Aretha Franklin

She has won many awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performances with eleven to her name (including eight consecutive awards from 1968 to 1975 – the first eight awarded in that category). That same year Franklin released her first holiday album This Christmas Aretha which was initially released as an exclusive on Borders Group and was re-released on the DMI Records label in 2008 since selling 142864 copies alone in the United States. The double album became Aretha biggest selling career album and eventually sold over two million copies becoming the best-selling pure gospel album of all time.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" list as well as the ninth greatest artist of all time. In 1984 Franklin added modern day pop rock and dance elements to her sound which was integral to the success of her 1985 Platinum album Who's Zoomin' Who? which spawned the hits "Freeway of Love" "Who's Zoomin' Who" and the Eurythmics members Annie Lennox and David A. On August 14 2012 Franklin was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.