Diana Ross Invests in Motown, to Resume Recording for Label

Diana Ross has become a part-owner of Motown Records and has agreed to resume recording for the label she helped propel to popularity in the 1960s.

The size of the singer’s investment in the company was not revealed when the deal was announced late Monday.

Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. sold the company in June to a partnership of MCA Inc. and Boston Ventures, an investment firm, for a reported $61 million. At the time of the sale, a Motown spokeswoman said Ross intended to return to Motown.

MCA did not say how her investment might fit in with the company’s promise to maintain 20% minority ownership in Motown, once considered one of the nation’s largest and most successful black-owned businesses.

Ross, who recorded on Motown with the Supremes in the 1960s but who left the label in 1980 to sign with RCA records, signed an exclusive contract with the new Motown, the company said. Her first new Motown album, “Workin’ Overtime,” is scheduled for release in early May.