Watch Ariana Grande's powerful Aretha Franklin tribute with 'Natural Woman' cover
17 August 2018, 11:09 | Updated: 17 August 2018, 11:15
The 25-year-old singer received a standing ovation for her moving tribute to the Queen of Soul.
Following the sad news of Aretha Franklin's death at the age of 76 on Thursday (August 16), Ariana Grande appeared on The Tonight Show to perform a version of Carole King's '(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman', which Aretha later turned into one of her signature songs.
The performance was arranged at the last minute, after Ariana was already scheduled to appear on the show with host Jimmy Fallon.
8 of the greatest Aretha Franklin songs
Ariana was joined by the house band The Roots on the song. According to Variety, Ariana initially turned down the idea, as she was too emotional to perform such a tribute.
Watch the performance above.
Speaking to Fallon afterwards, Ariana recalled meeting Aretha at the White House: "She was so sweet and so cute and I was like 'how are you a real person?'
"It was an honour to have met her and we're going to celebrate her."
She also revealed how she received a memorable phone call from the soul legend, who wanted to send her some music by her nephew.
"She called me one time and she goes 'Hi it's Aretha'. And I was like 'Franklin?!'. There's only one Aretha."
Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Adele and Barbra Streisand were among the stars to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin yesterday.
