While on the verge of her retirement tour, the “queen of soul” Aretha Franklin grabs the spotlight with her new look and visible weight loss. Feeling like a natural woman, Franklin is undeniably closing her singing career in a refreshing and fashionable kind of way. And just last Wednesday Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland dedicated a plaque marking the childhood home of Franklin.
“Queen of Soul” on her retirement tour
The dramatic retirement tour of the 75-year old music legend across North America is greatly wowed by her fans. Franklin, on the other hand, surprises the fans with her new hairdo and a very visible weight loss.
The singing superstar has been performing since she was 15 giving her six long and successful decades of marking her music in everyone’s heart.
Together with her brand new hairstyle, Franklin absolutely nails her stunning tour. In an Instagram post, one male fan takes a picture of him and Aretha posing in a dressing room at the backstage. It showed a very appealing Franklin who shed several pounds in her arms and legs and also her waist looked so much slimmer than they were before. Also at the Wolf Trap National Park in Washington D.C., Aretha was seen visibly slimmer even if her trademark fur coat was still on.
Just last February, Franklin made her retirement announcement at Detroit's WDIV Local 4.
She also added that she will still be recording but her tour in August would be her last concert. She ended her talk by saying that she has been singing and creating music for all her life and that she felt very enriched and satisfied with respect to where her career came from and where it is now.
Plaque honoring Aretha Franklin placed at former home
Last August 2, Mayor Jim Strickland of Memphis Tennessee, stood before a plaque at a wooden house marking the childhood home of the soul singer Aretha Franklin. Although the house has been home to Aretha and her family for only two years, the community didn’t fail to highlight the significance of the place as the venue of Aretha Franklin’s younger days.
Because of the dilapidated structure of the house, it has been subject to demolition which was fortunately put on hold as volunteers were willing to restructure the old house. Lawyers, community leaders and Shelby County Environmental Court Judge Larry Potter were exerting efforts to preserve the house as it is the pride of their community in raising a singing superstar.
