Queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, dies at 76

Before her death, the legendary musician was said to have battled with severe health challenges.

Industry analysts said Franklin’s robust career was one of the most remarkable in the music industry having broken boundaries records.

She held the record for the most-charted female artist in Billboard history for nearly 40 years, with 73 titles in the Hot 100 a feat that was only surpassed by Nicki Minaj.
Franklin started her long and eventful career at the age of 18 when she debuted  “Won’t Be Long,” in 1961. She also racked up 18 Grammy Awards over the course of her career, and in 1987, she was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

And while Franklin is known for her work as a soul singer, her astonishing, powerful, intelligent voice — the voice that the state of Michigan declared as her natural resource  can do almost anything.

“What distinguishes her is not merely the breadth of her catalogue or the cataract force of her vocal instrument,” David Remnick said in 2016, adding that “it’s her musical intelligence, her way of singing behind the beat, of spraying a wash of notes over a single word or syllable, of constructing, moment by moment, the emotional power of a three-minute song. ‘Respect’ is as precise an artifact as a Ming vase.”