The 1975 Donna Summer Hit That Caused a Terrifying Crowd Reaction: “I Thought I Was Going To Die”

The barrier—whether real or imaginary—between an audience and a performer is a delicate one to maintain. Too far, and the performance feels cold and distant. Too close, and suddenly, the performer is one person fighting against the dangers of a massive, surging crowd. Even today’s security standards don’t always protect all involved. And they certainly fell short for Donna Summer during a mid-1970s concert in Italy.

The sequin-clad Queen of Disco released her hit song, “Love to Love You Baby”, in March 1975. With its hypnotic rhythms and copious breathy moans, the song whipped audiences into a sexual fervor. The 16-minute-long disco track became a staple in nightclubs all over the world, and Summer became a sex symbol whether she liked it or not.

She didn’t, by the way. “I didn’t particularly care for the sex image,” Summer said in a 2023 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. “I thought it was kind of narrow. And I felt like I was going to have to break out real soon, otherwise I wasn’t going to make it. So, you know, initially, for the record, it was what—you know—what sold the record. But it wasn’t a place that I was comfortable.” It would only take a few months for that discomfort to blossom into full-on terror after a show in Italy turned riotous.

The Concert Turned So Raucous, Donna Summer Thought She Was Going To Die

Donna Summer’s hit song “Love to Love You Baby” might have catapulted the singer to stardom, but she soon came to realize that it also painted her in a corner. Interviewers constantly hounded her with questions about her moans of ecstasy on the record, baiting her into confirming their most intimate fantasies of Summer in the studio. Her makeup artist, hairstylist, and fashion stylist helped further develop this hypersexual image, and the world ate it up. But during a mid-70s concert in Italy, Summer realized that the world’s appetite had become too voracious, and she was in danger because of it.

Speaking to The Telegraph in 2008, Summer recalled the harrowing moment that a concert turned into a full-blown riot. “I was in a tent in Italy, 5,000 men, almost no women, and I was doing ‘Love to Love You Baby’. I was fairly scantily clad (I was fairly young). And the guys got so wrapped up that they began to push the stage back. And I had to run off the stage to my trailer out the back. They came to the trailer and started to rock it. Five thousand guys in a little village in Italy! I just thought, ‘I’m going to die today. I’m not going to get out of here.’ It’s not the kind of song you just want to throw out there.”

Why the Disco Legend Took Her Critics’ Side in Later Years

Radio stations in the U.S. and U.K. seemed to agree with Donna Summer’s sentiment that “Love to Love You Baby” wasn’t “the kind of song you want to throw out there.” Countless radio stations banned the track from airplay due to its suggestive content. (History would show that did little but pique the interest of those who likely would have listened anyway.) In her later years, Summer would come to agree with her critics—and radio stations’ decision not to play the song. She herself denounced the risqué track, separating herself from the breathless sex kitten who got the whole world hot and bothered in 1975.

“They were afraid of what it would perpetrate among the youth, and I don’t disagree with them on this end of it as a mother,” Summer told The Telegraph. “I would not have chosen that specific song to open my career with. But I accept that’s what happened. And I tried my best to parlay the success of that record into something else and get away from that imagery as soon as I could.”

(Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)