New York - Creating hits like Hot Stuff, Bad Girls or She Works Hard for the Money, Donna Summer was the undisputed disco-queen of the 1970s and early 80s.

Summer's songs back then topped the charts and were played in clubs and discotheques all over the world, but her era has long since passed.

Yet, the striking black singer with the sexy voice, who turns 60 on December 31, is still every bit a pop queen.

Always self-confident, her latest album, titled Crayons, includes a track called The Queen is Back.

The Rolling Stone magazine said Summers, by developing her unique mix of R&B, pop, funk, soul and rock created a new perception of international pop music.

"Madonna's career without Summer and the Bad Girls? Unthinkable," Rolling Stone wrote.

Europe, in particular Germany, was the early base of her career. Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines to devout Christian parents in Boston, Massachusetts, Summer moved to southern Germany in 1968 for a part in the musical Hair, because she found no job in New York.

She stayed in Bavaria for eight years and married her first husband, Austrian Helmuth Sommer (Summer is an anglicized version of Sommer) and started working with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte.

Love to Love You Baby, her first hit in 1975, was an immediate international scandal with Summer moaning for 17 minutes to the disco beat. According to Time magazine, 22 orgasms had to be faked for the recording.

Summer was immediately branded a sex goddess, while several radio stations banned the song. Hits like I Feel Love, No More Tears, an Academy Award for the title song of Thank God It's Friday, five Grammy Awards, thee consecutive platinum records and 130 million of global album sales followed.

Summer became an international superstar. But there was a price to pay. At the peak of her career, the singer attempt suicide, as mounting career pressure, a failed marriage and a subsequent traumatizing relationship drove Summer ever deeper into depression.

When she attempted to jump out of her Central Park hotel window in New York, she got tangled up in the curtains and was saved by a maid.

The experience turned her into a born-again Christian, the singer later wrote in her autobiography.

Summer has been married to her second husband, singer-songwriter Bruce Sudano, for 28 years. Next to Summer's daughter from her first marriage, the couple has two daughters and several grandchildren.

Summer does not regret that her era as the queen of disco is over. The diva image had been fake, she once said. "At a certain point I started to get rid of the image and confront people with who I really am." (dpa)