BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN/ BLACK FEMALE SOUL AND GOSPEL SINGER : A BORN INTERNATIONAL SINGING STAR :

In 1993, she was invited to sing at the inauguration of Bill Clinton, and in 1994, Franklin was given a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys. Over the next few years, she became the subject of multiple documentaries and tributes.
In 1998, Franklin reprised her former role in Blues Brothers 2000, released the gold-selling "A Rose Is Still A Rose," and stood in for Luciano Pavarotti,

who was too ill to accept his Lifetime Achievement Award. Her rendition of "Nessun Dorma" commanded stellar reviews.
In 2003, Franklin released her final studio album on Arista, So Damn Happy, and left the label to found Aretha Records. Two years later, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and became the second woman ever to be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In 2008, she received her 18th Grammy Award for " Never Gonna Break My Faith"—a col  laboration with Mary J. Blige—and was tapped to sing at the 2009 inauguration of president Barack Obama. With her 18th Grammy, she has won the second most Grammys of any female artist, following Alison Krauss. Most recently, Franklin's released her first album on her own label, A Woman Falling Out of Love, in 2011.
To support her album, Franklin gave several concerts, including a two-night stint at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York. Both fans and critics were impressed with her performances, in which she showed that the Queen of Soul still reigns supreme.
In her personal life, however, Franklin seemed to be going through some challenging times. She announced that she was getting married to her "forever friend" William "Willie" Wilkerson in January 2012 and they planned to tie the knot in that summer. Only a short time later, Franklin told the press that the wedding off. The couple had "decided we were moving a little too fast, and there were a number of things that had not been thought through thoroughly."
More than a week after breaking off her engagement, Franklin suffered another great personal loss. The death of her goddaughter, Whitney Houston

, on February 11, 2012, deeply saddened her. "It's so stunning and unbelievable," Franklin wrote on her Facebook page. "My heart goes out to Cissy, her daughter Bobbi Kris, her family and Bobby."