The Queen of Soul – Aretha Franklin.

I've looked around all over town And I'm so lonely and so blue I've looked around and all over But I can't find nobody like you, you, you, yeah

ARETHA FRANKLIN, the undisputed Queen of Soul who sang with matchless style on such classics as Think, I Say a Little Prayer and her signature song, Respect, and stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died at the age 76 from pancreatic cancer.

A professional singer and accomplished pianist by her late teens and a superstar by her mid20s, Franklin had long ago settled any arguments over who was the greatest popular vocalist of her time. Her gifts, natural and acquired, were a multi-octave mezzo-soprano, gospel passion and training worthy of a preacher’s daughter, taste sophisticated and eccentric, and the courage to channel private pain into liberating song.

Aretha Louise Franklin was born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee. She died yesterday at her home in Detroit.

In 2017, she announced her retirement from touring.

Her last performance was at Elton John’s Aids Foundation benefit in New York last November,

Twenty of her songs have reached No. 1 on the R & B charts. I Franklin has won 18 Grammy awards.

In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Franklin has performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.

Clinton awarded Franklin the National Medal of Arts, while President George W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, in 2005. I Franklin has four sons, having been married twice – to her manager Ted White and later Actor Glynn Turman, whom she later divorced.

I Franklin has collaborated with pop and soul artistes such as Luther Vandross, Elton John, Whitney Houston, George Michael,

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Lauryn Hill.