Frequently Asked Questions

1. When is Donna Summer coming to my town?   All the tour dates I know about are posted on the news page.  If no dates are posted, then it means Donna is not touring at this time. If dates are listed and your town is not listed, then that means no appearance has been scheduled there at this time. Of course tour info can change without warning so check in regularly to see if anything new has been added. As soon as I learn of any public appearances I will add them to the site - even if it means an early update.

2. When is a new CD coming out? Not soon enough!  LOL But seriously, as soon as there is a release date, it will be posted in the news section. If you want to keep updated with all the info we have so far, check out the upcoming projects section.

3. Where can I buy....?   Well, it depends on what you are looking for.  Ebay is probably the number one place to grab rare collectibles (or downright weird things sometimes). And check out some of the links on my links page for good sources of current and rare recordings. I have a number of vendors listed and I add more now and then. In the interests of full disclosure, I am affiliated with Amazon.com but I won't hold it against you if you shop elsewhere.  ;-)  If you are looking for Donna's paintings, the place to go is Donna Summer Enterprises. Email me directly for contact info.

4. Where can I find the words to my favorite Donna Summer song?   Hugo has a Donna Summer Lyrics website that is devoted almost entirely to lyrics. In fact he has the lyrics to all of Donna's songs posted - and he's broken it up by album. And more recently, Sandro at Forever Donna has added a lyric section that is very comprehensive. His section is organized by song title rather than by album. (You will NOT find I Will Survive on either site. See # 9 below.)

5. When's Donna's birthday? How many Grammys has she won?  Where was she born? Is she married? Does she have kids? What did she eat for breakfast?   Boy you ask a lot of questions! Check out my biography page for answers to those questions and more. (Well, except for the breakfast thing..... if I shared EVERYTHING it would ruin the mystique.  LOL) Note to kids writing school reports: I'll be happy to direct you to good sources of information, but you'll have to do your own research. I already wrote my fair share of term papers many years ago!  ;-)

6. Where does Donna live? In a house, silly!  ;-) But seriously, over the years she has maintained homes in Los Angeles, New York, Connecticut, and Nashville. If you want an actual street address - you have to ask her yourself!

7. How do you know all this stuff?  You may be surprised to find out I get a lot of my information from visitors like you. Granted, over the years I have made a few contacts - but even so the bulk of my information comes from other fans who have seen things in their local papers, talked to contacts of their own, run into things on their local television stations, found things while surfing the internet, etc. I really have to do very little leg work myself. What I do mainly, is I take all the little pieces everyone sends me and I try to put it together in some kind of coherent (or sometimes incoherent) order.

8. How can I email Donna?  Well, at this time Donna does NOT have a public email address. I can forward messages to her people for you, but I CANNOT guarantee a personal reply. If Donna personally answered all her fan mail, she'd have no time to do anything else!  

9. Where is Donna's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located? You will find it at 7000 Hollywood Blvd by the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It's in front of the parking structure on the side of the building facing Hollywood Blvd. I've never been there myself, but I understand that's not necessarily the nicest part of Los Angeles - so check it out in the daytime.

10. I've looked ALL OVER your site and I can't find one mention of my favorite Donna Summer song, I Will Survive. What gives?  Well, it is a good song - unfortunately it's not a Donna song. It was recorded by Gloria Gaynor, but don't feel bad - many, many people have made the same mistake. (Why else would I mention it here?) For more information on I Will Survive, try Gloria's official website at: www.gloriagaynor.com.

11. Just how often do you update around here?  I try to update the news about once a week (usually on the weekend), but sometimes that varies due to my personal commitments or due to the availability of news. (When something important happens I have been known to update early, or more than once a week.) The Summer Fever page is changed as close to the first of each month as possible. Other pages are updated only as needed - significant updates will be mentioned in the site news section of the news page.

12. Where can I buy Donna's artwork? You need to contact Donna Summer Enterprises out in LA. The address, phone, and email address are available upon request - just email the webmaster for info.

13. I have a Donna Summer painting and I want to know what it's worth. Unfortunately, I am not qualified to appraise anything. (But I am qualified to stand in front of your painting and say "Wow, I bet that's worth big bucks!" LOL) If you need the value for insurance purposes, then you need to find an appraiser that your insurance company will recognize. If you are looking to sell your painting, then I suggest putting it up for auction.

14. Every once in awhile you mention "the vault". What is that? You'll see "the vault" mentioned on the forums quite a bit. Over the years Donna has recorded plenty of songs that never made it on to an album for whatever reason. There are demos that never made it past the demo stage, songs that just didn't fit the theme of the album they were meant for, songs the record company didn't like, you name it. We refer to those unreleased tracks as being "in the vault." 

15. I clicked on a Donna Summer link someplace that took me to a site with lots of profanity and weird stuff. It sort of freaked me out. What's up with that? I'm glad you asked. Believe it or not, there are two Donna Summers. The one we all know and love (of course) and some musician/DJ guy who does some kind of strange hard rock thing. If you ran into weird things that don't fit our Donna's image, then you probably found that other guy. (And yes, he really is a GUY using the name Donna Summer.) If you ran into a site that is associated with cockrockdisco.com, then you found that other guy. And if you found a lot of profanity, then you found me after a computer crash ate my updates!   ;-)

Abbreviations commonly used on this site and the forum:

LOL = laughing out loud
ROTFL = rolling on the floor laughing
IMHO =  in my humble opinion
:-)  = smile
;-)  = wink
:-(  = frown
:-Þ  = sticking tongue out

Additionally, on occasion you may find song titles or album titles abbreviated. (This happens more on the online forums than it does on this site.) Generally speaking titles are shortened to just the first letters of each word in the title. So I Will Go With You becomes IWGWY. Live & More Encore becomes LME, L&ME or even LAME, Ordinary Girl becomes OG, etc. If you ever run into an abbreviation somewhere that you don't understand, just ASK. Most people are happy to explain.