All Hail, Queen of Soul!

Confession: I don't have a television so I did not watch this year's Grammy Awards ceremony. For years, I have made an effort to watch the show, hanging out with friends or family and delivered pizza. It's great to see rock and pop musicians dress up for a night on the town and there have been some inspired live performances at the ceremony. This year, I was just underwhelmed by the list of performers. Gaga, Bieber, Katy Perry - you were not going to get new heights of artistic expression out of that group, except for costumes and staging. Later that night, a friend on Facebook told me I'd missed something special in the vocal tribute to Aretha Franklin so I looked for online footage the next day. Yep - pretty spectacular. It might have been melismatic vocal overkill to have Christina Aguilera, Martina McBride, Jennifer Hudson, Florence Welch and Yolanda Adams (and unless my ears/eyes deceive me, some background vocalists, too) all going to go town at the same time, but the 11 minute performance demonstrated that there is no auto-tuning or lip synching or costume change that can compare with real vocal firepower. At least that's my take on it. :')
Watch it here:



While every one of these talented ladies knocked it out of the park, I felt that gospel great Yolanda Adams came closest to capturing Aretha's soulful but never harsh sound and her sunny smile and confidence.
What did you think?

Of course, there ain't nothin' like the real Queen of Soul, and we have lots of Aretha Franklin recordings you can check out: click to search for Aretha Franklin in our catalog. I also thoroughly enjoyed her 1999 autobiography, Aretha: From These Roots and am the proud owner of an autographed copy! I can't imagine a female vocalist who isn't inspired by the great career of Aretha Franklin. Check out library CDs by some of these artists, as well:
Christina Aguilera
Martina McBride
Jennifer Hudson
Yolanda Adams
Alas, we are short on tunes by Florence Welch, aka Florence + the Machine. Google her name and you should find plenty to hear, including the smash hit "The Dog Days Are Over."