Soul legend Aretha Franklin has announced that her next album will be her last.
The Guardian reports that, when speaking to Detroit TV station WDIV Local 4, the 74-year-old singer told the reporter, “I must tell you, I am retiring this year.”
Franklin is releasing a new record in September made up of original material and produced by Stevie Wonder. After that, she plans to close the curtain on her music career and spend time with her grandchildren. However, she made a point of adding that she will still do “some select things, many one a month, for six months out of the year.”
In the interview, Franklin said she was “exuberant” about the new music she has been working on.
The album was recorded entirely in Detroit. “I keep my business in Detroit, or as close to Detroit as possible”, she said in the interview.
When speaking about the decision, she said, “I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now. I’ll be pretty much satisfied, but I’m not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn’t be good either.”
