American singer-songwriter Donna Summer was BOTD in 1948. Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines in Boston, Massachusetts to a working-class family, she began singing in church, dropping out of high school to move to New York City, where she joined blues rock band Crow. She then joined a touring production of the musical Hair, performing in Munich and becoming fluent in German, eventually settling in Vienna where she joined the Vienna Volksoper. Teaming up with music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, she released the disco singles Lady of the Night, Love To Love You Baby and I Feel Love. Contrasting hard-edged industrial beats with Summer’s honey-smooth soprano and orgasmic moans and groans, they created an international sensation, reinvigorating disco, helping popularise electronic music and rocketing Summer to global stardom. She dominated the 1970s music charts with hits including Last Dance, Hot Stuff and Bad Girls, earning her the title “Queen of Disco”. As disco faded in popularity, she signed with David Geffen’s record label in 1980, recording in other genres with mixed success, though she had a hit with 1983’s She Works Hard for the Money. She later became a born-again Christian, angering her gay fanbase by allegedly commenting that homosexuality was a sin for which AIDS was the punishment. Summer later denied she had made the comments, expressing her support for the gay community, and successfully sued New York magazine in 1991 for reprinting the rumours as fact. Married twice and with three children, she died in 2012 aged 63.