And The Grammy Goes To…

Michael Bublé.

Yet again, Grammy voters overlooked Diana Ross, missing out on a chance to honor her for the album of her career, Thank You.

Look, it’s certainly exciting that Ms. Ross is being honored with a second Grammy Lifetime Achievement Honor, this one for her time with The Supremes. It’s well-deserved — not just for Ms. Ross, but for her late groupmates. Seeing the daughters of Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard accept the award was beautiful.

But, it’s natural for fans to feel disappointed, because it really felt like this was Diana’s year — a chance to see her finally collect a competitive Grammy that not only celebrated great work, but also her impact on the industry. Many of the artists who will win awards tonight owe their careers to Diana Ross. This isn’t an overzealous fan talking, and it’s not hyperbole; Ms. Ross is a trailblazer, plain and simple. Even those who aren’t fans of the singer can’t possible deny her accomplishments, and the doors which she helped kick down (in her heels and sequins, no less).

Thank You is no less a great album because it’s not a Grammy winner. It will stand the test of time because it’s a true reflection of the artist’s thoughts and feelings. Diana Ross poured her heart into the album. She delivered in a big way. It’s a rewarding work that only gets better with repeated listens.

And let’s be clear: Ms. Ross is probably way too busy enjoying time with her family to care much about the awards. As she Tweeted back in December, “To be nominated for a Grammy is a blessing. My real blessing has been all of you. So once again & always I say THANK YOU”

Well, Ms. Ross…once again and always, we say it right back.

“Thank You” Nabs A Grammy Nomination!

Congratulations to Ms. Diana Ross, who scored another Grammy nomination today!

Thank You is up for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, and will compete against Higher by Michael Bublé, When Christmas Comes Around… by Kelly Clarkson, I Dream of Christmas (Extended) by Norah Jones, and Evergreen by Pentatonix.

This is the 13th Grammy Award for which Ms. Ross is nominated (not counting her honorary award) — and, as we all know, she has yet to win a competitive Grammy. Amazingly, this is also the first time a Diana Ross ALBUM has gotten a nomination — until now, she’s only been recognized for singles and album tracks (yes…that means Lady Sings The Blues and diana were passed over…).

Here’s a list of Diana’s previous Grammy nominations:

“Muscles” (Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female)

“Endless Love” (Record of the Year & Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal)

“Upside Down” (Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female)

“Ease On Down The Road” (Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus)

“You Love Is So Good For Me” (Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female)

“Love Hangover” (Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female)

“Touch Me In The Morning (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female)

“I Love You (Call Me)” (Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female)

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female)

“Stop! In The Name Of Love” [Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance – Group (Vocal Or Instrumental)]

“Baby Love” (Best Rhythm & Blues Recording)

…so, could this be the year Ms. Ross finally wins a competitive Grammy? It could…and should. This wouldn’t be just a “legacy” honor — Thank You is deserving of the recognition. It’s one of the singer’s best complete works, and features some of the finest vocal performances of her career.

CONGRATULATIONS, Ms. Ross — well deserved!

A Little “Sunshine” On The Charts

Lots of excitement in Diana-land this week — and I’ve missed it all being out of the country and totally unplugged!

That said, Ms. Ross proved herself the perfect person to honor the Queen at the Platinum Jubilee celebration with a crowd-pleasing set, reminding fans around the world that there is — and only ever will be — ONE Diana Ross. An enormous global audience adored the diva as she delivered vocally solid renditions of “Chain Reaction,” “Thank You,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” In all, a triumph for Ms. Ross.

Meanwhile, “Turn Up The Sunshine” has added to the singer’s tally of Adult Contemporary hits, peaking thus far at #22 and becoming her 30th entry on that particular chart. Keep streaming!

And…in the words of Mary Wilson…”the devil made her do it!” Ms. Ross is heading back to Vegas this fall — details here: https://www.wynnlasvegas.com/entertainment/upcoming-shows/diana-ross

Finally, DIANA ROSS PROJECT friend DavidH says Ms. Ross is working on a symphony album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra while in the United Kingdom — I haven’t heard anything else about this (again, I’ve been FAR outside the loop, on vacation!), but I’m happy to hear she’s possibly working on yet another new project!

“Turn Up The Sunshine” is OUT NOW!!!

Slide on your sunglasses, put the top down on your car, and crank up your speakers: the song of the summer is here.

“Turn Up The Sunshine” by Diana Ross featuring Tame Impala and produced by Jack Antonoff is out now, and it’s as good as the early snippets indicated. A fresh, funky slice of 70s-inspired pop, the track is the lead-off single from the upcoming Minions: The Rise of Gru soundtrack album. The entire album is apparently something of a love letter to the music of the 1970s, and “Turn Up The Sunshine” is a perfect way to set the tone; it’s a sun-soaked, feel-good track that recalls classic work from The Commodores and Rick James.

“Turn Up The Sunshine” is a triumph for Diana Ross, featuring her most playful vocal performance in decades. This is the sound of a diva cutting loose and having fun in the studio, while also showcasing her skillful vocal control and adaptability.

When Diana Ross teams up with a great producer, and when that producer provides her with exciting and inspiring material, magic happens. Ashford & Simpson created that magic with Ms. Ross, as did Michael Masser and Rodgers & Edwards. And now, Jack Antonoff has done it again.

This is a song that deserves to be streamed on loop all summer. So…what are you waiting for? Let’s TURN IT UP!

Ms. Ross Brings The “Sunshine” This Summer

Are you ready for the summer of Diana Ross?

On the heels of her long-awaited studio album Thank You, Diana Ross fans are getting another major treat this summer: a new song!

Producer Jack Antonoff has announced that his upcoming soundtrack to the film Minions: The Rise of Gru will feature various artists covering his favorite songs from the 1970s, along with an original title called “Turn Up The Sunshine” written with Sam Dew, Patrik Berger and Kevin Parker and performed by….DIANA ROSS AND TAME IMPALA! According to his Instagram post, songs will begin being released May 20th, with the full soundtrack following on July 1st.

A short clip of the song accompanies Antonoff’s Instagram post (which is linked below), and from the snippet we hear, the song is a fun, funky throwback featuring Ms. Ross singing…and rapping!

This song has real, solid hit potential — especially if it’s prominently featured in advertisements for the film. And finally, we have some answers about that rumored Diana Ross/Tame Impala collaboration!!

LET THE SUMMER OF DIANA ROSS COMMENCE!!!

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Let’s all say THANK YOU to the Birthday Girl!

It’s Diana’s birthday — and since she just gave us the album of her career, let’s give something back to help make it a special day for our diva.

Join me in streaming Thank You over and over again today — not playing the physical album or CD, but STREAMING it from a streaming service. As we know, streams are what counts in today’s musical landscape. The more streams the album gets, the better it performs.

Here’s a list of services from which to choose (including Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Amazon, etc.): https://dianaross.lnk.to/thankyoualbum

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ms. Ross…and THANK YOU!!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Rhonda Ross!

“All Is Well” with Rhonda Ross these days, especially during her trip this week to Atlanta to honor her father’s musical legacy.

Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. was inducted into the Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame Thursday, and Rhonda Ross came to town with her family to attend the ceremony and accept the honor. Before the ceremony, she and I had some time to sit down and chat on live television, and we covered a lot of ground: how she’s been doing during the pandemic, celebrating the legacy of Motown, and — of course — writing songs for her mother’s superb new album, Thank You.

Watch our interview below — loved getting the scoop that “Count On Me” was actually written as a birthday present to her mother!

SONG DISCUSSION: “The Answer’s Always Love” (2021)

“What if we could find a way to laugh, love, and pray?”

One of the big surprises for Diana Ross fans upon the release of Thank You in 2021 was the appearance of the name Siedah Garrett in the album credits. We knew Ms. Ross was working with a bevy of up-and-coming talents on the new studio album, but we hadn’t necessarily heard that the singer was recording a song written by the Grammy-winning Garrett. The two artists share a unique connection, of course; both will forever be linked to the legacy of Michael Jackson. Ms. Ross helped launch Michael Jackson’s career and remained a friend and something of a mentor to the superstar through his career; meanwhile, Garrett wrote Jackson’s huge hit “Man in the Mirror” and duetted with him on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” both from the blockbuster Bad album. Thus, it’s actually kind of shocking that Ross and Garrett have apparently never met; according to Garrett in a December 2021 Rolling Stone interview, “I feel like I know [Ross] because of how Michael talked about her all the time, and Michael’s relationship with her. I might even get to meet her. That is just going to be awesome.”

The song in question is titled “The Answer’s Always Love,” and it immediately became a fan favorite from Thank You. With a message focused on universal love and world peace, it feels tailor-made for Ms. Ross — after all, this is the woman who launched her solo career imploring people to “Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand).” Interestingly, it wasn’t written specifically with Ross in mind. According to Siedah Garrett in that Rolling Stone interview, “I wrote a song many years ago that was very touching to me and very heartfelt. If I wasn’t going to sing the song on a record of my own, I really wanted a serious artist, a major artist with a maturity and an understanding of the lyrics. I thought about Celine Dion. I thought about Barbra Streisand. I thought about artists of that caliber, and I wouldn’t let it go until someone like that was interested in it. I knew I just had to wait.” 

Garrett goes on to say that her husband sent “The Answer’s Always Love” to Ms. Ross and her team, which is how the song ended up on the new album. So, clearly, the wait paid off…and it’s hard to imagine any other singer being a better fit for the song. From the repetition of the phrase, “You say I’m just a dreamer,” to the acoustic guitar and soft bed of strings, the song sounds like it could be a lost cut from Diana’s Touch Me In The Morning LP, directly recalling that album’s soft-pop tone and lyrical themes. It certainly helps that the singer’s voice sounds remarkably untouched since the early 1970s, as the clarity and roundness of her tone are nothing short of astonishing. And yet, this is a vocal performance that really benefits from the singer’s experience and wisdom; she gives the lyrics a relaxed, knowing reading, coming off as gentle but authoritative in her insistence that, “This world would be a perfect place to love, if only we could.” The song’s bridge, which leads to a climactic key change, gives the singer a chance to display some real power and to stretch toward the top end of her range, which she handles nicely.

If there’s any drawback to “The Answer’s Always Love” (which was produced by Troy Miller) it’s that the song is sandwiched between some really fresh, modern cuts on Thank You, which only heightens the track’s vintage feel. Recordings like “Thank You” and “I Still Believe” may reference some of the singer’s best work from the 1970s and 1980s, but they also carry her sound forward. “The Answer’s Always Love” doesn’t do that — it doesn’t break any new ground in the singer’s career — and coming directly after the wistful contemporary soul of “In Your Heart” and the snappy pop-jazz of “Just in Case,” listeners may feel a flatness here. That said, just as many will find comfort in its well-worn sound. At the end of the day, every new song doesn’t need to display a sonic progression. For fans who like their Diana Ross on a ballad with strings, “The Answer’s Always Love” will do the trick. In a way, it’s a full-circle moment, returning Ms. Ross to the folk-soul that launched her solo career.

Here’s hoping that Ms. Ross and Ms. Garrett not only meet in person, but also have the chance to work together again. Who knows what further magic this gifted writer and equally gifted interpreter of lyrics could create together?

Ms. Ross Returns To The Stage

I just received a press release from Universal Orlando Resort that Ms. Ross will be part of this year’s Mardi Gras Celebration. According to the schedule, she’ll take the stage Saturday, February 12th, and the Mardi Gras celebration is included with admission price to the park.

“Music legend Diana Ross, global superstar Khalid, Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Marshmello, and 12 other top artists will perform live on select nights during Universal’s Mardi Gras celebration. All concerts will take place at the Music Plaza stage – an electrifying outdoor venue inspired by the iconic Hollywood Bowl, set against the backdrop of the towering Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster.”

It’s been nearly two years since Ms. Ross has performed live in front of an audience — and she’s got some new material to add to her show! It’ll be interesting to see which songs from Thank You make the cut — I’m guessing fans will at least get to hear “Thank You” and “I Still Believe,” and possibly “All Is Well.”

Which songs are you hoping to hear live? Drop ’em in a comment below!

Song Review: “Just In Case” (2021)

“I’ll be right here to say it over and over, anyway…”

A lot of amazing people helped Diana Ross bring her 2021 release Thank You to fruition, but production duties on the majority of the tracks were handled by the multi-talented Troy Miller.  Miller has worked with a long list of musical acts, including the late Amy Winehouse and Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, and Mark Ronson, the latter of whom met with Ms. Ross in 2019 about possibly collaborating on music. It’s possible that Ronson provided the link between Troy Miller and Diana Ross; as Miller noted in an Instagram post, “Diana called me in LA before COVID and said she had heard good things and she needed someone who could do everything! I told her I was a jack of all trades! We met the next day at EastWest Studios and talked life and music for 3 hours.”

Those three hours led to some of the best songs on Thank You, including the achingly beautiful tune that emerges as the true heart of the entire project. “Just In Case” was written by Ross and Miller along with established hitmakers Tayla Parx, Jimmy Napes, Freddy Wexler and Diana’s longtime collaborator Fred White, who wrote the title track to the singer’s previous studio album, I Love You. “Just In Case” almost feels like the spiritual child of that earlier album; Ms. Ross coos the words “I love you” repeatedly throughout the song, and it’s produced with the kind of breezy simplicity that marked one of the best tracks on I Love You, her cover of the John Lennon-Paul McCartney composition “I Will.” 

Opening with a sensational swell of strings provided by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by James Morgan and arranged by Mr. Miller), the song soon breaks into a light, loosely-paced pop-jazz confessional, delivered with a stunning sincerity by Ms. Ross. This is a recording on which, despite the superb instrumental, the vocal takes center stage, giving Ms. Ross the chance to truly showcase her signature clarity of tone. There is no place to “hide” in this track — nothing to mask any vocal imperfections or smooth over any rough moments — and Ms. Ross rises to the occasion with an impeccable performance. This isn’t a big, sweeping ballad (like an “It’s My Turn” or “Missing You”), it’s an intimate experience, something Ross had mastered fifty year earlier with her work on the Lady Sings The Blues soundtrack. The singer had scaled-back her vocal work on that collection of Billie Holiday tunes, trusting her emotions to come through in her singing without giving in to any dramatic flourishes. She does that again here. It’s impossible to listen to “Just In Case” without feeling that Ms. Ross is singing the words directly to you. Such is the power of her artistry.

Miller’s production work on “Just In Case” is arguably the best on the entire album, and an exercise in tasteful restraint; Ms. Ross is solely accompanied by his sparkling piano work and those gorgeous strings until a buoyant trumpet solo performed by Keyon Harrold eventually takes over. Harrold’s work here is brilliant; the musician perfectly matches the tone of sophistication and intimacy set by the rest of the production, and his jazzy work furthers the connection to Diana’s great triumph as an actress and singer in Lady Sings The Blues. And credit must go to the collection of writers, who crafted a heartfelt message of pure love that never feels overly-saccharine or insincere. This is that rare song that applies to love in all of its forms; it could be sung to a child, a friend, a parent, or a romantic partner.

In his Instagram post about working with Ms. Ross, Miller concluded, “So thankful for the time we spent together and for such an enriching music making experience…I got to play all the instruments and do what I do…but she is so gracious, elegant, sassy and more importantly cares deeply about the message.” It’s more than obvious that the producer and artist forged a strong connection while working on Thank You — and I’d say he joins the shortlist of producers who truly understand the singer’s strengths and unique appeal. Here’s hoping for future collaboration between the two.

“Just In Case” isn’t just a highlight of Thank You, it’s a highlight of the singer’s entire career. This is a song that deserves to be heard…”over and over again.”