Donna Summer: Justifying her comeback

Donna Summer is at home in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her second husband, Bruce Sudano, and the youngest of her three daughters.

Summer, 59, has just released her first studio album in 17 years, Crayons, which sounds like the kind of out-of-date R&B that any self-respecting soul diva would turn her nose up at. "My dream is that when people hear the music it will remind them of the wonder they felt exploring their first pack of crayons," she tells me.

Summer gathered around her hit songwriters and producers including Greg Kurstin (who worked with Lily Allen and Pink) and Evan Bogart (who co-wrote Rihanna's hit "SOS"). Their collaboration bore fruit, and since the album's release in May, the five-time Grammy winner has had two No 1 hits with "I'm Fire" and "Stamp Your Feet".

Summer had to fight for the album's name. "The title came to me while sitting writing in the studio with another co-writer, Danielle Brisebois. She said, 'You know what? We are like crayons melting in the sunshine.' I immediately knew what the title would be. They looked at me like I was crazy because they wanted to call it 'The Queen is Back'".

Listen to a clip of 'The Queen is Back'

For Summer, the golden days ended musically in 1991, when her album Mistaken Identity flopped. These days, she can often be found lazing on her back patio reading the Bible. "I usually get up at about 8.30am – I make coffee and take vitamins. I meditate for an hour and that centres me for the day."

Still, life has remained pretty hectic, as Summer spends her time painting, touring, co-writing her autobiography, going on TV shows, even writing musicals. "I paint people from the inside out,that's why my paintings are abstract and not well-defined, because who can truly know the heart of another person?" But hasn't she missed recording?

"The rest of my career is still going on – it's just under the radar," she replies. "You kick it up a notch when you have your records out. When my children were younger I tried to get away from that paparazzi vibe and get a real life." Ultimately, though, Summer didn't want to end up "a desperate housewife", and decided to "go for it" again.

There had been times when this urge wasn't there, she says. "Like a lot of artists, I feel that record companies are too dominant. They don't give you the freedom you need." But then Burgundy Records came knocking. "They wanted me to do an album with standards. 'I did that back in my day,' I said, 'it's walking backwards. I'd like to do a new album."

Listen to a clip of 'Stamp Your Feet'

She managed to strike a compromise – "I agreed I'd do one old song" – but by the time she got into the studio, "they never brought up doing an old song again. I'm a songwriter – I don't need to do other people for songs." Summer wrote the 1979 hits "On The Radio" and "Bad Girls" one time through. "I wrote them at the microphone. I ad-libbed the whole song." "I Feel Love" took longer, because once she had co-written it with Pete Bellotte, it was a mouthful to sing. "I tried to sing it and there were just so many words blocking the melody. We narrowed it down to one-liners that flowed – "I feel love... it's so good... heaven knows". Giorgio Moroder was adamant about participating in this new format. We were excited."

The record company were less thrilled, however. They made it a B-side of another song. "It took a week or two and the radio stations flipped it, the rest is history."

Listen to a clip of 'I'm a Fire'

Back in the beginning of her career, Summer was pushed into to singing her breakthrough hit, 'Love to Love You Baby' in 1975. "No I didn't want to sing it! I was brought up in a Christian family and the whole feel of the music is sexy. I didn't write any lyric to that song. I just came up with the title." Under the impression that Moroder and Bellotte would find another girl to sing the song, she was shocked to discover that they had sold her demo. Then Casablanca President Neil Bogart wanted a longer version and signed me to his label.

Summer says she expects to write many more songs. "Ella Fitzgerald sang throughout her whole life. I have no intention of stopping."

'Crayons' is out now (www.donnasummer.com)