The Queen of Soul is calling it a wrap.
Well, sort of.
In an interview with the television station WDIV in her hometown of Detroit, Aretha Franklin, 74, said she’ll retire this year after the release of a new album.
“I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from, and where it is now,” she told the station Wednesday.
Franklin, one of the most influential artists in pop history, began singing gospel in the mid 1950s before turning to secular music in the early ’60s. She said her upcoming album, which she expects to release in September, would consist of original songs and would be produced in part by Stevie Wonder.
“I’m exuberant about it,” she said in the interview. “I can’t wait to get in the studio.”
Following a tour behind the album, though, she plans to wind down her half-century career — or at least aspects of it.
“This will be my last year,” she told the TV station. “I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it.”
Then Franklin appeared to walk back that claim, noting that she’ll do “some select things,” perhaps once or twice a month for six months out of the year. She wants to spend more time with her grandchildren, she said, but she’s “not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing.”
Franklin’s most recent studio album, “Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics,” came out in 2014, with vivid renditions of songs written or popularized by Etta James (“At Last”), Barbra Streisand (“People”) and Adele (“Rolling in the Deep”).
She made headlines in November when she performed an extended version of the national anthem at a Thanksgiving Day football game.
The young women in "Step" demonstrate a routine at the L.A. Times photo studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is about senior girls in a Baltimore high school step team as they prepare to be the first in their families to attend college.
The young women in “Step” demonstrate a routine at the L.A. Times photo studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is about senior girls in a Baltimore high school step team as they prepare to be the first in their families to attend college.
The young women in "Step" demonstrate a routine at the L.A. Times photo studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is about senior girls in a Baltimore high school step team as they prepare to be the first in their families to attend college.
The young women in “Step” demonstrate a routine at the L.A. Times photo studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is about senior girls in a Baltimore high school step team as they prepare to be the first in their families to attend college.
Chelsea Handler says women should not have to fight for their rights all over again.
Chelsea Handler says women should not have to fight for their rights all over again.
SAG Awards statuettes are cast from molten bronze metal at American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
SAG Awards statuettes are cast from molten bronze metal at American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Kristen Stewart enjoyed the free-form aspect of making her short film, "Come Swim" which is showing at the Sundance Film Festival. She doesn’t see that as a directorial stepping-stone to full-length features.
Kristen Stewart enjoyed the free-form aspect of making her short film, “Come Swim” which is showing at the Sundance Film Festival. She doesn’t see that as a directorial stepping-stone to full-length features.
Kristen Bell and director Liz W. Garcia discuss the film "Lifeguard" at Sundance.
Kristen Bell and director Liz W. Garcia discuss the film “Lifeguard” at Sundance.
mikael.wood@latimes.com
Twitter: @mikaelwood
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