001 comedy film Get Over It, the Dr Desmond Forrest-Oates character once claimed he made a song for Ross, which even included a flashback of the event, however Ross is not actually seen, only her leg passing (she did not, however, actually star in the film).

Ross contributed her voice to the fictionalized version of herself in the debut episode of popular 1970's classic cartoon by ABC entitled, The Jackson 5ive.

In the 2007 comedy "Juno", the main character, Juno MacGuff says about her name, "Zeus had tons of lays, but I'm pretty sure Juno was his only wife. She was supposed to be super beautiful, but really mean, like Diana Ross."

New Zealand band Diana Rozz take their name from Ross.

In 2010, Keri Hilson portrayed Diana Ross in the music video for her song, Pretty Girl Rock.

Her voice can be heard introducing The Jackson 5, in a Jackson 5 section in Michael Jackson's This is it.

Solo discography

Filmography

1964: T.A.M.I. Show (with The Supremes)

1965: Beach Ball (with The Supremes)

1972: Lady Sings the Blues

1975: Mahogany

1978: The Wiz

1994: Out of Darkness

1999: Double Platinum

2002: The Making and Meaning of We Are Family (documentary)

2010: Met With Sandra Ellison and Tamia Holmes

Television

1968: [Tarzan (TV Series)] (with The Supremes)

1968: T.C.B. (with The Supremes)

1969: G.I.T. on Broadway (with The Supremes)

1971: Diana!

1977: The Big Event: An Evening with Diana Ross

1979: Diana Ross in Concert!

1981: diana

1981: Standing Room Only: Diana Ross

1983:

1983: For One And For All - Diana Ross Live! in Central Park

1987: Diana Ross: Red Hot Rhythm and Blues

1989: Diana Ross: Workin' Overtime

1992:

1994: Out of Darkness

1996: Super Bowl XXX

1999: Double Platinum

2000: VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross

2005: Tsunami Aid

2007: BET Awards 2007

2007: Kennedy Center Honors

2008: Nobel Peace Prize Concert

Autobiographies

(A scrapbook-style collection of photographs)

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Diana Ross

List of best-selling music artists

List of number-one hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of number-one dance hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. dance chart

References

http://sixmillionsteps.com/drupal/node/1085 - 80 minute audio mix of Diana Ross songs/interviews

Further reading

External Links

Barbara Walters interviews Diana Ross about "Return To Love" Tour

International Diana Ross website

International Diana Ross Fanclub website

DIANA ROSS SUPERSTAR website

Diana Ross discography at MusicBrainz

Carlo's Supremes website

Mark's Diana Ross website

unofficial biography page

Supremes 9.0 — fansite

Diana Ross interview recorded 10.13.1968 on the Pop Chronicles

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