A journey through sight and sound

Luis Pena

Disco diva Donna Summer’s new autobiography and album reveals a

lifelong journey through her private and public sides.

The album, “The Journey: The Very Best of Donna Summer,” is a

compilation of some of her greatest hits, including; “Last Dance,” “I

Love You,” “Hot Stuff” and “This Time I Know It’s for Real.” It also

includes two new songs, “That’s The Way” and “Dream-a-Lot’s Theme (I

Will Live For Love).”

The album is a reunion of sorts for Summer and producer Giorgio

Moroder. Their last album together was 1981’s “I’m A Rainbow,” but

they have been friends throughout their careers. Summer felt that it

was the right project for them to work on after a long drought.

“He had a song that I liked and I had a song that needed

producing,” Summer said. “So it’s very normal form me to ask Giorgio

to work with me.”

Her new autobiography, “Ordinary Girl: The Journey” has the same

journey theme to it as her new album. In “Ordinary Girl,” she shares

some very deep and personal experiences that have made her the woman

that she is today.

Summer, unlike many of today’s young pop artists, decided to wait

several decades to write her autobiography because she felt that it

wasn’t something to do at a young age.

“I just felt like that’s something that you do when you were much

older, and I didn’t feel like I was ready to divulge any information

of any consequence,” Summer said.

In her book, Summer reveals that she has had some life-threatening

experiences, such as a almost drowning in 1956, which made her value

life more. Those experiences allowed her to see how fragile life

really was.

“At some point, you have to tow the line because it [life] could

be over very quickly,” she said. “So I think I recognized that, and

it made me be more focused on what I actually wanted to do.”

Summer also reveals that living in Europe at a young age had a

profound affect on her life. Europe was liberating, not only for a

young churchgoing woman, but for an African American in the late

1960s and ‘70s. Being in Europe helped her to understand other

cultures and forms of music, which helped her grow as a person and an

artist.

“When you grow up in America, you grow up with the confines and

the social constraints of our own kind of society that we have here,”

she said. “As a young black woman growing up outside of America, I

was free to be myself, and it wasn’t attached to a color, so I could

transform ... and I did,” Summer said.

Summer discloses that she suffered from depression because of

experiences that she went through while in Germany, such as becoming

a victim of domestic violence. She felt alone, isolated and useless.

Summer said that a lot of those feelings had to do with being an

artist. She always thought it was arrogance when artists spoke like

that, but now she realizes that it’s part of being an artist.

Summer decided to divulge the domestic abuse that she went through

because she wanted to inspire people in abusive relationships to seek

help.

In 1976, Summer tried to commit suicide because of her depression.

She realized that millions of people out in the world have depression

and they can get help. .

Her new book and album will be very revealing to her old and new

fans who may have thought that they knew everything about the journey

that the disco diva has taken.