On 26 March, Diana Ross, one of the greatest music legends, celebrated her 81st birthday.

Diana Ross has had a big impact on music and influenced generations of singers. She came from a normal family. She was born in Detroit in 1944 and grew up in one of the first government-funded housing units for black families.

She studied to be a fashion designer but discovered that her true passion was music. She left the fashion world and joined the group The Primettes. After signing a contract with Motown in 1961, the group changed to The Supremes. ROVA says that this was the start of their success.

Diana was the lead singer of The Supremes, a highly successful group that had twelve number-one hits, including “Baby Love” and “Stop! In the Name of Love.”

After ten years with The Supremes, Diana left to pursue her career as the Queen of Soul. Her first song as a solo artist, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” was a huge success and became her first solo hit.

With the rise of disco, Ross moved from the queen of soul to the queen of disco.

In 1983, she gave one of the most memorable live performances in music history: she sang in a lightning storm for 800,000 fans on the Great Lawn of Central Park.

In 1993, the Guinness Book of Records officially recognized her as “the most successful female artist in music history.”

Diana Ross, now in her 80s, has fulfilled her promise after Michael Jackson’s death.

The Queen of Motown and the King of Pop were close friends. He died of a drug called propofol in June 2009.

The singer had asked his elderly mother, Katherine, 86, to be the legal guardian of his children but also asked Diana to promise to take care of them.

More than ten years after his death, Ross has continued to support her friend’s three children—Paris, 26; Prince, 28; and Blanket, 21—despite the difficulties that came with her promise.

For years, Diana tried hard to convince Paris, who was just 11 when her father died, to seek professional help, as well as to keep Prince out of trouble.

Ross was apprehensive about Paris’ mental health after she cut her wrists and overdosed on Motrin during a failed suicide attempt in 2013.

At the same time, Prince was suspected of smoking cigarettes and going to massage parlors in Los Angeles.

Since Paris and Prince were adults then, Ross could only offer them advice, though he continued to care for the then-minor Blanket, now known as Bigi.

Ross’s advice was good because the Jackson children are still close today and doing well in their careers.