The night Aretha Franklin brought the nation's first black president to tears
By DeNeen L. Brown, Reporter
August 16 at 1:53 PM
He’d made history as the country’s first black president. She’d made history as the Queen of Soul.
Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday at 76, sang “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. She’d stood on the steps in freezing cold in a gray hat, her voice sailing over the huge crowd that stretched back to the Reflecting Pool.
Now six years later, the president was sitting in the balcony at the Kennedy Center in Washington when Franklin took the stage. She was making a surprise appearance to honor Carole King at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors.
Franklin carried a silver sequin clutch and wore a lush, gray floor-length mink. Her necklace of diamonds might as well have been a crown.
The stage lights flashed, bouncing off the diamonds. The crowd gasped at the sight of Franklin, and King, who wrote “Natural Woman” with Gerry Goffin, stood in awe. Michelle Obama, in an electric-blue gown, sitting next to King, rose beside the president.
Franklin swept back her long mink, slid onto the piano bench and began to play “Natural Woman.”
“Looking out on the morning rain,” she sang in her signature soulful, rich voice, sounding like no other. “I used to feel so uninspired.”
The camera cut to President Obama, who wiped back a tear before Franklin sang the next verse.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/08/16/the-night-aretha-franklin-brought-the-nations-first-black-president-to-tears/
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Aretha had that power in her voice...the world has lost an icon!
Rest in peace Aretha.
