Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1942, but was raised mostly in Detroit, where her father, C.L. Franklin, was a prominent minister and a nationally known gospel singer. Franklin sang in the choir of her father’s church and, though she declined her dad’s offer of piano lessons and taught herself instead, began recording gospel music at age 14. She toured the gospel circuit with her father, befriending stars such as Mahalia Jackson and Sam Cooke.

She was signed to Columbia Records in 1960 by John Hammond, the eagle-eyed talent scout who also discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, but she had only limited success at the label. It wasn’t until her arrival at Atlantic Records in the decade’s second half that she gave up trying to become a polished all-purpose entertainer for a career as a soul and R&B singer, backed by an earthy rhythm section from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Over a year-and-a-half stretch from 1967 to 1968, Franklin racked up 10 Top Ten hits. Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as “Respect”, “Chain of Fools”, “Think”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman”, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” and “I Say a Little Prayer”. By the end of the 1960s she was being called “The Queen of Soul”.

The hits kept coming throughout the early 1970s, including “Spanish Harlem” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” By the late ’70s, Franklin’s star power began to wane, as the golden age of soul ended and as critics and fans became less enthusiastic about her continuing output. However, she re-emerged in the 1980s, releasing the 1985 album “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”, which spawned the hit “Freeway of Love.”
She also collaborated with the Eurythmics on “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” and British pop star George Michael on the smash duet, “I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me).” The latter hit No. 1, her last chart-topper.

Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and 20 number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart’s history.

She saw a number of resurgences in the past three decades and her image as a pop icon endured, with President Barack Obama featuring her singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” at his inauguration in 2009. She also performed at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1992. Franklin was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2005.

The singer had been reported to be in failing health for years and appeared frail in recent photos, but she kept her struggles private. In February 2017, Franklin announced she would stop touring, but she continued to book concerts. Earlier this year, she canceled a pair of performances, including at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, on doctor’s orders. The singer’s final public performance was last November, when she sang at an Elton John AIDS Foundation gala in New York. Franklin died at her home on August 16, 2018, aged 76. The cause was reported to be pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor