Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin’s voice is unmistakable, but her impact extended well beyond performance.
A vocal prodigy and self-taught piano player, she sang in gospel choirs as a child. She transitioned from gospel to secular music at age 18, but didn’t truly find her voice—simultaneously raw and precise, rooted in church but built for the world—until she signed with Atlantic Records five years later.
What followed was a run of recordings that redefined soul music. She charted 112 singles on the Billboard charts, won 18 Grammy Awards, and sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
When she recorded Otis Redding’s “Respect” in 1967, she shifted its center of gravity, delivering an anthem for both the civil rights and the nascent women's rights movements.
Her activism ran alongside her music without being separate from it. She gave money to civil rights groups, at times covering payroll, and performed at benefits and protests. She sang at both the memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and—41 years later—at Barack Obama's presidential inauguration.
In 2019, she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her indelible contributions to American music and culture over more than five decades.
