10 Artists Who Left Amazing Bands To Create Something Better

5. Diana Ross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoRBFNOgeHw Diana Ross€™s pioneering performing career began as a member of the iconic 1960s Motown Records pop group, The Supremes. When they first started recording, the three women in the group switched off on lead vocals. By 1963, famed record producer and Motown founder Berry Gordy mandated that Ross sing lead on each song. The group hit No. 1 in the U.S. with their single Where Did Our Love Go, kick-starting a phenomenal run of chart success in both the U.S. and the U.K. As the group became more successful, Ross was moved more and more into the spotlight. Eventually, The Supremes became Diana Ross and The Supremes, before she officially went solo in 1970. Ross€™s career continued to soar without her €œbackup€ singers. Her first solo album featured the single Ain€™t No Mountain High Enough, her first number-one record without the Supremes. By the late 1970s, her pop career started to fade, so Ross reinvented herself as a disco singer. Working with members of the American band Chic, Ross€™s 1980 album Diana became her most successful solo album, generating such dance hits as Upside Down, I€™m Coming Out and It€™s My Turn. As she found new ways to succeed in the studio, Ross also evolved into a multi-faceted entertainer. She won a Golden Globe Award and was an Academy Award nominee for her role as jazz icon Billie Holliday in the 1972 film, Lady Sings the Blues. In 1977, she won a Tony Award for her one-woman show on Broadway, An Evening with Diana Ross. In 1993, Diana Ross was declared the most successful female music artist in history by the Guinness Book of World Records.