MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In Detroit, the melodies are still floating in the air following the Queen of Soul’s homegoing service.
Songs and tributes from friends, relatives, and heartfelt notes from past presidents are just a few things on that program.
Here in Memphis mourners are also remembering Aretha Franklin. The vigil started at 4 but people are still showing up.
As you can see the porch is already filled with flowers bears and notes to the queen of soul.
Even though the funeral took place in Detroit. Singer Toni Green and other singers from Memphis are reminiscing about the voice they say won’t ever be duplicated.
“We can try to emulate as much as we want to but we will never get to that whatever she had that was so magical and magnificent,” Green said. “We will never be Aretha we will never sound exactly like her.”
Even with talented singers like Ariana Grande belting out her classics, it’s clear, Aretha Franklin can’t be replaced.
“It was first the voice and then the drama that came with her as a stage performer,” Cequita Monique, a local singer, said.
Deborah Barnes, Toni Green, and Cequita Monique all singers from Memphis inspired by the icon.
“I grew up on Aretha from 5 years old and up,” Barnes said.
In their eyes Aretha taught them, molded them and sometimes their love for her music even landed them in hot water.
“This voice that I heard inspired me enough to get my behind whipped,”Green said.
Green said getting her hands on a new Aretha Franklin album earned her a spanking as a child because her mom didn’t know where she was when she was out buying the album.
But Green says it was all worth it.
“There are tears in my soul for her and for a loss,” Green said.
Fantasia Barrino crooned precious lord and Yolanda Adams got the crowd tapping their feet for the woman with the distinct voice and what many people described as a common touch.
“The woman was someone who made us all shed some hurt and we miss her dearly,” Barrino said.
For the woman who encouraged us all to fight the good fight.
An icon a force during the Civil Rights Movement who never stopped raising her voice about injustice.
She used music to teach.
“She motivated in her singing,”
But also to minister
“To not just be outspoken but to be a spokesperson,”
A voice that taught a whole generation the meaning of R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
The mayor of Detroit announced today there will be a park named after Franklin.
Here in Memphis we are still waiting to find out the plan for her childhood home.
