Aretha Franklin Calling It Quits: ‘I Am Retiring This Year’

Legendary singer Aretha Franklin has announced her retirement!

Franklin told WDIV Local 4 in Detroit, "I am retiring this year. I will be recording, but this will be my last year in concert. This is it.” She revealed that she wants to spend more time with her grandchildren before they head off to college.

Though she's retiring, she'll still make some rare appearances and do "some select things, maybe one a month, for six months out of the year."

Reflecting on her illustrious career, the 74-year-old said she felt that her retirement announcement was bittersweet since “it's what I've done all my life. I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now,” she elaborated. "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."

Before she retires, Aretha will be hitting the studio to record her last album, which she describes as "kind of multi-(directional). We're not pigeonholed to any one thing.”

The 17-time Grammy winner will be working on the album with Stevie Wonder, who will produce “several of the songs.”