Paying Tribute to Aretha Franklin’s Voice, Shade, and Self-Respect–Nessun Dorma 1998 Grammys

When Aretha Franklin talked about her career in interviews, she was remarkably humble for someone who’d been dubbed the Queen of Soul since her 20s. In 2008, on The View Barbara Walters asked her if she knew she had a hit when she first received “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman.” Aretha answered, “Not really, not until it was released… I knew I could sing a little bit.” Honey, a little bit? Aretha Franklin, who died today at age 76, was funny. She proved it over and over again, but despite her outsized presence, her larger-than-life voice, her undisputed place as diva and queen, and her dabblings in drama, she wasn’t trying to toot her own horn. The fact was, she didn’t need to. All of the aforementioned components of her life made the point over and over again that there was no one like her and if you don’t know, you better ask somebody.

In the same View interview, Whoopi Goldberg pressed her to name songs that would have flopped without her inimitable voice. Watching the video, I immediately started shouting out candidates: “Freeway of Love!” “Respect!” “Who’s Zoomin’ Who!” “Think!” “My Country Tis of Thee!” But, in 2008, Aretha equivocated for a moment before finally answering “Well, any good singer could have sung that. I don’t know if they would have sung it the same way… Everybody has different interpretations.” This isn’t false modesty and, at first glance, it doesn’t jibe with the fur-coat-wearing, Grammy ceremony-saving, Dionne Warwick-faxing diva we know and love. But it’s all part of one extraordinary package.

In 1999, Oprah, in an interview on her show, described Aretha’s voice as “a gift from God.” “Do you think that, too?” Oprah asked. Aretha answered, “You have singers that are trained and then you have natural singers, people that, in my opinion were just born to sing. And hopefully, I am one of them.”

Hopefully.

Perhaps it was because Aretha came of age in church, raised by a wildly successful minister father who possessed what was called “the million dollar voice” that extraordinary talent and modesty co-mingled so effortlessly in her assessment of herself. She felt that she had a divine gift and therefore it neither began nor ended with her. And perhaps this is also the reason that Aretha Franklin, genuine, luminous star, did not have time for a lot of foolishness.

Aretha was humble about her gifts, but make no mistake: she could deliver reads with the best of them. Not everyone was on her level and that’s just the way it was. Who could forget the effortless way she dismissed an unauthorized biography as “a book of trash. Lies, lies, and more lies.”

Or, in the same interview, when she was asked her impression of Taylor Swift she replied, “Okay. Great gowns. Beautiful gowns.” That’s premium shade.

And, of course, most recently she decided she was angry about something Dionne Warwick said about her five years earlier, so she took action by sending the Associated Press a lengthy fax to set the story straight. A. Lengthy. Fax. Please, I beg of you, just put those words on my tombstone. Nothing is more iconic.

Aretha was so all-encompassing, a guiding light through the civil rights era, a divine voice, a diva, a shade queen, a mentor, and more. It’s insufficient to only focus on her ability to pull stunts on stage, her eccentricities, and her reads, but I’ve always felt that her commitment to knowing her own value in a cruel and voracious marketplace was deeply inspirational and revolutionary, particularly given the era in which she came of age. Aretha was not the Queen of Soul despite her propensity to throw shade and coats; rather, it was all part of an extraordinarily well-curated presence that did everything we want our true legends to do.

Who else but Aretha could get away with frequently performing in a full-length fur and then, mid-performance, throwing that fur to the ground. Aretha Franklin invented the reveal.

Legend has it that Aretha Franklin would demand payment for her appearances upfront, in cash; she would then put the cash in her purse and bring her purse with her on-stage while she sang. Ask yourself, if your talent was priceless and you came of age in an era notorious for cheating singers, especially black singers, wouldn’t you enter and exit purse first?

Aretha was President Obama’s first choiceto sing has his historic first inauguration. Much was made of her elaborate, scene-stealing hat. But what would you wear to the inauguration of the first black president? A beanie?

Aretha Franklin understood ceremony and drama better than most. This is the woman who sang “Precious Lord” at Dr. King’s funeral, the woman whose 1967 “Respect” became a civil rights and feminist anthem, the woman who had it written into her contract that she would not perform for segregated audiences. Try to find a hat elaborate enough to contain that legacy.

When it was announced that she would fill in for an ailing Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Award ceremony, it seemed an odd choice. Her voice was incredible, of course, but was it operatic? Could she fill his legendary shoes? Welp. Not only was her last minute performance an instant classic, but “Nessun Dorma” became one of her signature songs. Who! In their lives! Has ever been called in to substitute and twirled on the song so hard that they rewrote history?! Previous recordings of “Nessun Dorma” started fading away like your faves the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Such was Aretha’s impact.

In an interview on Billboard, producer Ken Ehrlich recalled how simply the switch went down. “In those days we had a boombox with a cassette,” he said. “And I brought it to her and played it for her. When she heard it, she said, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’”

Yeah, I can do this. That was Aretha Franklin.

Aretha’s music is a gift that will never die; her appearances are a GIF goldmine, but for me her most indelible legacy is as a woman, a black person, and a performer who knew her giftedness and her worth. Aretha Franklin demanded, deserved, and got respect.