Aretha Franklin, the ‘Queen of Soul,’ Dead at 76

The opera master was her friend, so when he fell ill at the last moment, Franklin stepped in to sing his most famous aria: Nussun Dorma. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade – our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect.

Franklin passed away at 9.50am surrounded by family and friends at her home in Detroit where she had been under hospice care, a statement read.

In 2000, Aretha Franklin returned for Blues Brothers 2000, reprising the role of Mrs. Murphy, this time performing “Respect”. Franklin died Thursday in Detroit. She was not yet out of her teens when she signed as a secular singer with Columbia Records in 1961.

That brought her several R&B hits, and one which broke into Billboard’s top 40 in 1961, “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby (With A Dixie Melody)”. It’s not. It’s the legendary singer Patti LaBelle.

By the end of the 1960s she had gained the title “Queen of Soul”.

Franklin was born with musical roots, as her mother, Barbara Siggers Franklin, was a pianist and vocalist, and her father, Clarence LaVaughn Franklin, was a pastor. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it.

Listen to How I Got Over to hear a pop star still invested in looking beyond herself. Its hook could have grounded a “90s Mariah Carey hit, and it did, in a contorted appropriation, form the basis for a T.I. single in the early ’00s”.

When contacted for further clarification on the photo and performance, Fox News directed EW to the AP photo used in the tribute, saying the caption “notes Aretha Franklin performed at the same event that night”. The legend will live on years after her lifetime.

By 17, she had given birth to two children and later had two other sons. “I’m feeling wonderful, I’m feeling great and I couldn’t be feeling any better than I’m feeling right now”, she assured Williams without getting into specifics. She had lifelong battles with her weight and with alcoholism.

King was a frequent guest in her father’s home.

“She had a lifelong, unwavering commitment to civil rights and was one of the strongest supporters of the movement”.

She is recognized as a global icon and performed at the 2009 Barack Obama Inauguration. Aretha would later sing at Dr King’s funeral. She was also the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Given the impact she has made, her death was openly mourned by fans, celebrities, and even Presidents Barrack Obama and Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Franklin was visited by performer Stevie Wonder and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

However, at no time during that performance did LaBelle and Franklin share the stage.

Aretha said, “Okay, uh.great gowns, lovely gowns”.

NY street artists have taken to honoring the singer in a unique way, with some temporary stencil art at the Franklin Avenue subway station in Brooklyn.

In February 2017, she said she would keep recording but retire from touring after a limited run of concerts marking a new album that year, A Brand New Me, which featured her doing some of her biggest hits with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The hugely influential singer had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, according to her publicist.