Aretha Franklin: Last News

A court in Michigan heard testimonies from Aretha Franklin’s children yesterday in a dispute over the late musician’s will. Franklin’s sons disagree over whether documents from 2010 or 2014 best represent their mother’s wishes in terms of how her estate should be managed.Following Franklin’s death in 2018 two documents were found at her home, both of which could be considered her last will and testament.The one written in 2014 is obviously the more recent.

Sir Elton John told the thousands of adoring fans in Sweden that he “better make it a good show” as kicked off the final date of his mammoth farewell tour.The 76 year old musical megastar has been travelling around the globe performing his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show since 2018, and his second night at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm on Saturday (8 July) finally brought the 330-date run to a close. In classic spectacular fashion, The Rocket Man singer donned a black suit jacket with colourful beading on the lapel as he took to the stage to open with his hit Bennie And The Jets, which first appeared on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album in 1973.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Unabashed pop groups with fervid teenage followings tend to get trivialized, at least in the media. They’re dismissed as being slick and calculated and superficial. But there’s a story in “Wham!,” the new Netflix documentary about the quintessential pop duo of the 1980s, that testifies to what a chancy and audacious artist George Michael was even back in his teen-idol days. The year is 1983. Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, coming off their first album, “Fantastic” (which had a few hits, though none of them were great), have established Wham! as an effective lightweight pop machine, with its two young stars prancing around the stage in sexy sportswear. The time has come to record “Careless Whisper,” a song they’ve had in their back pocket for several years (we hear the super-early demo version of it that they recorded in 1981 in Ridgeley’s living room on a TEAC 4-track Portastudio). Michael has become enough of a powerhouse to hook up with Jerry Wexler, the legendary producer of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. He heads down to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to record the track, with Wexler producing. What more could a 20-year-old budding pop star want?

Madonna took off into the stratosphere with “Lucky Star” and other hits from her self-titled debut album — released 40 years ago on July 27, 1983 — the then-24-year-old hopeful had received some clairvoyant reinforcement regarding her future as the Queen of Pop.“She had actually gone to a psychic, and she told me, ‘Just watch what’s gonna happen,’” Paul Pesco — who played guitar on both “Lucky Star” and “Burning Up”  — told The Post.“She told me this in rehearsals one day, and it was like the equivalent of Bette Davis saying, ‘Fasten your seatbelts …’ I mean, she kind of knew it.”That would give prophetic meaning to “I Know It” — one of five songs that a young Madonna Louise Ciccone of Michigan wrote by herself for an eight-track classic that would get generations of future dance-pop divas into the groove. Possessing neither the gospel grandeur of an Aretha Franklin or the folky feels of a Joni Mitchell, Madonna — who was set to commemorate the 40th anniversary of her debut with her “Celebration” tour launching on July 15 until the Material Girl, 64, was sidelined by a serious bacterial infection two weeks ago — made her own path, as the mother of a pop reinvention.After the so-called death of disco as the ’70s twirled to an end, Madonna reclaimed the dance floor in a whole new way.“We really felt that if we were to combine disco and R&B and new wave, we would have something really cool,” said Michael Rosenblatt, Madonna’s original A&R man at Sire Records.

The final wishes of singing star Aretha Franklin will be adjudicated starting next Monday in a trial that will determine which of two handwritten wills will be honored.

Associated Press.“This can be settled any time, on the steps, halfway through trial,” he said. “And hopefully it will be.

Five years after her death, the final wishes of music superstar Aretha Franklin are still unsettled. An unusual trial begins next Monday to determine which of two handwritten wills, including one found in couch cushions, will guide how her estate is handled.

Babyface is a legend in the recording booth.As a producer and songwriter, he’s developed some of the world’s greatest musicians across genres, including the likes of Whitney Houston, Beyoncé and Usher, just to name a few.This week on “Renaissance Man,” Babyface – born Kenneth Brian Edmonds – took me down memory lane and dished on the moments when he realized that these young talents would become undisputed global sensations.Specifically, Babyface remembers developing his own “language” while recording with Houston, who, he said, was all business.“She didn’t necessarily like to spend a lot of time singing. She liked to get in there and get it done,” Babyface told me.

PBS is gearing up for a star-studded and explosive celebration for the Fourth of July!

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone have boarded “Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story” as executive producers. The documentary short, co-directed by Zeberiah Newman (“Unexpected”) and Michiel Thomas (“Game Face”), is a portrait of West Hollywood candlemaker Tim Sullivan. It chronicles the 82-year-old Bronx native’s journey coming out as a gay man, how he got sober more than 40 years ago and his tradition of hiring homeless and newly sober people at his company, Timothy Jay Candles. McCarthy and Falcone tell me in a statement, “Once we heard the lovely story of Tim Sullivan and began to understand how many people he’s helped in his life through the making of beautiful candles, we realized these filmmakers were telling exactly the kind of story we want to help get out into the world.”

Samba Pa Ti‘ or ‘Europa‘ — the ballads,” Santana, 75, told The Post from his home in Hawaii. “We made an impact on the world as far as facilitating a vibration that makes people feel spiritual and sexually aroused at the same time.” The dad of three — who may or may not have been listening to his favorite artists Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Nina Simone and Tina Turner when his own children were conceived — said his sensual sound unites him with fans across continents.“Because people grew up listening to this music in their living rooms, people made love with them and so somehow we became like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, part of an institution,” he said.“I could go anywhere in the world, Ireland, Japan or Africa, and I’m not a tourist, I’m part of the family.”The native of Autlan, Mexico, whose father was a violinist, started as a street musician, and quickly realized his talent would one day become his profession.“My father would enter me into contests and I would always win,” he said.

Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin and was the father of Spike Lee, has died aged 94.The musician died at his Brooklyn home yesterday (May 24), according to a publicist for Spike Lee, confirmed to The New York Times.

Nanni Moretti returns to the film-within-a-film format with a fitfully funny new comedy that, this time, offers two films-within-a-film (plus a surreal dream sequence). It is, frankly, a relief after 2021’s terrible, soapy melodrama Three Floors, and, at a crisp 96 minutes, so much easier to swallow. In some ways a companion piece to 2015’s Mia Madre, it finds the director putting all his neuroses back on show, pontificating on everything from movie violence to streaming platforms and why wearing slippers onscreen is a fashion no-no that can only be pulled off by Aretha Franklin in The Blues Brothers.

Bill Lee, the accomplished Jazz musician who collaborated with the likes of Cat Stevens, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan and also scored many of his son Spike Lee’s films, has died according to multiple reports. He was 94.

Thania Garcia Bill Lee, the jazz bassist who played with Bob Dylan and Duke Ellington before composing scores for his son Spike Lee, died at his Brooklyn home on Wednesday morning. No cause of death has been confirmed. He was 94. The news was confirmed on Spike Lee’s official Instagram where he shared a series of portraits of his late father captured by David Charles Lee. He also shared The New York Times obituary and the album art for his 1989 film “Do The Right Thing” score, which Bill Lee composed. The late Lee also wrote the soundtracks for his son’s first three feature films: “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986), “School Daze” (1988), and “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990). He also scored an early Spike Lee short, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” the first student film to premiere at Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films Festival, in 1983.

The National Music Council of the United States will honor music and event producers Ray Chew and Vivian Scott Chew at the organization’s 39th annual American Eagle Awards on Sunday, June 25 at the American Federation of Musicians Convention in Las Vegas. 

The National Music Council of the United States will honor music and event producers Ray Chew and Vivian Scott Chew at the organization’s 39th annual American Eagle Awards on Sunday, June 25 at the American Federation of Musicians Convention in Las Vegas. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Marc Maron has joined the cast of Universal’s untitled New York Christmas movie, written by Richard Curtis, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill” and “Love Actually.” Maron is starring alongside Melissa McCarthy and Paapa Essiedu in the film, a fairy-tale comedy about a workaholic man who enlists the help of a magical genie to help win his family back before Christmas. Sam Boyd, who wrote and created the Anna Kendrick-led HBO Max series “Love Life,” will direct. It’s set to premiere on the NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock on a yet-to-be-determined date.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy and Tony-Award winner Courtney B. Vance has joined the cast of Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch in the role of Cobra Bubbles, Deadline has learned.

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actress was a guest on and revealed that she has officially signed on to play Dionne Warwick in an upcoming film.«We're already working on it,» Taylor told Hall when asked about possibly playing the legendary songstress.«We're at the building process right now,» the 31-year-old triple-threat star said. «I always wanted to make sure I could lock in with any person I would be playing.»Taylor went on to reference Angela Bassett's Oscar-nominated performance as Tina Turner in  and Jamie Foxx's Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles in. «I miss when movies was like that,» she shared.