Tag: Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin Went From Having No Will To Having Three
Two wills were located locked in a cabinet and another was stuffed inside a couch.
Motown legend Aretha Franklin left us in August 2018, and since that time her estate has been in a little bit of a tizzy. Arbitrators have attempted to settle her debts, a number that reportedly includes five million dollars in taxes. No one could believe that the 76-year-old multi-millionaire music icon didn’t leave behind a will, but now it’s being reported that Franklin isn’t as irresponsible as some have alleged.
Overnight, the singer went from having no wills to having three after the documents were found in random places inside her home. The Blast reports that Sabrina Owens, the head of Franklin’s estate, recently told a judge that she’d located a will. Owens said that while visiting Franklin’s Michigan estate she found a key to a cabinet she was previously unable to open. “Inside the cabinet, Owens found two purported holographic wills signed by Franklin,” The Blast states. “The documents were dated June 2010 and October 2010. She then found a spiral notebook in the living room couch with another purported will, dating back to 2014.”
Two wills were located locked in a cabinet and another was stuffed inside a couch.
Motown legend Aretha Franklin left us in August 2018, and since that time her estate has been in a little bit of a tizzy. Arbitrators have attempted to settle her debts, a number that reportedly includes five million dollars in taxes. No one could believe that the 76-year-old multi-millionaire music icon didn’t leave behind a will, but now it’s being reported that Franklin isn’t as irresponsible as some have alleged.
Overnight, the singer went from having no wills to having three after the documents were found in random places inside her home. The Blast reports that Sabrina Owens, the head of Franklin’s estate, recently told a judge that she’d located a will. Owens said that while visiting Franklin’s Michigan estate she found a key to a cabinet she was previously unable to open. “Inside the cabinet, Owens found two purported holographic wills signed by Franklin,” The Blast states. “The documents were dated June 2010 and October 2010. She then found a spiral notebook in the living room couch with another purported will, dating back to 2014.”
o wills were located locked in a cabinet and another was stuffed inside a couch.
Motown legend Aretha Franklin left us in August 2018, and since that time her estate has been in a little bit of a tizzy. Arbitrators have attempted to settle her debts, a number that reportedly includes five million dollars in taxes. No one could believe that the 76-year-old multi-millionaire music icon didn’t leave behind a will, but now it’s being reported that Franklin isn’t as irresponsible as some have alleged.
Overnight, the singer went from having no wills to having three after the documents were found in random places inside her home. The Blast reports that Sabrina Owens, the head of Franklin’s estate, recently told a judge that she’d located a will. Owens said that while visiting Franklin’s Michigan estate she found a key to a cabinet she was previously unable to open. “Inside the cabinet, Owens found two purported holographic wills signed by Franklin,” The Blast states. “The documents were dated June 2010 and October 2010. She then found a spiral notebook in the living room couch with another purported will, dating back to 2014.”
According to the wills, Franklin wanted to take care of her sons. Both Edward and Kecalf was to receive one of her homes and a monthly allowance for their bills. They were also ordered to attend “business administration” courses or receive a degree in order to receive their portions of their inheritance. Franklin stated that she would cover the cost of their schooling.
She also listed her Warner Music Group royalties at $1.6 million, which is to be evenly divided to her four children. Her memorabilia was to be split among her children, as well, and her cars were to be sold off. This all seems well and good, but the estate, along with a court, is currently scrutinizing the handwritten wills to check for their validity.
Original article https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/aretha-franklin-went-from-having-no-wills-to-having-three-news.80893.html
Filmmakers documented a historic Aretha Franklin concert. Nearly 50 years later, the public will get to see it.
“Amazing Grace,” an Aretha Franklin concert film regarded as one of the great lost treasures of both the documentary and music worlds, will finally see the light of day, according to its longtime producer and overseer.
Producer Alan Elliott and the Franklin estate struck a deal to end a three-year dispute and enable the movie to be shown at festivals and sold to distributors, Elliott told The Washington Post.
Elliott said the deal was struck with Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece and the executor of her estate. The film will now have its premiere next week at DOC NYC, a popular documentary gathering in New York, and will be shown to distributors for potential release without any apparent legal hurdles.
“We’re excited to finally bring the movie to the public and expose this legacy project — this is the premier document of American popular music that’s ever been filmed,” Elliott said in an interview.
“Amazing Grace” has been seen by scholars as a historic document to which the public has long been prevented access. The movie chronicles a landmark performance the soul great gave of the eponymous double album at a Los Angeles church in 1972. It was originally shot by the Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack. But it remained in the vault for decades, first for technical reasons — technology did not allow the audio and video to sync properly — and then for financial reasons, with not enough money to complete it.
According to Elliott, Pollack had asked him on his deathbed in 2008 to finish the movie, which Elliott did for the following seven years. The former producer, who now is a college professor, also called it “a really interesting tableaux we formed out of shrapnel.”
But Franklin opposed the release and went so far as to get an injunction stopping the movie from premiering at the Telluride Film Festival in 2015 on the eve of its premiere. The Toronto International Film Festival subsequently pulled the film because of the injunction as well. Franklin’s objections at the time were unclear.
A distribution deal with Lionsgate was later mooted after Franklin decided not to sign the papers, and the film was stuck in limbo.
After her death in August, The Post reported a deal could be more likely, though the possibility was complicated by the fact that Franklin left no will.
Endeavor, the Hollywood agency, has been selling rights to the movie, which could garner a significant distribution deal in the absence of any legal hurdle. An Endeavor executive did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for the Franklin estate did not respond to a request for comment.
Thom Powers, the Toronto doc programmer who also runs DOC NYC, told The Post he thought the movie was “one of the great lost treasures of documentary film.”
“A lot of us have been following this project for many years and waiting for the day when it would come to light,” he said. “About the biggest thriller I could imagine as a film-festival programmer is to be able to host this and bring it before an audience.” The screening will take place with a conversation between Elliott and the cultural critic Nelson George.
Because of a dispute between Elliott and the Pollack estate, the director’s name was taken off the film. It will premiere without a director.
“Amazing Grace” had earlier been qualified for the 2018 Oscars — essentially, a token week-long release in a theater to enable academy members to nominate it for the year’s biggest prize. The move was somewhat unusual for a film without a distributor. (Distributors like to formulate Oscar plans themselves.) Though the film is most likely a candidate for the documentary Oscar, Elliott said he would like to make a push for top categories, including best picture. “We want to dare the academy to honor Aretha,” he said.
The film does not have a publicist or other rudiments of Hollywood’s Oscar-industrial complex. That is by design, Elliott said, who noted he’d prefer a more homespun campaign.
Elliott had told The Post in August that “Ms. Franklin said ‘I love the film.’ Unfortunately for all of us, she passed before we could share that love. ‘Amazing Grace’ is a testament to the timelessness of Ms. Franklin’s devotion to music and God. Her artistry, her genius and her spirit are present in every note and every frame of the film. We look forward to sharing the film with the world soon.”
The development is likely to be welcomed by fans and scholars. “Amazing Grace,” which this reporter saw in 2015, contains an intimacy rare for a movie about an icon and also showcases its subject’s incipient talent, all taking place in a church. Franklin performs such gospel standards as Marvin Gaye’s “Wholy Holy” and gives a religious spin to pop hits like Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend.”
At the time of her death, the music publication Billboard extolled the performance it documents as central to the history of American music.
“For all the historic moments that she helped soundtrack and elevate over the span of decades, it was the pair of concerts delivered at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles in 1972 that rank as her finest hours,” the magazine said of the L.A. shows.
“For 11 full minutes she lives in a state of grace, as she sings to the Lord, for the Lord,” the magazine said, “letting his light and his love fill her body and soul, and then sending it pouring out into the microphone placed inches from her face and into the ears of the people sat rapt before her in the pews, and those listening months later at home or in their car, for all eternity.”
Article via WashingtonPost
Gladys Knight honors Aretha Franklin with gospel tribute at AMAs
Gladys Knight fronted a soulful gospel tribute to the late Aretha Franklin on Tuesday at the 2018 American Music Awards. Ledisi, Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and CeCe Winans joined for the all-star medley performance, which highlighted Franklin’s gospel roots and her seminal 1972 album, “Amazing Grace.”
Knight opened the show-closing set with a tender version of “Amazing Grace,” belting over piano and organ. The other singers followed with emphatic, spiritual takes on songs like “Climbing Higher Mountains,” “Mary, Don’t You Weep” and “How I Got Over.”
Knight, a personal friend of Franklin’s, also performed at the soul legend’s Detroit, Michigan funeral, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Her appearance, however, was clouded with confusion when a local TV station reported that the vocalist said she was battling pancreatic cancer – the disease that killed Franklin. Knight subsequently clarified that she had previously been diagnosed with stage one breast cancer but is now “cancer-free.”
Franklin died in August at age 76, prompting tributes from numerous artists, including Mavis Staples, Smokey Robinson, Chris Stapleton, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Record executive Clive Davis is reportedly planning an all-star Franklin tribute concert for November 14th at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
Article via Page Six
Check out Lovelyti’s video: #ArethaFranklinHomegoing Stars & Fans Honor the Queen of Soul+ Jay & Bey give out scholarships
Ariana Grande Groping Incident: “Luke Cage” Star Apologizes For Crass Joke
The actor isn’t as smooth as the character he plays onscreen.
Trevor Noah had posted a clip of Ariana Grande at Aretha Franklin’s Funeral. The video shows the event’s pastor feeling up the young singer. Noah’s caption brought attention to the man’s questionable actions: “What was up with that pastors hand?”
Colter retweeted the content with his own distasteful spin. He meant to be funny when he wrote, “Now THIS is how you shoot your shot! Zero FCKS!”
Colter’s tweet has since been deleted. He came back to Twitter on Sunday with an apology, saying that the comment wasn’t meant to be taken seriously at all.
“Hello all. I apologize about my tweet earlier. In no way do I condone any such behavior. It was intended to point out the absurdity of the act itself. Complete and biting sarcasm. I realized quickly that it was not taken as such.”
He also apologized for his being late to the party: “I was at an event all day. Sorry for the delay.” It took him a day to respond to the criticism against him. This tweet has disappeared from his page as well.
Grande has yet to make a statement about the incident.
Article via: Ariana Grande Groping Incident: “Luke Cage” Star Apologizes For Crass Joke
Spike Lee Unveils Previously Unreleased Prince Song, ‘Mary Don’t You Weep’ for BlacKkKlansman
It begins with piano riffs and drum. Prince’s dulcet falsetto pours out the first verse, then drops a register for verse two. It is, in a word, sublime. It is Prince at his most soulful, with the growls and runs that mark his genius.
The song: “Mary Don’t You Weep,” a gospel standard, a Negro spiritual, or a “slave song” that has rocked the ages, one that encapsulates our pain, but still rings out with hope.
Though it’s been covered by many, Prince’s version was heretofore unheard by the masses by Prince because it was unreleased.
But that all changed on Wednesday, when filmmaker Spike Lee released a video of the soaring song for the BlacKkKlansman movie, a film based on the real-life story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department, who courageously takes on the Ku Klux Klan.
Coincidentally, I had been listening to Aretha’s version of the song since her death, but this one is just as haunting.
Let the church say Amen.
Prince remake Mary don’t you weep
Aretha Franklin Mary Don’t you weep
Madonna’s Self-Centered Aretha Franklin Tribute At VMAs Faces Criticism
MADONNA WAS LIKE ME, MYSELF AND I!
Many viewers felt the pop star made the speech all about herself.
With the MTV VMAs taking place only a few days after the passing of beloved Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin, there was much speculation over how the late icon would be honored during the show. Rather than a musical tribute, Aretha’s legacy was entrusted in the hands of one of pop music’s biggest stars, Madonna, who shared some words about the singer’s impact on her life. Unfortunately, as many fans have pointed out, her speech didn’t really have much to do with Aretha at all.
People are upset about Madonna's Aretha Franklin tribute at the VMA's 'cos it was basically all about her and not Aretha. Whatchu think? Here's a snippet
Video credit @TheRaroLae pic.twitter.com/9loUPGTG24
— Kenzy Mohapi (@KenzyMohapi) August 21, 2018
It started out fine. “Aretha Louise Franklin changed the course of my life,” she said, but quickly the focus turned to a story of an audition in which Madonna sang an Aretha song. While it seemed the intention was to show how Franklin had inspired her to push forward as a woman in the music industry, the lack of focus on Aretha was somewhere between bizarre and disrespectful for many viewers. As one Twitter user Darlene26811165 so eloquently put it: “Aretha in heaven sitting on her throne looking down at Madonna like Bitch did You die or me?” On top of that, her outfit was criticized as culturally appropriative.
Eventually, Madonna got to the point, but it didn’t seem to win anyone over. “You’re probably all wondering why I’m telling you this story,” she said. “None of [my success] would’ve happened, could’ve happened, without our Lady of Soul. She led me to where I am today. And I know she influenced so many people in this house tonight, in this room tonight. I want to thank you, Aretha, for empowering all of us: R-e-s-p-e-c-t. Long live the Queen.”
The speech came just before Madonna announced the award for Video Of The Year, which went to Camila Cabello’s “Havana.” In the closing credits, Aretha’s “Respect” was played.
View some reactions from Twitter users below, and watch Madonna’s tribute above.
READ MORE——> https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/madonnas-aretha-franklin-tribute-at-vmas-faces-criticism-news.57818.html
Aretha in heaven sitting on her throne looking down at Madonna like Bitch did You die or me?
Aretha or Madonna #VMAS pic.twitter.com/L7Ibsu86Xj
— D.T. (@Darlene26811165) August 21, 2018
Aretha Franklin Deeper Love from the Sister Act 2 Soundtrack
Areatha was coming up with some real jams in the 1990s! I forgot about this one from 1993 sister act 2
Argument over Aretha Franklin reportedly leads to Virginia shooting
An argument over whether Halle Berry played Aretha Franklin in a movie reportedly led to a person being shot in Virginia.
The Suffolk Police Department is investigating the shooting which occurred around 10:43 a.m. at the intersection of East Washington Street and Liberty Street on Thursday, Aug. 16.
Witnesses told WTKR in Norfolk that the shooting was between two people who were arguing whether the Academy Award-winning actress ever played the Detroit icon in a movie. Police have not confirmed or denied that detail.
Franklin, The Queen of Soul, died in Detroit at the age of 76 on Thursday.
According to the Suffolk Police Department, the verbal altercation between two adult males turned physical. One of the subjects produced a firearm, shooting the other involved subject at least once.
Both subjects received emergency medical assessment and treatment by Suffolk Fire & Rescue personnel before being transported to local hospitals for further treatment.
The gunshot victim is in serious condition, police said. The investigation is ongoing.
Just in case you were wondering, Aretha Franklin said in a 2011 interview that she would want Halle Berry to play her in a biopic.
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