The Queen of Soul is gone.
Aretha Franklin, the sensational songbird whose voice was sweeter than honey to millions, making her an inspirational American icon and one of the most admired vocalists of all time, died Thursday after battling advanced pancreatic cancer. She died surrounded by family and loved ones at her home in Detroit, her publicist said. She was 76.
“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,” Franklin’s family said in a statement through publicist Gwendolyn Quinn. “We have been deeply touched by the incredible outpouring of love and support we have received from close friends, supporters and fans all around the world. Thank you for your compassion and prayers. We have felt your love for Aretha, and it brings us comfort to know that her legacy will live on. As we grieve, we ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time.”
Franklin died at 9:50 a.m. local time, with the official cause of death “due to advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type,” confirmed by Franklin’s oncologist, Dr. Philip Phillips of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in the Motor City, Franklin was firmly rooted in gospel but also excelled in the worlds of jazz, R&B and pop. She collected 20 Grammys — including a lifetime achievement award — covering a span of four decades; was the first woman enshrined into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 1987); and, befitting a queen, was named No. 1 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
She sold more than 75 million records worldwide, according to one estimate, and had 10 Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month stretch beginning in early 1967. A tireless road warrior, Franklin also sold millions of concert tickets, almost always arriving to shows in her custom bus (she had a fear of flying).
Franklin’s signature song, the 1967 smash “Respect” for her first album for Atlantic Records, became a battle cry for the feminist and civil rights movements. Recorded two years earlier by Otis Redding from a man’s point of view, her righteous reworking pushed “Groovin’ ” by The Young Rascals from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
“It was the need of a nation, the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher — everyone wanted respect,” Franklin wrote in her 1999 autobiography, Aretha: From These Roots. “It became the ‘respect’ women expected from men and men expected from women, the inherent right of all human beings.”
A list of her other musical gems seems to go on forever: the bopping “Think” (which she memorably performed in The Blues Brothers film); “Chain of Fools,” “Baby, I Love You,” “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman,” “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” “Spanish Harlem,” “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do),” “Freeway of Love” and “I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me),” her other No. 1 hit, performed with George Michael.
“You know a force from heaven. You know something that God made. And Aretha is a gift from God,” Mary J. Blige wrote for Rolling Stone in 2008. “When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing.”
Born on March 25, 1942, Franklin moved to Detroit with her family at age 4. She sang gospel songs with her sisters Carolyn and Erma in the New Bethel Baptist Church that was built and presided over by her father, the fiery Rev. C.L. Franklin (a renowned gospel vocalist in his own right). Visitors to the church included Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and Martin Luther King Jr.
Known as “Ree” to those closest to her, Franklin recorded her first album at age 14, and shortly after her 18th birthday, she was signed by renowned Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond, who compared her with another singer he had discovered years earlier — Billie Holiday.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter