Diana Ross

The Brewster-Douglass housing projects in Detroit didn't produce a lot of pop stars, but they produced this one. Ross and a few friends formed the Primettes in 1959, got Smokey Robinson to put in a word at Motown, and signed as The Supremes in 1961. For three years they were internally called the 'No-Hit Supremes.' Holland-Dozier-Holland handed them 'Where Did Our Love Go' and the hits didn't stop coming. Between 1964 and 1970 they charted 12 #1 singles. Berry Gordy eventually renamed the group after her, pushed Florence Ballard out, and made clear this was always going to be a solo career with backing vocals.

At 81, she's still telling sold-out crowds she'll never retire, and nobody seems to think she's bluffing. Ross holds 18 #1 songs across her career, spanning six decades, multiple formats, and different charts. In 2023 she became the first woman to win the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award twice, once solo and once with the Supremes. The catalog has reportedly been sampled over 750 times, which means even when she's not releasing music, she's still everywhere. A legacy like that doesn't need defending. It just keeps collecting interest.

Her legal name isn't even Diana. The birth certificate had a typo, and her family has called her Diane her entire life. Before Motown, she planned a career in fashion, studying millinery and pattern-making as a teenager. Mr. T worked as her personal bodyguard before he got famous. Whitney Houston took the lead in The Bodyguard (1992), but the film was originally developed for Ross and Steve McQueen. Her daughter Rhonda is Berry Gordy's child, which adds a certain layer to the story of how The Supremes got renamed after her.