Funeral today, thousands expected
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Donna Summer
pvd295 — 13 years ago(May 23, 2012 08:35 AM)
Donna Summer will be laid to rest today, in Nashville TN where her family said 'was home to her since 1994'. The funeral was to be invitation-only for family members, clo1ebcse friends, and celebrity friends with a burial to follow after. The unidentified church is said to hold about a thousand people. Of the 'celebrity' guests who many are speculating to attend, Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Janet Jackson and Sophia Loren are the names which pop up most frequently.
Paul Ryan's proposal is a budget that goes against the teachings of Jesus. -
HarlowMGM — 13 years ago(June 24, 2012 02:35 PM)
Actually I think her funeral was much smaller than that and there were surprising few celebrities there. I don't know if the ones you mentioned were there or not or who was who was famous.
It is sad though how little press Donna's death earned in the major magazines. No cover stories that I'm aware of which is crazy, her superstar heyday was just 30 years ago, most of her fans are in their forties and fifties and certainly remember her.
Did Diana Ross make a public statement? I'm not aware of it if she did. If she didn't that's rather disappointing given Donna went out of her way to be gracious and complimentary to Diana on the VH-1 Diva tribute to Ross a little over a decade ago. -
buby1987 — 13 years ago(June 25, 2012 12:41 PM)
I agree, the coverage for Donna was pitiful. A small item in Time magazine. One page in Entertainment Weekly. Rolling Stone had a small article. Even Ebony gave her just one page. At least Billboard had fairly in-depth coverage. The New York Times obituary was well-written and had good info.
No cover stories, sadly. I keep waiting for some magazine to devote a special issue to her, but it probably won't happen.
If you think about it, she was the biggest act in music from the time Last Dance hit the top ten (summer 1978) until On the Radio was a hit (early 80). She owned 1979 the way Michael Jackson owned 1983 (or the Bee Gees owned 1978). -
HarlowMGM — 13 years ago(June 25, 2012 05:38 PM)
What is incredible is just a few months ago PEOPLE magazine gave Davy Jones -
Davy Jones!!!- the cover when he died. He was a member of a semi-novelty pop group that were popular for what three years (?) and then completely fizzled out into obscurity for most of the next 40 years. I'm not knocking Davy or the Monkees, they certainly have their fans and it was nice that People paid him such a nice tribute, but come on Donna Summer was
the
female vocalist of the late 1970's, the queen of a legendary music genre, and yet no cover or major writeup?? Honestly, I wonder if the Davy Jones issue did not sell well and that may have led them to decide against a cover for Donna.
Somebody should have given her a cover, at least one of the major African-American magazines although I admit she was always probably more popular with white audiences than with black audiences but then that could also be said of Whitney Houston, too.
- the cover when he died. He was a member of a semi-novelty pop group that were popular for what three years (?) and then completely fizzled out into obscurity for most of the next 40 years. I'm not knocking Davy or the Monkees, they certainly have their fans and it was nice that People paid him such a nice tribute, but come on Donna Summer was
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pvd295 — 13 years ago(June 27, 2012 12:43 PM)
Let's face it - right before she died, a Kennedy wife comitted suicide. What will sell magazines more? The death of a legend who lived a quiet, private, happy life with really no scandal or troubles to sensationalize on for their readers, or a Kennedy who's life was filled with scandal and trouble and a magazine could sensationalize to sell more copies? Sadly, with the dumbing down of American culture - the scandal sells.
Paul Ryan's proposal is a budget that goes against the teachings of Jesus. -
FranLovesBetteD — 13 years ago(July 01, 2012 03:01 PM)
This certainly surprises me, Tom, and not necessarily in a good way. I would have expected that her passing would be covered by the US media as deservedly as it is when we talk about a superstar like Donna Summer.
However, I can tell you that it was shocking news in this corner of the world and the rest of South America. For instance, it was the most read news for the next couple of days in the on-line version of the newspaper where I work at, and most people's comments reflected how deep an impact she had in their lives. Most of them described her music as "the soundtrack of my youth".
She's still a much beloved megastar around here, and her name sounds familiar even for people under 20! Most of my co-workers are 20-30, and they were who told me first about her passing after reading about it on Twitter. And she got newspaper covers also; well, not the whole cover, but rather noticeable frames on them. The one where I work at gave her a whole page (not even Whitney Houston got this) and most local news websites also featured their articles with big, beautiful Donna's photos.
I was also surprised that on YouTube so many condolences were written by Spanish speaking people, either from Mxico, Venezuela, Argentina, etc., and from Brazil. Let me tell you that Donna's name is still a big one around here. I just can compare the impact of her death -here in South America- to Michael Jackson's. Yes, it was
that
big.
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop