singer and pianist, was born Aretha Louise Franklin in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of the Reverend C. L. Franklin , a prominent Baptist minister, and Barbara Siggers. Franklin was one of five children, including sisters Carolyn and Erma, brother Cecil, and half-brother Vaughn.

Franklin and her family settled in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, after a brief sojourn in Buffalo, New York, took over the New Bethel Baptist Church in 1948. Aretha Franklin was literally raised in the bosom of African American religious tradition and was thus the direct product of one of the most significant institutions in the African American community.

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Aretha Franklin poses with her “Best Rhythm and Blues Performance, Female” Grammy Award in New York City on 3 March 1975. The award is for her performance in “Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing.”

(AP Images.)

As a youth Franklin was intimately exposed to the artistry of the major black gospel performers of the era, including Sam Cooke (then of the Soul Stirrers), Mahalia Jackson , James Cleveland (who at one time during Franklin's youth was the Minister of Music at New Bethel), and Marion Williams and Clara Ward (both of the Clara Ward Singers). Ward was Franklin's most significant gospel influence. Franklin's father also exposed her to the music of jazz performers like pianists such as Dorothy Donegan , Oscar Peterson , and Art Tatum . Among the secular performers who profoundly affected Franklin was the rhythm and blues vocalist Dinah Washington . As a teenager Franklin began to travel with her father as the opening act for his gospel show. It was in Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church, however, that the fourteen-year-old Franklin made her first recording. The live album was released by Chess Records in 1956, the same label that distributed her father's sermons.

By the age of eighteen Franklin had left Detroit for New York City. Though she was reportedly wooed by Sam Cooke, then an artist for RCA Records, and by Berry Gordy Jr. 's fledgling Motown label, the legendary producer John Hammond signed Franklin to record for Columbia Records. Hammond had been instrumental in the early career of Billie Holiday , and it was with vocalists like Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Bessie Smith in mind that Hammond helped to craft Franklin's early recordings for the Columbia label. Franklin's initial recordings—Aretha (with the Ray Bryant Combo) (1961), The Electrifying Aretha Franklin (1962), and The Tender, the Moving, the Swinging Aretha Franklin (1962)—were produced by Hammond and Robert Mersey. The albums included “Blue Holiday” and “God Bless the Child.” An accomplished pianist, Franklin was also featured as an instrumentalist on some of these albums. During this period Franklin married Ted White, who also became her manager.

Robert Mersey also produced Laughing on the Outside (1963) and Unforgettable—A Tribute to Dinah Washington (1964). The latter recording featured Franklin's renditions of some of Washington's best-known recordings, including “This Bitter Earth,” “Evil Gal Blues,” and “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Though Franklin was served well by Hammond and Mersey, it was with Johnny Otis that her career finally exhibited some degree of consistency. Franklin never achieved broad, mainstream appeal during her tenure at Columbia Records (1960–1966), but her recordings with Otis, which included Runnin' Out of Fools (1964), Yeah!!! In Person with Her Quartet (1965), and Soul Sister (1966), positioned Franklin as a rhythm and blues artist, as opposed to a jazz or mainstream pop artist.

Franklin signed with Atlantic Records in 1967 and began a fruitful professional relationship with the producer Jerry Wexler. Wexler's first instinct upon signing Franklin was to have her travel to the South and record at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. On the evening of 24 January 1967 Franklin and a group of white rockabilly musicians laid down the basic tracks to “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” and “Do Right Woman—Do Right Man,” songs that changed the face of American pop music and began Franklin's ascent as one of the most influential musical artists in American history. Franklin's first four albums for Atlantic, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You (1967), Aretha Arrives (1967), Lady Soul (1968), and Aretha Now (1968), established her as the most important black female vocal artist since Billie Holiday. The recordings contained a litany of hit singles such as “Respect,” “Dr. Feelgood,” “Baby, I Love You,” “Chain of Fools,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “Think” that are synonymous with the best music produced since the advent of the rock-and-roll era in the mid-1950s. It was in this period that Franklin became universally known as the “Queen of Soul.” On the strength of “Respect,” Franklin earned her first Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. She won the award every year between 1967 and 1974, totaling ten Grammy Awards during that time frame. Though Franklin never viewed her version of “Respect” as explicitly political, the passion with which she expressed her desire for respect, literally spelling out the word in the song's memorable break-down, resonated within both the civil rights and burgeoning women's rights movements.

While Franklin still maintained a significant popular following, her subsequent body of work for Atlantic in the early 1970s was less commercial and more reflective of her maturing artistry. Her music during this period also reflected the end of her tumultuous marriage with Ted White, which ended in 1969, most notably in the song “All the King's Horses.” This body of work was marked by the number of recordings written by Franklin and her sister Carolyn. Notable among these recordings are Aretha—Live at the Fillmore West (1971), Young, Gifted and Black (1972), and Amazing Grace (1972). Whereas Live at the Fillmore West gave witness to Franklin's wide appeal beyond soul music audiences (and provided a once in lifetime performance with Ray Charles on “Spirit in the Dark”) and Young, Gifted and Black represented Franklin's most cogent statements on the political movement for which many believe her music is the soundtrack, Amazing Grace represented the most important musical statement of her career. Recorded live at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, nearly fifteen years to the day that she stepped into Fame Studios, Amazing Grace reunited Franklin with James Cleveland and the black church traditions that birthed her. Highlights of the recording include a ten-minute version of “Amazing Grace” and a stirring rendition of Clara Ward's “How I Got Over,” with the legendary vocalist sitting in the audience.

During the 1970s Franklin had the opportunity to work with well-known black producers like Quincy Jones and Curtis Mayfield , who produced Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky) in 1973 and Sparkle in 1976, respectively. The latter recording featured music written for the film Sparkle and featured “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” Franklin's last major hit for the Atlantic label. She married the actor Glynn Turman in 1978 but their marriage ended six years later. Franklin signed with the Arista label in 1980. Love All the Hurt Away (1981), her second album for the label, took advantage of her star-turn in the film The Blues Brothers (1979), where she appeared as a soul-singing waitress. The project also featured a duet with George Benson on the title track.

In an effort to update her sound, Franklin was paired with the young songwriters and producers Luther Vandross and Marcus Miller. Both Jump to It (1982) and Get It Right (1983) were moderate successes, but it wasn't until 1985, when she joined forces with Michael Narada Walden on Who's Zoomin' Who? with the song “Freeway of Love” that Franklin matched her commercial success of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her follow-up recording, Aretha (1986), featured a duet with George Michael on the song “I Knew You Were Waiting,” which became her first number one pop song since “Respect.” In 1987 Franklin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, becoming the first woman to achieve the honor. During this period she also returned to her gospel roots, recording One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (1988). Franklin continued to record for the Arista label throughout the 1990s, notably pairing with the hip-hop artist Lauryn Hill on the Grammy Award–nominated “A Rose Is Still a Rose” in 1998. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) in 1994 and in 2005 Franklin was awarded the Presidental Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. At the 1998 Grammy Awards ceremony, Franklin performed the aria “Nessun dorma” from Puccini's Turandot, filling in at the last moment for the famed Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who had taken ill less than an hour before his scheduled performance. Franklin also has the distinction of performing at inaugural celebrations for presidents Jimmy Carter (1977) and Bill Clinton (1993) and at the funeral for Martin Luther King Jr. , where she sang “Amazing Grace.”

Late in her career, Franklin's releases were still viewed as an event. In 2003 and 2005 she was again triumphant at the Grammy Awards, winning in both years for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. Her influence continues to be heard in artists like Miki Howard, Whitney Houston, and Mary J. Blige.

On August 16, 2018, Franklin died of pancreatic cancer in her Detroit home. Her passing triggered a global outpouring of grief, as well as an appreciation of her music. Her funeral in Detroit included several major figures as speakers, including Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Jennifer Hudson. Though he could not attend, Barack Obama delivered a message that was read by Al Sharpton.

Aretha Franklin is one of the most celebrated black female singers ever. Her well-known nickname, “Queen of Soul,” acknowledges that she has become one of the yardsticks by which black popular music is measured.