Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin - Respect
This is so good it hurts! A live show with this sort of excitement doesn't come along very often. The girl with the permed hair moving around the audience looks like Mary J. Blige in another life! If you compare this with the Blues Brother's film footage, you can see why my heart sank as I watched that film for the first time - good though it was!

Franklin is one of the most honored artists by the Grammy Awards, with 20 Grammys to date, which include the Living Legend Grammy and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy. She also sang at the presidential inauguration of 44th President of the United States Barack Obama. She has scored a total of 20 #1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, two of which also became #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Respect" (1967) and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987), a duet with George Michael. Since 1961, Franklin has scored a total of 45 "Top 40" hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

On January 20, 2009, Franklin performed "My Country 'Tis of Thee" during the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama and much had been said about her hat that day. Aretha said she will face up to surgery at the age of 66 if she can loose 100lbs on her own, to help her overweight problem.