Grammys Flashback '91: Aretha Franklin's a Legend

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Only a select handful of people in any field can be deemed legendary. After decades of success in the music industry, it was Aretha Franklin's time to be deemed as such.

Established the year before Franklin received the honor, the Grammy Legend Award is bestowed upon deserving recipients not on an annual basis like most other awards but rather based on the merit of a career.


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"I feel kind of young to be a legend," the then-49-year-old singer says of the 1991 award, "but it's great. I enjoy it."

Prior to being given the rare honor--which has since been awarded to Johnny Cash, Curtis Mayfield, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, and many others--Franklin had received fifteen Grammys, and has gone on to receive an additional three awards for her more recent singles in the 2000s.


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Although the previous Grammy Legends were around the same age as Franklin was when she received the award, she reiterates her youth in receiving the award, seemingly in humility.

"It sounds like you've been around a long time, doesn't it? Something like that," she says in the flashback. "I'm too young for that...It's the ultimate honor."