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Artist News
Aretha Franklin announces retirement
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 10 February 2017
Aretha Franklin has announced that she is retiring from the music industry at the end of this year.
Speaking to Detroit radio station WDIV Local 4, the singer said that she plans to release one more album and embark on a number of farewell performances before calling it quits.
“I must tell you, I am retiring this year”, she said. “I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now. I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either”.
She added that she wouldn’t disappear entirely, making the odd appearance – “some select things, maybe one a month, for six months out of the year” – when the mood takes her. However, officially the new album, due out in September and featuring production from Stevie Wonder, about which she is feeling “exuberant”, will be her final proper project.
Franklin has had a number of health problems in recent years, which forced her to cancel planned appearances for a time. And last year she was involved in a legal battle over the release of a documentary about the recording of her 1972 gospel album ‘Amazing Grace’.
