ms. stabenow: thank you. mr. president, i rise today to pay tribute to a woman whose voice and whose soul truly was larger than life. aretha franklin was known first and foremost as a singer and what a singer she was. for so many of us, her voice provided a sound track to the highs and lows of our lives. a couple of things happened on april 29, 1967. for one, it was my 17th birthday. for another, that was the day that aretha franklin released "respect." and let me tell you, that song felt like a gift that day, and it felt like a gift every time i've heard it ever since. her voice really was a gift, not just to me but to the whole world. she won 18 grammies -- grammies. the grammy lifetime achievement award was the 1974 kennedy center honors awardee and was the first woman, the first woman inducted into the rock 'n' roll hall of fame. she was the recipient of the united states highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of freedom. and a panel of music experts convened by "rolling stone magazine" in 2008 named