Genius Aretha: The Queen of Soul Who Paved The Way For Music Today

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Aretha is being hailed as a genius by National Geographic as she is the subject of the third edition of National Geographic’s “Genius” series. As Picasso was a genius of art and Einstein was a genius of science, Aretha Franklin is being recognized as a genius of music.

Aretha Franklin is a four-night event, eight-part series biopic that had its first debut on National Geographic on March 21^st and then aired the following night for the first time on Hulu.

Genius: Aretha, highlights the journey of Aretha from a child singing in the church to the phenomenal composer, singer and queen of soul that we recognize today presenting all of the trials and tribulations in between. National Geographic already in just the first two episodes has showcased the journey of Aretha Franklin as she is confronted with racism, sexism, domestic abuse by her husband, and extremely young motherhood, all while working hard to find her niche in the music industry and to become a rising star of music while doing it her way.

Young Aretha, also known as Little Re is played by the rising Shaian Jordan and the older Aretha Franklin is played by Emmy, Tony and Grammy Award winning Cynthia Erivo.

While nobody can replace or recreate the voice of Aretha Franklin, both actresses do a good a job of coming close to replicating the beautiful voice of the one and only, Ms. Aretha Franklin.

Genius: Aretha also does a great job in showing the influence African Americans had in the music industry and how their talents are what gained them value and respect. As seen in the series, Aretha Franklin had involvement with both Columbia and Epic Records. Although the figures behind these labels gave her the backing to make hit records, it wasn’t until she started working with Columbia, that she found her unique voice to make hits.

In comparison to today’s music industry, we hold record labels such as Epic Records and Columbia Records at such a high caliber for signing some of our favorite artists from all music genres, but this National Geographic series puts it into perspective that ‘geniuses’ such as Aretha Franklin, are the reason why.

Still to this day even after the passing of the late great Ms. Aretha Franklin, she is receiving a lot of respect from the entertainment world and in addition to the National Geographic Genuis: Aretha series, there will also be a biopic movie of her life played by modern music sensation, Jennifer Hudson, airing August 13, 2021.

Stay tuned tomorrow to stream and watch the next two episodes of Genius: Aretha on either National Geographic or Hulu.