Aretha Franklin’s doctors have told the legendary Queen of Soul that she needs to rest up, resulting in the singer’s announcement on Monday (August 22) that she would cancel many of her upcoming concert dates. “Due to doctors’ orders I will have to cancel a few concerts for the next month or so,” Franklin, 74, said in a statement.
Among the dates now off the calendar are an August 26 Virginia booking and a September 15 appearance at Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday bash at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. A second now-canceled NYC date was to follow just eight days later, a solo gig at the same venue.
Franklin said that she plans to be back in action by November, when she is scheduled to perform at Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Welch, Minnesota (on the 11th) and at the Chicago Theatre (the following night).
Health issues have dogged Aretha in recent years. She was forced to skip a Las Vegas date last year due to exhaustion and has undergone surgeries and suffered from other illnesses. She canceled a number of dates in 2013 due to unspecified reasons, saying at the time, “Any time you have cancellations you should be concerned. But all prayer is good, and keep me in your prayers until I am 100 percent, not 85, and back onstage.”
Watch Aretha Franklin sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” live in 2011
Franklin has earned 17 Top 10 pop singles and 20 #1 R&B singles. Among her most memorable recordings are such ’60s hits as “Respect,” “Think” and “Chain of Fools.” Two decades later, she enjoyed a resurgence with songs like “Freeway of Love” and “Who’s Zoomin’ Who.” And along the way, she has earned just about every accolade and award imaginable including 17 Grammys and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
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Just last weekend Franklin put on a show at Boston’s Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, which received a rave review from critic Brett Milano in the Boston Herald. Describing her rendition of the Simon and Garfunkel classic “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Milano wrote that Franklin “turned it into a riveting—and apparently spontaneous—personal testimony…The performance left Franklin visibly in tears, and she wasn’t the only one.”
Best Classic Bands wishes this national treasure a speedy recovery.
