Donna to join US rock Hall of Fame

 LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Disco queen Donna Summer, who died in May, is to join the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Canadian rockers Rush and hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy, it was announced Tuesday.

Veteran female rockers Heart, blues legend Albert King and singer-songwriter Randy Newman will also join the music pantheon, while producers Lou Adler and Quincy Jones will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, given to non-performers.

“This year’s class of inductees ... again represents the broad, compelling and significant definition of rock and roll,” said Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation boss Joel Peresman. Grammy-winning disco diva Summer, who topped the charts repeatedly in the 1970s and ‘80s with raunchy hits like “Love to Love You Baby” and “Hot Stuff,” died of lung cancer in May, aged 63. Progressive rock group Rush, formed in Toronto in 1968 and known for classic albums including “2112” from 1976 and 1981’s “Moving Pictures,” were already inducted into Canada’s Music Hall of Fame in 1994.

Hip hop veterans Public Enemy, known for politically-charged lyrics, were formed in New York in 1982 and were named among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004.

Heart, led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, have been together for four decades, hit the big time with their debut 1976 album “Dreamboat Annie.” The band returned to the Billboard Top 10 with 2010’s “Red Velvet Car.” Sixty-nine year-old Newman’s career ranges from pop ballads to Oscar-winning songs for movies including “Toy Story 3,” while blues guitarist King, who died in 1992, was a major influence on generations of musicians. Producers Adler and Jones will receive an award named after Ertegun, the Turkish-American music entrepreneur who founded Atlantic Records and championed artists from Led Zeppelin to the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin. The stars will be inducted into the Cleveland, Ohio-based Hall of Fame in Los Angeles on April 18 next year, the first time the ceremony has been held on the West Coast since 1993.