ARETHA SINGS FOR FRANCIS
SHE’S sold tens of millions of albums, played in almost every major venue in the world and even sang at President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. But there are some things that still make Aretha Franklin nervous, and one of them is the thought of performing for Pope Francis on Saturday night in Philadelphia. “I do have some butterflies,” she tells The Post. “It doesn’t happen often!”
After completing his visit to New York, the Argentine pontiff will get a taste of the soul sister in the City of Brotherly Love. Franklin is due to sing twice on Saturday at the Festival of Families in Philly y. One song will be the gospel standards “Amazing Grace,” while the second is someth ing that Franklin is keepingg close to her chest. “I want it to be a surprise, but I thi ink Pope Francis will likee it.”
She a lso plans on pres enting Pope Fr rancis with a boxed set of he er father’s sermon ns. “He was sa theologian and d gave very dynam- ic and educational sermons,” she explains of C.CL. Franklin, who died in 1984, andd whose Baptist church in Detroit was where a young Arretha found her footing as a singer. “If he ccould have met the pope, it would have been a very exciting disccussion.”
It’s not the first time Franklin has given her vocal glory to a pope. In 1987, she sang for John Paul II from a distance, as his motorcade was winging its way through the Motor City. But this time she hopes to get much closer to Pope Francis, and give her approval firsthand.
“He shows he has personal humility when he talks about himself as the son of an immigrant,” she adds. “He remembers where he comes from, and he has not been overwhelmed by the things he’s been given or the huge title of pope. There’s a greatness in humility. I subscribe to that myself in my life. I don’t get carried away with the things that people give me, because people don’t have to give you anything!”
It doesn’t sound like the sort of statement you might expect from one of the great music divas of all time, but the 73-year-old has cut a slightly humbler figure in recent years, following a serious but undisclosed illness (reported to be cancer) that forced her to cancel shows in 2010. In more recent concerts (such as her 2014 two-night stand at Radio City), Franklin has explained that she credits her own faith for her recovery. “I don’t want to play down the importance of doctors — they burn the midnight oil doing what they do,” she says. “But my faith was in what God could do, and it never wavered.”