DETROIT — Everybody wants a piece of Aretha Franklin’s artistic legacy. Church, state, activism, tradition, innovation and celebrity all vied for recognition in back-to-back marathon homages to the universally admired “Queen of Soul,” here in her longtime hometown.
Ms. Franklin belonged to the gospel church; she belonged to the pop public; she belonged to the civil rights and women’s rights movements; she belonged, emphatically, to Detroit. At her funeral on Friday, the mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan, made news by announcing a plan to rename Detroit’s city-owned riverside amphitheater, Chene Park, as Aretha Franklin Park. “The mayor just got re-elected,” quipped the officiant, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III.
Yet being a member of her communities — of faith, of politics, of geography — wasn’t enough to define Aretha Franklin. She also belonged to her family, to her era and to the utterly singular gifts, discipline, ambitions and regal impulses that make her irreplaceable.
[Our full report from Aretha Franklin’s funeral and its most memorable moments.]
On Thursday evening, a concert called “A People’s Tribute to the Queen” was presented free at Chene Park, with its 6,000 tickets snapped up online in 10 minutes. It stretched to nearly five hours, presenting impressive Detroit locals — all of whom, it seemed, had been nurtured from birth on Ms. Franklin’s music — alongside nationally known singers.
On Friday morning, invited guests and members of the public packed the Greater Grace Temple megachurch for Ms. Franklin’s funeral, billed as “A Celebration Fit for the Queen” and lasting eight hours with music, preaching, reminiscences and testimonials. There were speeches from the former president Bill Clinton, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Cicely Tyson, Smokey Robinson, Clive Davis, Tyler Perry and the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, among others. And there was music from Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson and gospel stalwarts like Shirley Caesar and the Clark Sisters. Both the tribute and funeral were live-streamed worldwide.
For more read the full of article at The Nytimes
