<USA=">USA" Today="Today</a>"> The "Queen of Soul," whose impassioned, riveting voice made her a titan of American music, died Thursday morning at home in Detroit of pancreatic cancer, her niece Sabrina Owens confirmed to The Detroit Free Press. She was 76.
Here's what stars are saying about the late legend.
Celine Dion called her the "most soulful and inspirational singer of our time."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sjHY-zB0VU

Aretha Franklin in an undated portrait.
RB / Redferns
The song became a soundtrack for both the civil rights and female-empowerment movements, and no one was more surprised by its success than Franklin.
"I was stunned when it went to No. 1," she told Elle magazine in April 2016. "And it stayed No. 1 for a couple weeks. It was the right song at the right time."
"Respect" earned Franklin the first two of her 18 Grammy Awards, culminating in a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 1994. But the song was only the beginning of her success.
The following year, Franklin came out with two towering albums, "Lady Soul" and "Aretha Now," introducing the timeless hits "Chain of Fools" and "I Say a Little Prayer." More popular — and culturally significant — albums followed through the 1970s, highlighted by "Young, Gifted & Black," winner of the 1972 Grammy for female R&B performance, and a return to her gospel roots, the double-platinum "Amazing Grace."
Other Top 10 singles included "Spanish Harlem," "Think" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," written by Carole King. Franklin performed it at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington before an audience that included King, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama — drawing a tear from the president and sheer elation from King.
"One of the three or four greatest nights of my life," Franklin told The New Yorker of that performance, which went viral on YouTube.
Franklin's live performances often had that effect. She was a supremely talented technical musician — a child prodigy on the piano, able to shift seamlessly from thunderous gospel chord progressions to propulsive R&B beats to bouncy jazz riffs. Her voice was equally prodigious, a mezzo-soprano powerhouse that could gracefully handle gospel effusions and operatic bomb bursts — something all of America learned in 1998. https://nyti.ms/2MtDO1G
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