QUEEN OF SOUL ARETHA
FRANKLIN HEAVEN BOUND
Tributes have flooded in for “boundary breaking” soul legend Aretha Franklin, who has died aged 76 after suffering from advanced pancreatic
cancer.
US presidents past and present joined entertainment stars and fans across the globe in remembering the Queen of Soul following her death on Thursday, with Barack Obama and wife Michelle describing her as “divine and unmatched”.
Her representative, Gwendolyn Quinn, confirmed that the singer had passed away at 9.50am local time at her home in Detroit, Michigan.
In a statement, her family labelled her as “the matriarch and rock of our family”, and said her death was “one of the darkest moments of our lives”.
They thanked fans around the world for their “compassion and prayers”, adding: “We have felt your love for Aretha and it brings us comfort to know that her legacy will live on.” The singer - born on 25 March, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, to a preacher father and pianist and vo
mother - had cancelled recent shows due to ill health, and was later reported to be seriously ill.
Stars were quick to mourn the loss of the soul legend, with Sir Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Lionel Richie and Carole King among the artists paying their respects. Franklin sang at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, and the former president who was brought to tears by another of her performances in Washington in 2015 - was quick to issue a powerful tribute with his wife.
“Through her compositions and unmatched musicianship, Aretha helped define the American experience,” they said.
“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.