Portrait of Diana Ross

Birthday profile

Diana Ross

Diana Ross, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Born
March 26, 1944
Age in 2026
82
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1944

About Diana Ross

Diana Ross (American English:; UK:; born March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. She was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of 12 number-one pop singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo career with the release of her eponymous debut solo album. Between 1972 and 1980, Ross recorded four top ten albums with her most successful studio release being the album Diana. In a fifteen-year span, Ross recorded twelve top ten singles with six – "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "Touch Me in the Morning", "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", "Love Hangover", "Upside Down" and "Endless Love" – topping the Billboard Hot 100, making her the female solo act with the most number-one songs in the United States at the time. Ross achieved international success with later songs such as "I'm Coming Out", "Chain Reaction", "If We Hold on Together", and "When You Tell Me That You Love Me". Ross has also achieved mainstream success and recognition as an actress. Her first role was her Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Billie Holiday in the film Lady Sings the Blues (1972), which made her the first African-American actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for a debut film performance. The film's soundtrack became her only solo album to reach number-one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978), and later appeared in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999). Ross has sold over 100 million records worldwide as a solo artist, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Between 1964 and 1981, Ross sang on eighteen number one US singles. In 2021, Billboard ranked her the 30th greatest charting artist of all time on the Billboard Hot 100. Her hits as a Supreme and a solo artist combined put Ross among the top-five artists on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart from 1955 to 2018. She has scored a top 75 U.K. hit single for a record 33 consecutive years (1964–1996). In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes, and is one of the rare performers to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is the recipient of a Special Tony Award in 1977, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and 2023 (becoming the first woman to win the award twice, the latter as a member of the Supremes), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Since her solo career began in 1970, Ross has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Known as the "Queen of Motown", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Diana Ross timeline

  1. She has scored a top 75 U.K. hit single for a record 33 consecutive years (1964–1996).
  2. Since her solo career began in 1970, Ross has sold over 100 million records worldwide.
  3. Between 1972 and 1980, Ross recorded four top ten albums with her most successful studio release being the album Diana.

The world when Diana Ross was born

Diana Ross was born in 1944. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1944

  • #1 song"Swinging on a Star" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieGoing My Way
  • Best-selling bookStrange Fruit – Lillian Smith

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGreen Bay Packers win NFL Championship
  • Top headlineD-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6
  • Technology milestoneHarvard Mark I computer begins operations
  • Defining fadBobby socks
  • Notable inventionKidney dialysis machine
  • World population2.39 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population138.4M

1944 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Diana Ross's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19442026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,800$435,000
Average income$4,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population138.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, MusicBrainz. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.