Finally! Her actual retirement is at least 15 years overdue.
She said she would retire before, and then got too jealous of Beyonce being called ‘The Queen of Soul’, with Areatha stating that the title would forever belong to her, and nobody else.
I’ve heard a tape of that last Star Spangled Banner she did at a football game earlier this year. I didn’t know it was Areatha till later. At first, I thought I was hearing a slightly drunk elderly black man singing in front of a big mirror in an empty bar someplace in Louisiana. I could tell whoever was singing who knew how to improvise, but the delivery was garbled, uneven and unprofessional. Her performance lasted for quite a few minutes longer than the teams had expected.
I heard it. Over four minutes long, couldn’t understand the words and very self-indulgent. If she would have done it in her old style it would have been good.