Ashanti Posted A Tribute To Aretha Franklin About The Time Aretha Warned Her About SARS In Canada

ashanti I had a special moment with the Queen Miss Aretha that is truly dear to my heart… I will never forget I was in Canada for a concert back in 2003… and my mom got a phone call on her cell…it was Miss Aretha Franklin and at first my mom didn’t believe it until she really listened to her voice she said to my mom “Hi let me speak to your baby I wanna tell her about these germs” My mom is looking like huh?? And says ok sure of course Ms Aretha… I get on the phone and I’m like oh my gosh I can’t believe this is this really Ms. Aretha Franklin? She says “Yes it is baby I’m just calling to tell you to be careful out there you know they got that SARS stuff going on…don’t touch any of the door knobs and hurry up and get out of there! I don’t want you to get sick!” I said oh my God thank you so much I can’t believe you actually called me this means the world to me thank you so much & I promise to get out of here 1st thing in the morning! It honestly felt like a phone call I would get from my grandma! ?? Rest In Peace Queen.

So as everyone knows Aretha Franklin passed away last week and it led to an outpouring of tributes from just about everybody. Name a famous person and they likely tweeted or instagrammed about how much they loved Aretha Franklin and her music, Ashanti was no different………..kinda. Her tribute was mostly the same except as everyone else’s for the part where it was all about how Aretha called her when she was in Canada and warned her about SARS. What? I suppose that’s what you want in a tribute to someone. You want something unique that stands out from the ocean of “You were an inspiration!” tributes. If that was Ashanti’s goal, she nailed it. I guarantee no one else wrote an Aretha Franklin tribute that involved door knobs and SARS. Such a grandma thing to to. “Wear a coat and look out for SARS.”

By the way, not to make someone’s death about myself but, it’s strange when an iconic musician/celebrity/famous person dies who you have little to no connection to. That’s how I felt with Aretha Franklin. Sure I’ve belted out R-E-S-P-E-C-T at many weddings but that’s the extent of Aretha and I’s relationship. Everybody was out there on social media emoting about Aretha’s death and I was standing on the sidelines. What I’m trying to say is it was a tough day for me when Aretha Franklin died cause I couldn’t be a part of what followed on the internet.