Late Singer Aretha Franklin To Enter Women's Hall Of Fame

Late singer Aretha Franklin will be honored at the National Women’s Hall of Fame ceremony that will take place on Thursday.

The legendary musician will be inducted into the hall of fame that will honor women who died before the organization was established, Associated Press first reported. This year’s ceremony will be held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking about this year’s event, the organization said that the virtual induction will continue to recognize and induct women from various marginalized communities like Latina, Black, Asian, and others. The series will also “amend” the “disparities” that other communities experienced in the nomination pool.

“In order to openly acknowledge and amend the disparities within the nomination pool, the virtual induction series will recognize and induct other marginalized women of achievement including those from the Latinax, Asian, Native American, LGBTQ+ sisterhoods, as well as additional Black women,” AP quoted the organization as saying.

In 1969, the National Women’s Hall of Fame was founded in Seneca Falls, which is also the site of the first women’s rights convention.

Franklin, who is known as the “Queen of Soul,” started her professional music career with “Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo” in 1961. In the '60s, while performing at the Regal Theater, renowned radio personality Pervis Spann announced that Franklin should be called “Queen of Soul.”

However, her moment of glory came in 1968 when she gave back-to-back hit albums. Albums like “Lady Soul” and “Aretha Now” were highly successful and topped many charts. Her song “Respect” made her win two Grammy Awards, including Best R&B Female Vocal Performance.

“Respect” is considered to be one of the biggest hits of all time as it peaked at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs. The song was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987 and was included on the Songs of the Century list curated by the Recording Industry of America.

Franklin was nominated for 44 Grammys in her illustrious career and emerged victorious on 18 occasions.

She died at the age of 76 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.