Genius: Aretha | Behind the Scenes with the A-Team

Hey, marker. Chat, here we go, and action.

The queen of souls, I was looking the word up—genius, an exceptional quality. So, of course, Aretha Franklin has an exceptional quality. She has her beautiful voice, her amazing and brilliant piano playing, and she's the first American in the series, the first woman, the first person of color.

She was able to alchemize her life into sonic gold. My singing voice has always been my guardian angel; it keeps me safe. It feels good to share with the world that Black women contain genius, that we are geniuses.

I need y'all to follow me because we're gonna get lost otherwise. Cynthia Erivo is just phenomenal. It blows me away to hear how much she sounds like Aretha and how she embodies her. As just a fan of Aretha, I've listened to her music since I was little, and I was learning her music before I knew I was going to be doing anything like this.

We gonna look good, we gonna feel good. Yes, this is a big show. We have a lot of costume changes. A lot of the pieces that I've done also replicate what she actually wore at certain events that we want to honor in this series. [Music]

Thank you so much, thank you very much. We're allowing the audience access to what it was like for her back then, and there was a lot of stress and trauma, and you learn those things. You just go, how did she become Aretha Franklin as we know her?

The idea that she was able to combine her music with activism is really special, and I don't know that people realize that she was an activist. They shoot us down like dogs, like our lives ain't worth nothing. It's time to make a stand.

People forget how powerful music can be considered, and she used that power to empower the rest of her community. You got to disturb the peace when you can't get no peace. That's why we celebrate her; she's the queen of soul—your soul, mine, everybody's. She earned that crown. [Music] You.