Concerns are being raised for the health of soul legend Aretha Franklin, with reports surfacing that the iconic musician is currently in a “gravely ill” condition.
As Showbiz411 reports, 76-year-old Franklin is currently surrounded by family and friends at a hospital in Detroit, where they are asking for both prayers and privacy at this difficult time.
First rising to prominence in the mid-’50s, Aretha Franklin would take the world by storm a decade later, when a number of her singles topped charts around the world. With tracks such as ‘Respect’, ‘Think’, and ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ becoming staples of the R&B genre thanks to her immersive performance style, she has long been considered one of the most successful female entertainers in all of musical history.
Nicknamed ‘The Queen Of Soul’, Aretha Franklin’s influence extended far beyond the charts as well, with the musician winning a total of 18 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, and also being awarded such honours as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom back in 2005.
However, the last decade has been rather rough on the soul legend, with Franklin battling an “unspecified illness” in 2010, which was widely reported to be pancreatic cancer. As the years continued, Franklin’s continued health problems resulted in her being forced to cancel a number of performances.
Back in 2013, Aretha Franklin was quoted as saying that she was “85% healed” from her illness, but declined to go into specifics, noting that she was “not one to go into my personal health things.”
Her last performance was in November of last year, for the Elton John AIDS Foundation in New York, while a number of shows scheduled for this year were also cancelled under doctor’s orders.
We’ll keep you updated as any further developments come to light, but at the present time, we wish only the best for Aretha Franklin and her family.
Check out Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’:
