Queen of the night

What's up with Aretha's attack on Beyonce? Apparently when Beyonce introduced Tina Turner onto the stage at the 2008 Grammy's, the choice of words, although performed via an abstract mixture of song, narration, and dance, was not to Aretha's liking. Perhaps it was the fact that Beyonce mentioned more than 10 other historical and influential, black, singers before introducing Turner as the "queen." Aretha was included in these other references, of course, but not as "The Queen of Soul," which she was is so famously remembered as far back as 1960.http://www.aretha-franklin.com/

"I am not sure of whose toes I may have stepped on or whose ego I may have bruised between the Grammy writers and Beyonce," Franklin said, "However, I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy."

In my opinion, the night belonged to Turner, not Franklin, and the fact that Turner was called the "queen" doesn't suggest for a moment that she was upstaging or stealing the name bestowed upon Franklin. I mean, is she mad at Queen Latifah? or Queen Elizabeth II? The irony is that Turner does carry a title as the "Queen of Rock and Roll," which is perfect for a duet with Beyonce, as her music has taken a slight shift in that direction, lately. So what made Franklin get so offended? I think the real problem Franklin has is that she wasn't offered the prestigious position of performing at the Grammys, and following that long-wanted path of "Great Comebacks." Even Beyonce's father, and manager, is perplexed at Franklin's very public statement. Mr. Knowles counter-acted with a public statement of his own: "I am not taking something this ridiculous to Beyonce. Beyonce referred to Tina Turner as a 'queen.' Not queen of gospel, queen of soul, queen of blues, Queen of England. I consider my wife a queen and sometimes call her that. Does Aretha have a problem with that?" I suppose we can give Franklin a small break, considering she has had such an influence on the music world today and she's in her 60s. At least the performance that night was worth this stir of controversy.