Aretha Franklin Announces Retirement After One Last Album

Christina Lee | February 9, 2017 10:54 am
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Aretha Franklin, 18-time Grammy-winning Queen of Soul, has plans to retire this year. After releasing one last LP in September, she will perform select gigs but mostly focus on spending time with her grandchildren.

“I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now,” she said to Detroit’s NBC affiliate WDIV Local 4. “I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.”

Aretha has influenced the likes of Whitney Houston with her music, including renditions of Otis Redding‘s “Respect” and Carole King‘s “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman.” In 1987, she became the first female inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The last album Aretha released was 2014’s Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, its lead single being her rendition of Adele‘s “Rolling in the Deep.” Her last hurrah will feature all original material along with production by Stevie Wonder.

Below, see Aretha Franklin talk her retirement and perform the U.S. National Anthem (at an unprecedented 4:30, at that) before the Detroit Lions played the Minnesota Vikings last Thanksgiving Day.

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