awards for arts achievement

Aretha Franklin is the recipient of 17 Grammy Awards, in addition to receiving the Grammy Legend Award in 1991 and a special award for lifetime achievement from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in 1994. In 1987, she became the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Ms. Franklin began singing at an early age in her father’s church, New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. At 14, she became a soloist in her father’s traveling gospel revue and made her first professional recording. She arrived in New York City at 18 and signed with Columbia Records. However, it was with the Atlantic label that her career skyrocketed in the late 1960s, with such hits as “Baby I Love You,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and two of her trademark songs “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” and “Respect.”

Her voice has commemorated several landmark occasions in American history, among them “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the National Anthem at the Democratic Party’s 1968 convention in Chicago, and the inaugurations of presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. In 1986, Michigan state legislators declared her voice one of the state’s greatest natural resources because of her remarkable accomplishment of having achieved 24 gold records in 20 years.

Known throughout the world as the “Queen of Soul,” Ms. Franklin’s repertoire is renowned for crossing the boundaries between gospel, jazz, blues, rock, and soul. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with such prominent artists as Quincy Jones, James Cleveland, Ray Charles, Annie Lennox, Carlos Santana, Mavis Staples, Lauryn Hill, and P. Diddy.

She has received the highest honors our country can bestow upon an artist: the Kennedy Center Honors in 1994, the National Medal of Arts in 1999, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 for her work in shaping our nation’s artistic and cultural heritage.