Aretha Franklin Music Quotations

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I'm using to the highest degree possible the gift that god gave me to use. I'm happy with that.

Columbia was a wonderful label for me. Wonderful. The records I made there garnered me an audience. I won a number of polls during the years that I was at Columbia. The Downbeat Jazz Poll. Leonard Feather, who was a huge critic back in the day, different polls that he had. The Playboy poll, a number of polls. So the music was great.

R&B is not a fad; it's the truth.

...the people at large absolutely gave James Brown respect. He was an original like a Rembrandt or a Picasso

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

I've always felt that rock & roll was very, very wholesome.

We were a little upset initially. Detroit is a city of music legends, and we thought it would be remiss to come all the way here and not use at least one artist from Detroit. But I'm appreciative of the fact that they did ask me to do the halftime show several times before, and the anthem this time.