Queen of Soul’s long reign is over
LONDON: Nobody wore a fur coat quite like Aretha Franklin. She loved to shrug it off dramatically mid-song – a Gospel music tradition to indicate emotional abandon.
In her case, the fur helped remind her audience they were in the presence of royalty.
She was the “Queen of Soul” and nobody dare forget it. On the few occasions someone made that mistake, her regal behaviour could be quelling. When Beyoncé introduced Tina Turner as “the Queen” at the 2008 Grammy Awards, Aretha took it as an insult, angrily telling reporters it had been a “cheap shot for controversy”.
Now, Aretha’s long reign is over. The woman who Rolling Stone magazine judged to be the greatest singer of all time died aged 76 on Wednesday at her home in Detroit, Michigan.
She had been receiving hospice care for advanced pancreatic cancer, a disease she had been fighting since 2010. Although her health had been crippled by years of alcoholism, heavy smoking and obesity, she announced only in February last year that she was retiring. An appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest in April was cancelled on doctor’s orders.
Her family said: “In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart. We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family. The love she had for her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins knew no bounds.”
Her last performance, appearing as a frail shadow of herself, was at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York during Elton John’s 25th anniversary gala for his Aids Foundation in November 2017.
On Thursday, Elton paid tribute: “The loss of Aretha Franklin is a blow for everybody who loves real music: music from the heart, the soul and the church. Her voice was unique, her piano playing underrated – she was one of my favourite pianists.”
For decades, Franklin had been an icon of black America. Aged 26, she sang Precious Lord at Martin Luther King’s funeral in 1968 and, more than 40 years later, performed My Country, ‘Tis of Thee at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. When she sang (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman in front of him six years later, he was seen wiping away tears before she had finished the first verse.
“American history wells up when Aretha sings,” he once said. “Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock ‘n’ roll – the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope.”
Aretha sold more than 75 million records, won 18 Grammy awards and had 20 No 1 singles in a career of more than 60 years, from her first album Songs Of Faith in 1956 to her last, A Brand New Me, released in November 2017.
It was Bill Clinton who kickstarted her later career. Keen to capture the black vote, he asked her to sing at the Democrat national convention in 1992. On becoming president, he repaid the favour by inviting her to the White House.
The Diva was back and to celebrate she bought a mink coat so big it needed its own seat when she took it off – as famously happened when she went to see the musical Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. – Daily Mail