DETROIT _ During the opening hours of Aretha Franklin's funeral at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, the Aretha Franklin Orchestra offered gentle, instrumental gospel soul music as VIPs and dignitaries including Diana Ross, Hillary and Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Tyler Perry, Patti LaBelle and dozens of others greeted friends and family.
The Aretha Franklin Celebration Choir filled the sanctuary with overwhelming power, moving through "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and classic spirituals that confirmed that hundreds of pitch-perfect gospel singers were in the house, both onstage and among the attendees.
With those opening acts, woe be the first soloist to take the microphone, as country superstar Faith Hill did after opening remarks. Backed by the orchestra and choir, Hill delivered an enthusiastic version of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Her inclusion sent an early signal that the late diva's family was aiming for genre-transcending unification.
Critics might judge Hill's pitchy performance, but this is church, and when a preacher commands the attendees to "lift every voice," casting judgment feels misguided. (Predictably, that didn't stop online commenters from throwing shade.)
Hill was followed by pop superstar Ariana Grande _ introduced with the praise, "please welcome the music ministry of Ariana Grande" _ who seemed visibly overwhelmed by her inclusion.
Singing "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," Grande moved across the lines with a tentativeness, seemingly afraid to let loose for fear of becoming a meme. She needn't have worried. Backed by so many powerful voices, Grande had the support of the room _ even if Jackson onstage behind her seemed noticeably unmoved.
Other performers included:
SMOKEY ROBINSON REMEMBERS HIS 'LONGEST FRIEND'
Smokey Robinson remembered the very day he first heard Franklin sing. He'd walked into the Franklin family's Detroit home, a young artist with no idea that the two would help define soul and civil rights activism in the decades to come.
But before he saw her, he heard her piano ringing down the hallway. Right then, he knew they would be friends.
"From then on, we've been so close, so tight. I didn't know that this soon, I'd have to say goodbye," Robinson said. "We were the two longest (friends) of all the neighborhood kids. Now my longest friend has gone to the father."
Robinson is 78, and no stranger to saying goodbye to the giants from his genre. But even he seemed to be struggling with the loss of not just America's greatest soul voice, but also one of his best friends.
The only thing to do then, was sing. He chose "Really Gonna Miss You," the backbone of his "Temptations" miniseries, and performed it a cappella: "I'm really gonna miss you, it's really gonna be different without you. For the rest of my life, I'm gonna be thinking about you."
Then he closed. "I miss you my buddy, I miss you my friend." Almost no one had more reason to say that to Franklin on Friday.
"You'll be one of the featured in the choir of angels," Robinson said. "Because you'd have to be."
The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke just before Robinson, and he punctuated his mostly loving, lively eulogy with some inspired political fury at the end.
"Trump said that 'She worked for me.' No, she used to perform for you. She worked for us," Sharpton said, gesturing to the crowd of mostly black faces in the church. It was Sharpton's more polite equivalent of saying "get her name out of your mouth," but the impact was the same. This was a day for music, for life, for justice and remembrance, and it was not to be sullied.
Few acts would be better to bring it all back than the Clark Sisters, the Detroit gospel/soul group and longtime peers of Franklin.
The song they performed _ "Is My Living in Vain?" _ spoke right to heart of Franklin's life. "Is my living in vain? Is my praying in vain?" they asked, in perfect three-part harmony. The performance was far, far from somber: The Clarks dove in with so much conviction that it was clear they already knew the answer.
For Franklin, no, not a second of it was in vain.
_ August Brown
CHAKA KHAN OFFERS A REASSURING SALUTE WITH 'GOING UP YONDER'
Chaka Khan didn't drop her microphone on the floor after her riveting performance of "Going Up Yonder," but she may as well have. The soul singer, like Franklin, learned to sing at church and _ it was obvious.
Performing gospel singer and songwriter Walter Hawkins' reassuring hymn on the thrills of the afterlife, Khan eased her way into the song as if to meditate on the groove before gliding into it. With intense auburn hair, a deep blue dress and matching hand-fan, Khan seemed primed to salute her peer, and took her time working through the song.
That, however, shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has experienced Khan in concert. As the Root hilariously noted in a post about the Queen of Soul's unrealistically timed funeral schedule, "Chaka Khan has 5 minutes? She has runs longer than 5 minutes. On accident. Ask Rufus."
Thankfully, that proved prescient. Khan expressed through song her faith that Franklin was headed to a place where everyone's a diva (and Franklin's competitive streak has been left behind).
_ Randall Roberts
