A MUSICAL LEGEND PASSES AWAY

Aug 18, 2018 Editorial

The world mourns the passing of the Queen of Soul, the legendary Aretha Franklin.
The 18-time Grammy Award winning singer died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 76. Within minutes of the news of her death, musicians, actors, producers, high-profile executives and political figures from around the world paid tribute to the iconic singer.
President Donald Trump said, Aretha Franklin was a great human being and her voice was a wonderful gift from God.
In paying homage to her, former President Barack Obama, who was famously moved to tears by Franklin’s rendition of “A Natural Woman” at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, graciously said: “Every time Franklin sang we were all graced with a glimpse of the divine, and her compositions and unmatched musicianship helped define the American experience. 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. She helped us feel more connected to each other, more hopeful, more human. And sometimes she helped us just forget about everything else and dance. America, he opined, has no royalty, but we do have a chance to earn something more enduring. Aretha may have passed on to a better place, but the gift of her music remains to inspire us all.”
Born in Memphis and raised in Detroit where she spent most of her childhood and adult life, Aretha Franklin grew up performing gospel songs in her father’s church. By the age of 14, the young prodigy learned to play piano and with her father’s encouragement, Franklin recorded her first musical album—a blend of gospel and jazz. By 1961, she transitioned into pop music and between 1961 and 1969, she recorded 10 albums with Columbia Records. Franklin’s prolific musical career spanned six decades and included her hit songs like “Respect,” “A Natural Woman” and “I Say a Little Prayer.” Throughout her career, she sold more than 75 million albums and earned almost US$120 million.
One of the most celebrated singers in American history, Aretha Franklin was a trailblazer and the epitome of success. The Queen of Soul earned 44 Grammy Awards nominations and won 18 of them including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Medal of Arts. She was the youngest artist to receive the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors and the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The multiple Grammy award-winning singer sang for the Pope during his visit to Philadelphia in 2014, and at the inaugurations of Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and was bestowed with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President George W. Bush in 2005. Franklin also sang at the funerals of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Mahalia Jackson.
Despite her success, Franklin did not have an easy life. Her mother left when she was just 6 years old, and died four years later from a heart attack. Her father raised her as a single parent. Before she became famous, Aretha was a mother at age 13, and had the second of her four children by age 15. Franklin also struggled with depression, alcoholism, her weight and the fear of flying. In spite of her problems, her legacy remained strong. Her last public performance was at the Elton John AIDS Foundation in New York City in 2017. Her 1967 hit “Respect” became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement and the mantra for feminism and will forever be her signature song. Aretha Franklin, one of the greatest voices in American popular music has been stilled but her memory lives on.

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