Pink Cadillacs, Bill Clinton, Ariana Grande: Aretha Franklin’s all-star funeral
Guests included former US President Bill Clinton, former US first lady Hillary Clinton, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson
Former presidents and preachers joined a parade of pop stars Friday in a singing, hip-swaying, piano-pounding farewell to Aretha Franklin, remembering the Queen of Soul as a powerful force for musical and political change and a steadfast friend.
“Aretha’s singing challenged the dangling discords of hate and lies and racism and injustice,” said the pastor William J. Barber II. “Her singing was revelation and was revolution.”
In a send-off both grand and personal, an all-star line-up of mourners filled the same Detroit church that hosted Rosa Parks’ funeral and offered prayers, songs and dozens of tributes. Guests included former US President Bill Clinton, former first lady Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson.
Robinson, the Motown great, remembered first hearing Franklin play piano when he was just 8 and remained close to her for the rest of her life, talking for hours at a time.
“You’re so special,” he said, before crooning a few lines from his song Really Gonna Miss You, with the line “really gonna be different without you”.
Bill Clinton described himself as an Aretha Franklin “groupie”, saying he had loved her since college. He traced her life’s journey and praised her as someone who “lived with courage, not without fear, but overcoming her fears”.