Her Net Worth $80 Million
Aretha Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was dubbed the “Queen of Soul.” She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Detroit. At the time of her death in 2018, Aretha Franklin possessed an estimated net worth of $80 million USD. It incorporates the value of her image, song library, and royalty stream in the calculation of this figure.
Aretha Franklin was well known for her classic songs such as “Respect,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You).” Aretha Franklin was born in Detroit, Michigan, and died in Detroit, Michigan. She is still one of the best-selling performers of all time, having sold more than 75 million records globally to date, according to Billboard.
Aretha Franklin Starting Life
Aretha Louise Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. Her mother, Barbara (née Siggers), was a soprano and pianist, and her father, Clarence LaVaughn “C. L.” Franklin, was a Baptist minister and circuit preacher who served in the United States Marine Corps.
Memphis, Tennessee, was the site of her birth, at the family’s house at 406 Lucy Avenue. Franklin grew up with a large number of siblings; her parents had four children together, in addition to the children they had from each of their previous marriages.
Franklin’s entire family relocated to Buffalo, New York, when she was three years old, before settling in Detroit, Michigan, permanently. Her father was appointed as the pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where she grew up.
It was a difficult marriage for Franklin’s parents, which was exacerbated by her father’s numerous affairs, and they ultimately divorced in 1948. Despite the fact that Aretha’s mother relocated back to Buffalo with her half-brother Vaughn, she continued to see her other children in Detroit on a regular basis.
After having a heart attack in 1952, she was forced to take her own life. Because of this, Franklin and her siblings were raised by a group of women from the neighbourhood, including their grandmother. Her high school was Northern High School in Detroit, where she attended until she dropped out during her sophomore year.
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Her Career
It was when Franklin was twelve that her father put her under his management that she began singing professionally. As part of his “gospel caravan,” he would drive her to churches around the country and help her obtain her first record deal, with JVB Records, using his connections. As a J.V.B. Records recording artist, she issued her debut song, “Never Grow Old,” in 1956.
This was quickly followed by numerous more singles and an album, “Spirituals” (1956). She continued to play gospel music and spent the summers in Chicago on the gospel circuit. When she was sixteen, she accompanied Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on a tour (she would later go on to sing at his funeral in 1968). Franklin, on the other hand, opted to pursue a career in pop music when she reached eighteen.
At the same time as helping her daughter get settled in New York, Franklin’s father also assisted in the creation of the demo that helped secure her a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1960. The song “Today I Sing the Blues” was released by Columbia in September 1960 and reached the top ten of the Hot Rhythm & Blues Sellers list before the end of the year.
In January 1961, Franklin released “Aretha: With the Ray Bryant Combo,” her first commercially successful release. The album’s first song, “Won’t Be Long,” was a Billboard Hot 100 hit. In spite of this, she went on to release a number of albums for Columbia, although none of them were commercially successful.
In November 1966, she left her contract with them and joined Atlantic Records. As a result of her debut Atlantic single, “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You,” which climbed at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, she became a pop star for the first time.
Respect, (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman, Chain of Fools, Ain’t No Way, Think, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and I Say a Little Prayer are just a few of Franklin’s most popular songs today.
There has never been a female recipient of this honour. Two years later, Franklin earned a Kennedy Center Honors award for her contribution to the arts. She is the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, including two Honorary Grammys, for her work in a variety of musical genres. On the Billboard charts, many of her songs have reached the “Top 40.”
When it comes to R&B tracks, she’s had twenty hits at the top of the Billboard list. She has also sold 75 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
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Personal Life
Franklin had a large family, with four sons and two daughters. Clarence Franklin and Edward Derone Franklin were Franklin’s first two children, born when she was just thirteen and fifteen years old, respectively.
Franklin frequently visited her grandmother and sister Erma in Michigan, where they were reared. In 1964, Franklin gave birth to her third child, Ted White Jr., with her then-husband, Theodore “Ted” White. The year was 1970, and Franklin and her road manager Ken Cunningham had their first child, Kecalf Cunningham.
Franklin had two husbands in her lifetime, the second of whom she divorced. Throughout 1961, she tied the knot with Ted White, the first of two husbands she’d have in her life.
Their divorce was formalised in 1969, after they had separated in 1968. Glynn Turman, an actor, was her second spouse. Before splitting and divorcing, they wed in 1978. With longtime lover Willie Wilkerson, she became engaged for a second time in 2012, although the engagement was eventually called off by her.
After Death
It was determined that Franklin owed the IRS between $5 and $8 million after her death on August 16, 2018. She had a huge property, stock, and other asset portfolio, which was liquidated by her attorneys in May 2019. As important, but less liquid, is the value of her image and song collection.
As far as we know, she passed away without a will. Her assets would be divided among her four adult sons in accordance with Michigan law.
