Singer Aretha Franklin, 'queen of soul', dies aged 76

August 18, 2018

US singer Aretha Franklin died in her, Michigan home on Thursday morning, her publicist Gwendolyn Quinn stated on behalf of the family. According to the statement, the official cause of death was. Per the statement, Franklin died at about 9:50 am, "surrounded by family and loved ones. 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."

Aretha Louise Franklin was born in, Tennessee on March 25, 1942. After some time in Buffalo, New York, the family settled in Detroit around 1946. Her father was a preacher, and Aretha sang solos at his church when she was 10. Her mother died that year, having left the family four years earlier. Aretha had her first son before age 13, and recorded gospel music at 14. She contracted in 1956 to, with her father's help, then in 1960 to , and in 1966 to. At Atlantic she focused on soul and (R&B), and was highly successful. She acquired the nickname "the Queen of Soul" in 1967. Over the next seven years she was 33 times on the R&B list. One of her signature songs, , won her the for best R&B performance in 1968, and she won best R&B performance every year from then through 1975. In 1987 she became the first woman in the.

Franklin's musical career resurged in the 1980s. Her last number-one hit was a 1987 duet with British singer George Michael, . Her last public performance was in November of last year, at an event in New York City. As of June last year, according to , she was working on an album of collaborations with others, mentioning, Elton John, and.

Franklin's career was entwined with the civil rights movement. Her father's politics brought her in contact with, with whom she toured in the late 1950s. Her father was involved in organizing the 1963 Detroit with King, and when King was assassinated in 1968, she sang at his funeral. Respect, and others of her songs, became anthems for the civil rights and feminism movements. She told  in 2015 she didn't record Respect for a political movement; "Not just me or the civil rights movement or women &mdash; it's important to people. And I was asked what recording of mine I'd put in a time capsule, and it was Respect. Because people want respect &mdash; even small children, even babies. As people, we deserve respect from one another."

She sang at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration as President of the United States. On her death, Barack Obama tweeted, "Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade &mdash; our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace."

Aretha Franklin is survived by sons Clarence, Edward, Ted, and Kecalf.