FORMER presidents and preachers joined a parade of singers on Friday in a hip-swaying, piano-pounding farewell to Aretha Franklin, remembering the Queen of Soul as a powerful force for musical and political change and a steadfast friend and family member.

“Aretha’s singing challenged the dangling discords of hate and lies and racism and injustice,” the pastor William J. Barber II said. “Her singing was revelation and was revolution.”

In a send-off both personal and grand - it was over seven hours in length - a celebrity lineup of mourners filled the same Detroit church that hosted Rosa Parks’ funeral and offered prayers, songs and dozens of tributes. Guests included former President Bill Clinton, former first lady Hillary Clinton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson.

Smokey Robinson, the Motown great, remembered first hearing Franklin play piano when he was just eight, and he remained close to her for the rest of her life. They talked for hours at a time.

“You’re so special,” he said, before crooning a few lines from his song Really Gonna Miss You, with the line “really gonna be different without you.”

The epic funeral unfolded on the same day as services for Arizona Sen. John McCain in the nation’s capital, creating a challenge for some news networks trying to show both ceremonies. The McCain memorial, with its reverential silence and ramrod-straight honor guard, contrasted sharply with the joyous remembrance in Detroit.

Bill Clinton described himself as an Aretha Franklin “groupie,” saying he had loved her since college. He traced her life’s journey and praised her as someone who “lived with courage, not without fear, but overcoming her fears.”

He remembered attending her last public performance, at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation benefit in November in New York. She looked “desperately ill” but managed to greet him by standing and saying, “How you doing, baby?” Her career, Clinton noted, spanned from vinyl records to cellphones. He held the microphone near his iPhone and played a snippet of Franklin’s classic Think, the audience clapping along.

“It’s the key to freedom!” Clinton said.

“She cared about broken people, she cared about people who were disappointed... about people who didn’t succeed as much as she did,” he said.

“And she worked her can off to get where she was. She took the gifts god gave her, and they just kept getting a little bigger every day.”

He drew laughs when he commented on the soul diva’s love of fashion.

“I was so happy when I got here and the casket was still open, I got to think: ‘I wonder what my friend has on today’,” he said.

The service at Greater Grace Temple encompassed many of the same elements and emotions that were hallmarks of Franklin’s more than six decades on sacred and secular stages. She was remembered as the pride of Detroit and a citizen of the world.

Actress Cicely Tyson reworked the Paul Laurence Dunbar poem When Malindy Sings to When Aretha Sings.

Music mogul Clive Davis, who helped revive Franklin’s career in the 1980s, described her as a loving friend and a dedicated and unpredictable artist, whose passions ranged from soul to ballet. He remembered her turning up at a tribute to him in a tutu.

“There was the Queen of Soul, accompanied by members of the City Center Ballet Company,” he recalled, with Franklin “doing well-rehearsed pirouettes and dancing with most impressive agility and dignity. It was wonderful.”

Music was in abundance, of course. Jennifer Hudson, whom Franklin said she wanted to play her in a movie about her life, brought the crowd to its feet with a rousing Amazing Grace. Ariana Grande sang one of the Queen’s biggest hits, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, and Faith Hill performed What a Friend We Have In Jesus.

The Aretha Franklin Orchestra opened the funeral with a medley featuring I Say a Little Prayer, Angel and other songs she was known for, along with such gospel numbers as I Love the Lord and Walk in the Light.

Gladys Knight segued from You’ll Never Walk Alone to Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Near the end, Stevie Wonder brought the dwindling audience to their feet, swaying to his classic tribute to love, As. Jennifer Holliday ended the funeral with Climbing Higher Mountains, an uptempo gospel original by Franklin herself.

A statement from former President George W. Bush that was read to the crowd said Franklin would “continue to bring joy to millions for generations to come.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton read a statement from former President Barack Obama, who wrote that Franklin’s “work reflected the very best of the American story.” Sharpton received loud cheers when he denounced President Donald Trump for saying that the singer “worked for” him as he responded to her death.

“She performed for you,” Sharpton said of Franklin, who had sung at Trump-owned venues. “She worked for us.”

“She gave us pride. She gave us a regal bar to reach. She represented the best in our community,” Sharpton said.

Many noted her longtime commitment to civil rights and lasting concern for the poor. The Rev. Jesse Jackson recalled Franklin raising money for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and urged attendees to honor her memory by registering to vote.

Her friend Greg Mathis, the reality show host and retired Michigan judge, recalled his last conversation with her. They talked about the tainted water supply in Flint. “You go up there and sock it to ‘em,” she urged Mathis, paraphrasing the “sock it to me” refrain from Respect.

Her body arrived in a 1940 Cadillac LaSalle hearse. She wore a shimmering gold dress, with sequined heels - the fourth outfit Franklin was clothed in during a week of events leading up to her funeral.

The casket was carried to the church that also sent Franklin’s father, the renowned minister C.L. Franklin, to his and Parks’ final resting place at Woodlawn Cemetery, where the singer will join them.

Pink Cadillacs filled the street outside the church, a reference to a Franklin hit from the 1980s, Freeway of Love. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced during the service that the city would rename the riverfront amphitheater Chene Park to “Aretha Franklin Park.”

Family members, among them granddaughter Victorie Franklin and niece Cristal Franklin, spoke with awe and affection as they remembered a world-famous performer who also loved gossip and kept pictures of loved ones on her piano. Grandson Jordan directed his remarks directly to Franklin, frequently stopping to fight back tears.

“I’m sad today, because I’m losing my friend. But I know the imprint she left on this world can never be removed. You showed the world God’s love, and there’s nothing more honorable.”

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton accompanied her husband Bill to the service.

Actor Whoopi Goldberg was also among those invited.

Martha Reeves of Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas, as well as disco queen Chaka Khan were in attendance.

Huge blooms of lavender, white and pink roses adorned the church.

Outside, there was a heavy police presence, with roads sealed off, a helicopter circling overhead and officers patrolling on horseback.

THE QUEEN OF SOUL’S LEGACY
Aretha Franklin influenced generations of female singers from the late Whitney Houston to Beyonce, with unforgettable hits including Respect (1967), Natural Woman (1968) and I Say a Little Prayer (1968).

Franklin won 18 Grammy Awards and was feted for her civil rights work, raising money for the cause and inspiring activists with her anthems.

She was voted the greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone magazine and for African American women in particular was a role model and a benchmark for success, feminism and empowerment.

Pink Cadillacs — some having been driven across the US — parked en masse outside the church, expected to follow her cortege to the cemetery where she is to be buried alongside her father and siblings.

They are a nod to her 1985 hit “Freeway of Love,” an anthem to her Motor City hometown, in which Franklin sang about a pink Cadillac, the car company that was founded in Detroit in 1902.

MOTOWN ROYALTY
Franklin is expected to make her final journey in the same ivory 1940 Cadillac LaSalle that transported the body of her father in 1984, and that of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in 2005.

Detroit regards Franklin as royalty. For three days she lay in a golden, open-casket, wearing a different outfit each day — red on Tuesday, blue on Wednesday, rose gold on Thursday and a golden sparkling dress for her funeral on Friday.

Thousands and thousands of members of the public lined up to see her one last time — at her father’s New Bethel Baptist Church, and the Charles H. Wright Museum for African-American History.

On Thursday, more than 40 artists performed for thousands at a free concert, billed “A People’s Tribute to the Queen,” powering through some of her greatest hits, culminating with “Respect.”

“It’s truly inspiring to see how many hearts, how many people my grandma has touched,” said her granddaughter Victorie Franklin.

The daughter of a prominent Baptist preacher and civil rights activist, Franklin sang at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the inaugurations of presidents Clinton and Barack Obama.

She was awarded America’s highest civilian honour by George W. Bush in 2005.

ARETHA FRANKLIN HONOURED AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE
The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin has been honoured at London’s Buckingham Palace on the day of her funeral in Detroit.

The official residence of Queen Elizabeth II became an unlikely setting for a rendition of Franklin’s “Respect” played by the Welsh Guards Band during the popular Changing of the Guard ceremony on Friday.

The soul music may have startled tourists expecting British pomp and ceremony from the Welsh Guards, who were wearing traditional red military jackets topped by high bearskin hats.

The Army tweeted that it wanted to pay tribute to a “musical icon and inspiration.”