Featured In
ALBUMAretha Franklin Live at Berns Salonger, Stockholm May 2nd. 1968 (Restauración 2023)Aretha Franklin
Albums by Aretha Franklin
ALBUMA Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)Aretha Franklin
ALBUMAretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics: Dance RemixesAretha Franklin
ALBUMAretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva ClassicsAretha Franklin
ALBUMThis ChristmasAretha Franklin
ALBUMDance Vault Mixes: Aretha Franklin - (Pride) A Deeper LoveAretha Franklin
ALBUMSo Damn HappyAretha Franklin
ALBUMA Rose Is Still a RoseAretha Franklin
ALBUMWhat You See Is What You SweatAretha Franklin
ALBUMThrough the Storm (Expanded Edition)Aretha Franklin
ALBUMAretha (Expanded Edition)Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin's Popular Music Videos
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)
Aretha Franklin & George Michael
Honey
Aretha Franklin
Freeway Of Love
Aretha Franklin
How Do You Keep the Music Playing
Aretha Franklin & Tony Bennett
It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be
Aretha Franklin & Whitney Houston
Never Gonna Break My Faith (feat. The Boys Choir of Harlem)
Aretha Franklin
Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves
Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin
Think (1989) [Remake - Official Music Video]
Aretha Franklin
Willing To Forgive
Aretha Franklin
Jimmy Lee
Aretha Franklin
Artist Playlists
Aretha Franklin Essentials
All hail the Queen of Soul.
Aretha Franklin: Love Songs
Let the Queen of Soul educate you on matters of the heart.
Aretha Franklin: Deep Cuts
Aretha was also a gifted interpreter.
Inspired by Aretha Franklin
A roll call of singers who owe a debt of gratitude to Aretha.
Aretha Franklin: Influences
The artists who guided Aretha from the choir loft to center stage.
Aretha Franklin: Sampled
Their original tunes have been the source material for some of modern music’s biggest hits.
Artist Biography
With her inimitable fusion of grace and grit, Aretha Franklin was the definition of soul music. The daughter of renowned Detroit preacher C.L. Franklin, Aretha could testify with all the liberating joy of her gospel roots. She could ache with the sadness of a singer who truly felt the blues, and swing with a playfulness to match her jazz heroes. After nearly a decade honing what would become her singular voice, Franklin—who was born in Memphis in 1942, and died in Detroit in 2018—brought a blast of black-and-proud empowerment to the pop charts at the peak of the civil rights era, using the hard-driving grooves of Alabama studio-session legends the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section to counter Motown’s slick crossover sound. Though rarely straying long from gospel in the decades that followed, Franklin made the brassy 1967 anthem “Respect” her calling card and evolved alongside soul itself, gliding from assertive funk jams to hushed quiet-storm ballads to synth-coated pop hits on 1985's Who’s Zoomin’ Who?. Whether her powerful interpretation of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” or her surprise, show-stopping performance of Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” at the 1998 Grammy Awards, nothing captured Franklin’s range like her trove of covers, which were often so deeply felt that she all but reclaimed them as her own.
Hometown
Memphis, TN, United States
Genre
R&B/Soul