Aretha Franklin's last performance: Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, November 7, 2017

About the artist

Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 25, 1942, and grew up in Detroit^[1][2]. Her father, C.L. Franklin, was pastor of Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church. She first drew attention as a gospel singer and released her first album, Songs of Faith, at 14. She signed with Columbia in 1960 and moved into pop under John Hammond, but her five years there produced no major hits^[3].

Late in 1966, Jerry Wexler brought her to Atlantic. Her first Atlantic single, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," reached No. 10 in 1967, and her version of Otis Redding's "Respect" went to No. 1^[3]. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame says that record, made when she was 25, earned her the title "Lady Soul"^[4]. "Respect" brought her first two Grammys, and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," from the same year, was also nominated^[5]. Her Atlantic years produced a dozen Top 10 pop singles and 20 No. 1 R&B singles, among them "Chain of Fools" (No. 2) and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (No. 6)^[3]. In 1970 she covered "Border Song," the first single from a young Elton John, which left him and lyricist Bernie Taupin flabbergasted^[6].

Over two nights in January 1972 she went back to gospel, recording Amazing Grace live at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles with the Rev. James Cleveland and a choir^[7][1]. The double album reached No. 7 and won a Grammy^[3][1]; Smithsonian calls it the best-selling gospel album of all time^[8].

In 1980 she moved to Clive Davis's Arista, where she recorded "Freeway of Love" and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," a duet with George Michael^[2]. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, introduced by Keith Richards^[4]. She won 18 Grammys^[1][5]. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 and sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" at Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009. In 2015, at the Kennedy Center, she sang "A Natural Woman" in tribute to its co-writer, Carole King, and moved Obama and others to tears^[1].

Why this was the last show

In February 2017, Franklin told the Detroit TV station WDIV that she would retire that year, after one more album, with several tracks produced by Stevie Wonder. 2017, she said, would be her last year in concert: "This is it." From then on she planned to do a few select things, perhaps one a month, and spend more time with her grandchildren. Clive Davis, her longtime friend and producer, told the AP he didn't believe her and suggested she was cutting back rather than retiring^[9].

According to Rolling Stone, her summer shows that year were billed as a farewell tour. In the first nine months of 2017 she played roughly one concert a month, always at venues she could reach by bus^[10]. Some dates moved or fell away. Her show at the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago, set for June 17, was pushed back to September 3 after the venue said she could not travel for a few weeks on doctor's orders^[11], and a July 1 date in Toronto was canceled^[10].

On June 8, Detroit renamed a stretch of Madison Street downtown "Aretha Franklin Way." At the ceremony she said she knew she would get weepy, and recalled skating at the Arcadia Ballroom and singing at the Flame Show Bar^[12]. That weekend she headlined the first Detroit Music Weekend with an outdoor show on the street that now bore her name. Organizers billed it as her last-ever Detroit performance^[13][14].

On August 26 she played the Mann Center in Philadelphia, her first show there since 2010. Over about 90 minutes she sat at the piano, sang "Think" and a gospel tribute to Clara Ward, and came back for "Respect" as the encore^[10][15].

Her last concert for the paying public was the rescheduled Ravinia show on Sunday, September 3^[15]. With a 20-piece orchestra, she opened with "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," dedicated to her late duet partner George Michael. She played some songs at the piano, sang "A Natural Woman," "Chain of Fools" and Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," and kept going for more than 100 minutes, with "Respect" near the end^[16][17]. The audience stood, and she left the stage with a "see you next time"^[17].

In September the AP reported that she would sing in Elton John's honor at his foundation's 25th-anniversary gala on November 7, adding that she had said she would still do "some select things" after retiring^[18]. She had pulled out of the foundation's gala the year before^[19].

The gala was not announced as her final performance. Rolling Stone reports that she canceled her remaining dates after it^[10], and that the shows she planned for 2018, including New Orleans Jazz Fest, were called off on her doctor's advice^[20]. She was still talking about new projects: an album of new songs from Babyface, Stevie Wonder and Elton John, a gospel record, and a film of her life with Jennifer Hudson announced in the lead^[10].

Franklin died at her home in Detroit on the morning of August 16, 2018, at 76. Her family's statement gave the cause as advanced pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type^[1][21]. The night in the cathedral had become her last performance^[20][3].

What is known about the day

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine stands on Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street in Manhattan. It is the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; construction began in 1892, and the building is still unfinished. The cathedral describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and Duke Ellington premiered his Second Sacred Concert there in 1968^[22].

On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, it hosted "An Enduring Vision," the gala for the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 25th year. The nave was lit by candlelight, and Neil Patrick Harris was the host^[23][24]. Billy Joel, Sting, Sheryl Crow and Glenn Close were among the guests^[24][23].

The evening ran more than three hours. Aileen Getty presented Elton with the Elizabeth Taylor Legacy Award, and Bill Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo paid tribute^[25][24]. Clinton said the life Elton and David Furnish had built would be "the most beautiful song he ever wrote"^[24]. Violinist Joshua Bell played, and Heather Headley sang "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"^[23][24]. When Jeanne White-Ginder spoke about how Elton had visited and helped her son, Ryan White, he grew teary. Alec Baldwin drew laughs as Clinton and then as President Trump, and there was a live auction^[24][25].

Franklin closed the night^[25][24]. Elton later recalled visiting her before the show and offering to sing in her place. She told him she had let him down once before and would not let him down again^[6][19]. He introduced her as "the greatest singer of all time"^[24][26].

She played piano and sang with an orchestra and a choir behind her^[19][20]. Billboard counted a nine-song set^[23]; the AP named "I Say a Little Prayer" and "Freeway" among the songs^[24]. Billboard wrote that "I Say a Little Prayer," her 1968 hit, took on greater resonance inside a church^[23]. Rolling Stone heard a rasp in her voice but noted the range and dynamic control she still commanded, bringing the song to a close with runs that never faltered^[20].

Later in the evening came a gospel-soul reading of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which Rolling Stone puts at 11 minutes^[10]. Elton listened with his arms around Jeanne White-Ginder and David Furnish^[23]. He said she grew stronger as the night went on, that he stood by the stage and sobbed, and that Sheryl Crow and Rosanne Cash, beside him, were crying too^[19][27].

Accounts of the set's length differ. Rolling Stone calls it a short final set^[10], while WXYZ says she performed for an hour and 20 minutes^[6]. No report found names the song she finished with; in Billboard's account, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" came after "I Say a Little Prayer"^[23].

The gala raised more than $4.3 million, or about $4.4 million by the AP's count^[23][24].

What the show left behind

When Franklin's death was announced on August 16, 2018, Elton wrote on social media that losing her was a blow to everyone who loves real music. Looking back at the cathedral, he wrote that she "raised the roof" and that they had been "witnessing the greatest soul artist of all time"^[20][26]. Her funeral was held at a church in Detroit on August 31. Bill Clinton attended, Ariana Grande and Faith Hill sang, and Stevie Wonder played harmonica and sang his 1976 song "As"^[28].

At the foundation's gala that November, held at Cipriani 42nd Street, Elton said she had given "one of the greatest performances of our lifetime," and recalled her telling him she didn't want to let him down^[27]. Around the same time he told People it had been one of the greatest nights of his life^[19]. On November 20, 2022, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the last North American show of his farewell tour, he told the story again, from her 1970 cover of "Border Song" to the night she "blew the roof off the cathedral," and dedicated a song to "the lasting genius and legacy of Aretha Franklin"^[6].

Some of her work reached a wide audience only after her death. Director Sydney Pollack had filmed the two Amazing Grace nights in 1972, but without clapperboards the picture and sound could not be synchronized, and the film was shelved. Producer Alan Elliott took over the footage, and new technology made it possible to finish^[8][7]. The film screened at the DOC NYC festival in New York in November 2018, and its distributor, Neon, planned wider screenings in 2019^[8]. In Japan it opened on May 28, 2021^[7], and a two-CD set of both nights in full was released there the same month^[29].

In 2019 the Pulitzer Prize board gave her a special citation "for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades"^[30]. The film of her life that she had talked about, with Jennifer Hudson announced in the lead^[10], was completed as Respect, directed by Liesl Tommy, and opened in Japan on November 5, 2021^[31].

In her announced farewell year, Franklin sang on a Detroit street named for her, in Philadelphia and outside Chicago. Her last stage was none of those. It was a benefit in a New York cathedral that she had missed once and, by Elton's account, was determined not to miss again^[6][19].