(Note from Erin: I was so fortunate to see Aretha live in Pittsburg, Pennslyvania. We sat in the front row and she sang right to us. And another time in Los Angeles, I had the pleasure of meeting her and speaking with her. She was a treasure and will be missed.)
We are so sorry to report that Aretha Franklin has died at her Detroit home, surrounded by her friends and loved ones. She was 76 years old. A friend of the artist confirmed to PEOPLE that the singer had been “ill for a long time” and her loved ones were warned her death “was imminent.”1 The singer had been in hospice but her family were hopeful about her recovery.
In March, a year after announcing her retirement from music, her doctor ordered her to cancel the rest of her performances, “I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it,’ Franklin told a Detroit TV station.2 But then in August 2017 she was back on stage for a performance at the Mann Center in Philadelphia.
However, the illness she had been battling was too much and this morning she succumbed to advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type, her publicist confirmed to PEOPLE.3
“Over the course of her nearly seven-decade career, Franklin established herself as one of the most important artists in music history, winning 18 Grammy Awards, selling more than 75 million records worldwide, becoming the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recording 112 charted singles on Billboard, thus setting the record for the most charted female artist in the trade magazine’s history.
Franklin’s other accolades during her lifetime included three American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, three NAACP Image Awards, one Golden Globe, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Grammy Legend Award and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, being named 2008’s MusiCares Person of the Year, and honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, and the Berklee College of Music. She performed at Martin Luther King’s memorial service and at the inaugurations of three presidents: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.”4
She was a true artist and will be greatly missed. Rest in peace.
