‘Anaconda’ rapper’s musical talent, though she did comment favorably on Adele, Alicia Keys and others. Franklin’s new album, Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics, includes covers of Adele and Alicia Keys songs. Meanwhile pop singer, Taylor Swift, got a comment on her gowns rather than her singing…LOL. That Aretha is something else, I tell ya’…LOL.

Could it be that she just doesn’t know who Nicki Minaj is, or maybe doesn’t know enough about her? If I had to take a lucky guess I’d say ‘NOPE that’s not it’…LOL. What do you think?

She also expressed her dislike for auto-tune when asked about it and I absolutely understand where she’s coming from with this: “What is auto-tune? I don’t even know what auto-tune is,” Franklin said when asked of her opinion on rising stars using auto-tune to enhance their range and keep a singer in tune. “That’s ridiculous.” You can see all of this in her interview snippet on the previous page.

Now although she didn’t give Taylor Swift compliments on her singing skills, she did make nice with her on Friday (12-12-14), when she sang happy birthday to her at Billboard Magazine’s “Women In Music” panel (That still doesn’t mean that she thinks Taylor’s a great singer though, it simply just means that Aretha still thinks she wears “beautiful gowns”). Ms. Franklin effortlessly showed Taylor and the rest of those youngins’ on that stage how it’s really done. Not one of those singers on that stage could ever touch Aretha’s voice and they know it, so they did the next best thing when asked to sing along with the “Queen”- remained silent…LOL. Watch the video clip below…

It’s good to see that Aretha has found a common ground that allows her to not compromise who she is by possibly lying and saying that she likes some of these artists’ work, if she really doesn’t, but she’s also not downing them and their crafts either, so for the outspoken Queen of Soul, that’s a thumbs up. But I’m willing to bet one thing though: Ms. Franklin’s still got that feisty spunk about her, so if any of these new artists want to try to go at Aretha for her compliment responses, or lack thereof, here’s a message for them…