6 of Aretha Franklin's Most Diva-ish Moments

It’s no surprise that Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, would be a diva. With her church-grown, powerhouse voice people have been singing her praises for decades now. Though we’ve never heard of Aretha being out here acting a fool, she’s not one to hold her tongue when she wants something, is not happy or has some news to share. Check out her most diva-ish moments below.

Don’t make me leave this stage!

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Essence Music Festival and Aretha Franklin just so happened to be one of the closing acts. Naturally, everyone was geeked at the chance to watch a living legend. Aretha was awesome and at times unexpected. Towards the end of her set, she sang “Bridge over Troubled Water” in honor of Whitney Houston. As she was playing the piano solo, she leaned into the microphone and asked…whoever to please turn the air conditioning off. I’m not making this up. Truth be told it was freezing in the arena. When her request was not met, she leaned into the mic again and said, “Please turn the air conditioning off on the stage before I have to leave it.” You know you’ve made it, when you can ask people to turn off the air in an arena.

Keep my name out ya mouth

It wasn’t too long ago that Aretha was vying for a spot at the American Idol judge’s table and she certainly made her wishes known. So it really came as no surprise that her desire to be on Fox’s hit show would serve as great talking points for morning news personality, Kathie Lee. But you know Kathie Lee has been known to get a little carried away at times. She made the mistake of saying that young people don’t know Aretha Franklin or her music and that’s why she wouldn’t make a good judge. Well, Kathie Lee didn’t know that Aretha watches NBC in the morning, specifically Kathie Lee and Hoda. After she broke down why she would make a good judge, she had a word of advice for Kathie: “She should research me before she speaks about me.” Woop!

You should play me

Aretha is in the process of making her biopic; and unsurprisingly, she’s been very vocal about which actress she’d like to play the lead role. From jump she mentioned Halle Berry’s name. Honestly, I could see Halle playing a young Aretha and lip syncing her songs but Ms. Berry wasn’t so keen to the idea. She politely declined, blaming it on her lack of singing ability: “If I could carry a tune, I’d consider it,” she said. “Someone should tell Aretha that I can’t do her justice.” (Though that didn’t stop her from portraying Dorothy Dandridge.) But we know Aretha won’t be dismayed. Hopefully, she can find someone who can do her justice.

Nope, she’s not pregnant!

Aretha is a bit of a jokester. When she announced her engagement to longtime friend, Willie Wilkerson, I guess she didn’t want people to think she was rushing in too fast, though the two have been friends for a while. She told the media, with a laugh, that it wasn’t a shotgun wedding and she was not pregnant. Lol That’s good to know.

Calling off engagement

After Aretha got everybody excited about the wedding, talking about who would design her dress, where and when it would go down, she decided, just three weeks later, that the wedding wasn’t going to happen. Though she said the two would remain friends, there was no word as to why she called her nuptials. But when you’re a diva, you don’t owe anybody an explanation.