About a year after publicly announcing she’d retire from making music, the Washington Post reports multiple sources have stated Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin is “gravely ill.” She last released a record in November 2017, titled A Brand New Me.
Franklin, who is 76, currently lives in Detroit, MI. She grew up in the city and was a major part of its iconic Motown scene (though not being associated with the label, spending her career on . She told local television outlet WDIV in February 2017, “I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it. I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from, and where it is now,” Franklin added. “I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.”
Entertainment writer Roger Friedman of Showbiz 411 wrote that Franklin is gravely ill in Detroit and her family has asked for privacy. The anchor for WDIV Evrod Cassimy stated in a tweet that he had spoken with her family members and they described her as “gravely ill.” He added in the tweet that the singer is asking for prayers. Finally, he discloses he may have more information but hasn’t been allowed to release it yet.
According to Mlive.com, the last performance Franklin gave was at Detroit Music Weekend on June 10, 2017. Franklin has had over 100 charting singles, making her the best-performing female artist in the chart’s history. She’s also won 18 GRAMMY awards and was the first women inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
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