Aretha Franklin’s granddaughter auditioned for American Idol.
Unfortunately, Grace Franklin, 16, whose father is the late music icon’s son Kecalf Cunningham, failed to make it through to the competition as the ABC talent show returned on Sunday (27.02.22).
Grace began with a rendition of Killing Me Softly, but failed to win over the judges and ended up performing Aretha’s hit Ain’t No Way.
Judge Katy Perry said: “I loved your rendition of your grandma’s song.”
Offering words of wisdom, Lionel Richie said: “You’re 15. You’ve got the family lineage. What we need to put now is time and some work in to get it up to par. The age and the voice has to all come together on the same path.”
Katy was the only member of the panel to vote for Grace, with Lionel and Luke Bryan saying no.
The former tried to persuade Lionel to vote yes.
However, he told Grace: “Trust me. If you go and come back and put the shyness behind you and the voice in front of you, you’re going to be something amazing and I don’t want to be the one to make you tip over and fall at this stage.”
Katy then threatened to “quit the show” as she left the stage in dismay.
The I Kissed A Girl hitmaker said: “She’s not. She might be a little shy. I will lay down on the ground. I quit this show. I’m going to the bar. There’s something wrong with your ears.”
The teenager spoke about her relationship with her grandma – who died in 2018 aged 76, and was known as The Queen of Soul – and admitted she never understood how famous she was.
She said of the Respect singer: “I was really close to my grandma.I got to see her all the time. I used to travel with her a lot. I don’t think I could fully grasp the fact that she was known worldwide, because to me, she was always just grandma.”
