By — Joshua Barajas Joshua Barajas Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/watch-aretha-franklin-brings-twitter-to-its-knees-with-longest-national-anthem-ever Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter WATCH: Aretha Franklin brings Twitter to its knees with longest national anthem ever Arts Nov 24, 2016 3:54 PM EDT Aretha Franklin took us all to church. #HappyThanksgivinghttps://t.co/Ds6UUBpMno — Sam White (@samwhiteout) November 24, 2016 Aretha Franklin is respected for her indelible performances. The Queen of Soul belted “My Country Tis of Thee” — in this hat! — at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. As a sartorial punctuation, she dropped her fur coat while she sang “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman” at a Carole King tribute in 2015. The president was moved to tears. And before today’s Thanksgiving game between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, the 74-year-old diva sang her rendition of the national anthem for a whopping four minutes and change. No one dared interrupted her. It was broadcast in full. Wearing a Lions cap, the Detroit native was unhurried, while she sang at the piano in her fur coat. CBS clocked Franklin’s national anthem at four minutes and 35 seconds. Yahoo Sports pointed out that Franklin’s anthem is more than double the average time — around 1 minute and 57 seconds — that was spent singing it at the past 10 Super Bowls. Franklin sang longer than Natalie Cole and Alicia Keys in the 1994 and 2013 Super Bowls. Both record-setters didn’t last longer than three minutes. Many on Twitter were thankful for Franklin’s extended take on the Francis Scott Key-penned song. Aretha Franklin is doing a ball-control national anthem. It's all about clock management everyone. — Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) November 24, 2016 Delay of game: Aretha Franklin — TheMachine (@MachinesPicks) November 24, 2016 Bad news: Football is cancelledGood news: 13-hour Aretha Franklin concert. Leave it on through dinner. Everybody will love it. — The Ringer (@ringer) November 24, 2016 NFL: Aretha, we want you to sing the national anthem Aretha: I'll take them to church NFL: Well, that's not what … Aretha: Church — Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) November 24, 2016 Nobody rushes Aretha. Nobody. We've got all the time. — Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) November 24, 2016 Gwen Ifill spoke with Franklin last year about her remarkable six-decade career, and Franklin told Gwen that she wasn’t ever going to retire. Aretha Franklin was honored recently by the National Portrait Gallery with a “Portrait of a Nation” prize, given out to some of the people who appear in its collection. Gwen Ifill spoke with the Queen of Soul about her career, her voice and her legacy. Video by PBS NewsHour “That wouldn’t be good, for one, just to go somewhere and sit down and do nothing,” she said. “Please. No, that’s not moi.” We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Joshua Barajas Joshua Barajas Joshua Barajas is a senior editor for the PBS NewsHour's Communities Initiative. He's also the senior editor and manager of newsletters. @Josh_Barrage
Aretha Franklin took us all to church. #HappyThanksgivinghttps://t.co/Ds6UUBpMno — Sam White (@samwhiteout) November 24, 2016 Aretha Franklin is respected for her indelible performances. The Queen of Soul belted “My Country Tis of Thee” — in this hat! — at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. As a sartorial punctuation, she dropped her fur coat while she sang “(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman” at a Carole King tribute in 2015. The president was moved to tears. And before today’s Thanksgiving game between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, the 74-year-old diva sang her rendition of the national anthem for a whopping four minutes and change. No one dared interrupted her. It was broadcast in full. Wearing a Lions cap, the Detroit native was unhurried, while she sang at the piano in her fur coat. CBS clocked Franklin’s national anthem at four minutes and 35 seconds. Yahoo Sports pointed out that Franklin’s anthem is more than double the average time — around 1 minute and 57 seconds — that was spent singing it at the past 10 Super Bowls. Franklin sang longer than Natalie Cole and Alicia Keys in the 1994 and 2013 Super Bowls. Both record-setters didn’t last longer than three minutes. Many on Twitter were thankful for Franklin’s extended take on the Francis Scott Key-penned song. Aretha Franklin is doing a ball-control national anthem. It's all about clock management everyone. — Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) November 24, 2016 Delay of game: Aretha Franklin — TheMachine (@MachinesPicks) November 24, 2016 Bad news: Football is cancelledGood news: 13-hour Aretha Franklin concert. Leave it on through dinner. Everybody will love it. — The Ringer (@ringer) November 24, 2016 NFL: Aretha, we want you to sing the national anthem Aretha: I'll take them to church NFL: Well, that's not what … Aretha: Church — Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) November 24, 2016 Nobody rushes Aretha. Nobody. We've got all the time. — Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) November 24, 2016 Gwen Ifill spoke with Franklin last year about her remarkable six-decade career, and Franklin told Gwen that she wasn’t ever going to retire. Aretha Franklin was honored recently by the National Portrait Gallery with a “Portrait of a Nation” prize, given out to some of the people who appear in its collection. Gwen Ifill spoke with the Queen of Soul about her career, her voice and her legacy. Video by PBS NewsHour “That wouldn’t be good, for one, just to go somewhere and sit down and do nothing,” she said. “Please. No, that’s not moi.” We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now