Do we like Diana Ross?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean harm record and a warm run with LGBTQ+ fans, held back by one contested defence of a friend and thin evidence of charity.
Diana Ross is 82 and still headlining. In August she closed Brighton and Hove Pride, working through Upside Down, Baby Love, Chain Reaction, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Stop! In the Name Of Love. That is a Motown career that has simply never stopped.
Her one proper brush with the law is an old one. After a December 2002 arrest in Tucson, she pleaded no contest to DUI in February 2004 by phone and was sentenced to 48 hours in jail plus a year of unsupervised probation. Two related charges were dropped. Then came a stoush over where she served it: the magistrate ordered her back to Arizona, before withdrawing that order in March 2004 and finding she had served 47 hours in Connecticut.
Last December her face turned up in a social-media storm. A redacted photo of a fundraiser, showing Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson and Ross, was posted by a White House deputy press secretary in a way that implied a link to the Epstein files. Online sleuths identified it as a public event photo. The Daily Dot reported no correction, but nothing suggests Ross did anything wrong, and the smear was aimed at her.
On the harm check, we found nothing from her against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no Trump-style grievance slide, but the record is thin rather than loud. The mark is 2019. After the documentary Leaving Neverland, in which two men accuse Jackson of abuse (his family denies it), she tweeted that he “was and is a magnificent incredible force to me and to many others” and asked critics to stop. Some found that tone-deaf toward the alleged victims; others read it as plain loyalty to a friend.
The Brighton show is the recent chapter. Organisers booked her for the 35th anniversary, with managing director Paul Kemp saying she supported the LGBT community during the AIDS crisis. Attitude's reviewer called the new song Be You a cute number, not a chart-topper, but it was written for the occasion. She told the crowd 'Move it or lose it!' and left them with 'If you need me, call me'.
Honest gap: we couldn't verify specific charity work, so the good stuff here is mostly her long, visible bond with queer audiences. I'm Coming Out, which Kemp tied to the Nile Rodgers origin story, has been a Pride staple for decades and she's still turning up for it. That counts for something real, even if it isn't a donation receipt.