Barack & Michelle Obama share tribute to Aretha Franklin

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin sadly passed away this morning, and countless fellow music legends have been paying tribute to her. Also paying tribute: Barack and Michelle Obama. They posted a statement, which reads in part:

For more than six decades […], every time she sang, we were all graced with a glimpse of the divine. Through her compositions and unmatched musicianship, Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade — our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. She hlped us feel more connected to each other, more hopeful, more human. And sometimes she helped us just forget about everything else and dance.

You can read more here.

Aretha performed at Barack’s 2009 inauguration, and she famously brought him to tears at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. You can watch videos of both of those performances and see tweets from Barack and Michelle below.