Tickets on Sale Friday, February 12 at 1 p.m.
Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul” and 20-time Grammy Award-winner returns to Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on March 16 at 8 p.m. Tickets go on sale Friday, February 12 at 1 p.m.
Franklin’s roots were firmly planted in gospel from a young age. She made her first recordings as a gospel artist at the age of 14 and the Tennessee native soon notched occasional R&B hits and one Top 40 single, “Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” in the early 1960s.
In 1967, Franklin introduced “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You),” a ballad that became Franklin’s breakthrough single reaching the Top 10 on the Hot 100, and holding the #1 spot for seven weeks on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart. From there she rose to become one of the biggest international recording stars with ten Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month span between early 1967 and late 1968 and a steady stream of solid hits for the next five years after that. Hits like “Baby I Love You,” “Chain of Fools” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” soared.
In 1968, Franklin won her first two Grammy awards for “Respect.” Over the next seven years, Franklin continued to score hit singles including “Think,” “The House That Jack Built,” “Call Me,” and “Don’t Play That Song.”
Franklin’s commercial and artistic success was unabated in the early ’70s, during which she landed more huge hits with “Spanish Harlem,” “Bridge over Troubled Water,” and “Day Dreaming.” She also produced two of her most respected album releases with Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace. The latter, a 1972 double LP, made the Top Ten, counting as one of the greatest gospel-pop crossover smashes of all time.
In 1980, Franklin’s career was given a boost thanks to a cameo appearance on The Blues Brothers, singing “Think” as Mrs. Matt Murphy. The singles “United Together” and “Love All the Hurt Away” returned her to the Top 10 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. But, it was the spectacular 1982 album, Jump To It, produced by longtime admirer Luther Vandross, and the title-track 45 that gave Aretha her first R&B chart-topping and pop success since “(Giving Him) Something He Can Feel”. The Jump to It album enjoyed a long run at #1 on Billboard’s R&B Albums chart. It won an American Music Award, was nominated for a Grammy and was certified gold in early 1983.The following year Franklin and Vandross collaborated again on the single “Get It Right.” In 1985, Franklin went pop and experienced her first-ever platinum album, Who’s Zoomin’ Who? that yielded smash hits “Freeway of Love,” the title track and her duet with rock duo Eurythmics, “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves.”
In 1986, Franklin did it again with Aretha which yielded her first number one pop single in two decades with the George Michael duet, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).” The album is noteworthy for the striking cover which was Andy Warhol’s last work before his death. Other hits included her cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and the girl group-inspired “Jimmy Lee.”
Her career got a slight boost in 1993 when she scored a dance-club hit with “Deeper Love” off the Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit soundtrack. In 1994, she scored a top forty hit with the Babyface-produced ballad, “Willing to Forgive.”
Franklin returned to prominence with her 1998 album, A Rose is Still a Rose, produced in part by Lauryn Hill. That same year, with less than twenty-four hours to prepare, Franklin stepped in for Luciano Pavarotti to sing “Nessun Dorma” at the 1998 Grammy Awards.
She released So Damn Happy in 2003, which included the Grammy-winning track “Wonderful.” She started her own label, Aretha Records, and also coached young actors during auditions for a musical based on her autobiography, From These Roots.
In 2007, she released Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen. It features songs performed with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Richard Marx, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Mary J. Blige, Frank Sinatra, George Michael, Christina Aguilera, George Benson, Fantasia and Gloria Estefan.
Franklin was honored as MusiCares “Person of the Year”, two days prior to the 50th Annual Grammy Awards where she was awarded her 20th Grammy. She is the recipient of both the Living Legend Grammy and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy. Franklin was also the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987).
Tickets cost $125, $100 & $75.* All seats are reserved and available at the Hard Rock Live Box Office, open Monday – Saturday from noon to 7pm and on Sunday – only open on event days at noon. Tickets also are available at all Ticketmaster outlets online at Ticketmaster.com or charge by phone: 1-800-745-3000. Doors open one-hour prior to show start time. *Additional fees may apply.