What was the last song Aretha Franklin ever performed?
Often referred to by her regal title of ‘Queen of Soul’, Aretha Franklin possessed a voice unlike any other. It’s not an outlandish claim to say that nobody else before or since her has ever risen to the same soaring levels of greatness as a singer, and when you listen to her belt out her songs with the utmost passion, you can tell that it comes from a place of pure love for her craft.
Originally starting as a gospel singer in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan, Franklin was a prodigious talent from a young age, singing at the church where her father was a minister. While she lost her mother when she was only ten years old, her father encouraged her to pursue singing and became her manager at the age of 12, leading to her getting signed by Columbia at 18 after moving to New York to follow her dreams of singing in a more contemporary fashion.
Throughout her illustrious career, there were plenty of highlights that showcased her vocal abilities, not least her biggest hits such as ‘Respect’, ‘I Say A Little Prayer’ and ‘Think’. On top of this, she managed to perform a number of notable covers that many might have considered tricky to pull off, such as Carole King’s ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ and Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, with relative ease.
As one of the most influential vocalists to have ever walked the earth, her passing in 2018 was a tragedy that shook the world of music and led to an outpouring of tributes, though her legacy has certainly not slowed down in the years since her death. Many still regard her as the greatest vocalist of all time, and plenty of younger vocalists still cite her as a major influence today, and large amount of this were down to how brilliantly she could replicate her studio energy in a live capacity.
What was the last song Aretha Franklin performed live?
Franklin was well-known and adored for her electric live performances, where every note was not only sung with clarity but oozing a sense of stylishness. From television appearances to awards ceremonies and presidential inaugurations, her voice held up every time she took to the stage, and despite her ailing health in her later years, she would continue to perform until less than a year after her death.
Her final performance came as part of Elton John’s annual AIDS Foundation Gala event in 2017, where she performed a set of 12 songs that included some of her most acclaimed hits and some of her finest covers. However, it was a more unusual choice of song that would close her final ever live performance and would no doubt have brought the house down.
Choosing to finish with a rendition of Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’, an aria that has been popularised by modern opera singers such as Luciano Pavarotti, Franklin removed herself from the world of soul in order to give a more pure singing style that would’ve more closely resembled her early experiences of singing in church. While it wasn’t the only time she’d performed the song live, having filled in for Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards, it would go down in history as the final thing she performed live.
Considering the number of hits she had throughout her career, it feels odd for her to choose a song that she wasn’t known for performing regularly, but it’s clear from the sheer emotional heft and power of the song that she would’ve made it one of the most enduring finales to a career that anyone could possibly ask for.
