Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, passed away Thursday morning (US time) at her home in Detroit from pancreatic cancer.

She was 76, and you know those were years well lived, because the tributes to her life just continue to pour in.

Over the coming days and weeks you’ll see plenty of clips of Aretha belting out her famous tunes, but there are two performances that, for many, stand out from the rest.

The first took place at the 1998 Grammys, where Aretha stepped in at the last minute for Luciano Pavarotti. The Italian had been scheduled to sing “Nessun Dorma”, but pulled out due to illness at the last moment.

Enter Aretha, who wasn’t at all bothered by the fact that the song is notoriously difficult to perform.

Hit those notes:

For our second performance, we go to a real classic. This one actually brought Barack Obama to tears, with more via NME:

On December 6, 2015, the Queen of Soul made an appearance at the 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, an America awards ceremony that recognises achievements in performing arts. Carole King, who co-wrote ‘(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman’ for Franklin in 1967 and later included her own version on her 1971 smash-hit album ‘Tapestry’, was up for an award.

The Obamas were in attendance, but it was Aretha who stole the store, taking to the stage to deliver a spellbinding performance of ‘Natural Woman’.

It brought both Barack Obama and Carole King – who can barely contain her astonishment at what was happening – to tears. If you can get through the performance without shedding a tear, you’re a tough cookie indeed.

Challenge accepted, because I am mostly dead inside:

OK, so she delivered on that one.

Gotta dig that Barack fist bump at the end, too.

[source:nme]