All month long we are celebrating our contribution to music…Today we look at an icon min music whether its Gospel or R&B She is still “The Queen Of SOUL!!!! Ms Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career performing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin‘s church at 10. Eight years later, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as “Respect“, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “Think“. These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul by the end of the 1960s decade.
Franklin eventually recorded a total of 88 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries and twenty number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart’s history. Franklin also recorded acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul, Young, Gifted & Black and Amazing Grace before experiencing problems with her record company by the mid-1970s. After her father was shot in 1979, Franklin left Atlantic and signed with Arista Records, finding success with a cameo role in the film, The Blues Brothers and with the albums, Jump to It and Who’s Zoomin’ Who. In 1998, Franklin won international acclaim for singing the opera aria, “Nessun Dorma“, at theGrammys of that year replacing Luciano Pavarotti. Later that same year, she recorded her final top 40 recording with “A Rose Is Still a Rose“.
Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling female artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide.Franklin has been honored throughout her career including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which she became the first female performer to be inducted. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In August 2012, Franklin was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Franklin is listed in at least two all-time lists on Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in which she topped the latter list.
Biography courtesy of Wikipedia.com
