A Detroit preacher's daughter who became the Queen of Soul

Aretha Louise Franklin was born in Memphis in 1942 and moved with her family first to Buffalo and then, by the time she was five, to Detroit. Her father, C. L. Franklin, took over as pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church, and her mother was an accomplished pianist and vocalist. It was in that church that she was first noticed for her gospel singing, long before she held a record contract.

At eighteen she signed to Columbia Records, though her career did not flourish immediately. Everything changed after she moved to Atlantic Records in 1966. There she made albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul and Aretha Now in the late 1960s, and Young, Gifted and Black, Amazing Grace and Sparkle in the 1970s. “Respect”, from 1967, has been called her signature song, and she also had “Chain of Fools”, “Think” and “I Say a Little Prayer”.

After leaving Atlantic in 1979 she signed with Arista, which revived her career, and she later scored with “Freeway of Love” and a duet with George Michael, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”. In 1980 she appeared in the film The Blues Brothers. Her catalogue also includes “Spanish Harlem”, “Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)” and “You're All I Need to Get By”.

The honours are long: 18 Grammy Awards from 44 nominations, including the first eight awarded for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Rolling Stone twice named her the greatest singer of all time. She sold more than 75 million records, and after her death in 2018, a Pulitzer Prize jury awarded her a special citation in 2019.