Aretha Franklin reportedly approved a Madison Square Garden tribute concert before she passed away on Thursday. The show is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 14, according to ShowBiz411.
Sony Music’s Clive Davis asked Franklin about hosting a tribute concert to celebrate her 60-year recording career. She approved the idea for the show, titled Clive Davis Presents: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin.
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So far, the only star signed on to perform is Jennifer Hudson, who Franklin personally approved. Hudson is slated to play Franklin in a long-gestating Sony/Tri-Star biopic about Franklin, produced by Scott Bernstein (Straight Outta Compton) and Harvey Mason Jr. (Dreamgirls). The project is expected to be based on Franklin’s 1999 memoir, Aretha: From These Roots.
Hudson was first attached to the project back in 2015, although Franklin once suggested Halle Berry for the role.
According to ShowBiz411, Franklin hoped to be at the show, either as a performer or in the audience.
News of the tribute concert came after Franklin’s family confirmed she died at the age of 76.
Franklin’s death followed years of health problems, but it was only last year that she stopped performing. Her last performance was at Elton John’s AIDS benefit in New York on Nov. 2, 2017.
“The loss of ArethaFranklin is a blow for everybody who loves real music: Music from the heart, the soul and the Church,” Elton John shared Thursday on social media. “Her voice was unique, her piano playing underrated — she was one of my favourite pianists. I was fortunate enough to spend time with her and witness her last performance — a benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. She was obviously unwell, and I wasn’t sure she could perform. But Aretha did and she raised the roof. She sang and played magnificently, and we all wept.”
Franklin was born in Memphis and raised in Detroit, where she established herself as a gospel singer before landing a contract with Columbia Records. She had her greatest hits in the late 1960s when she switched over to Atlantic Records, scoring hits with “(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Woman,” “Respect,” “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You),” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” “I Say A Little Prayer” and “Spanish Harlem.”
She has won 18 Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and GMA Gospel Hall of Fame. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 and was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994
Photo Credit: Getty
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