Aretha Franklin to hold holiday concert

DETROIT, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Aretha Franklin's annual free holiday gospel concert in Detroit will be held even though she has canceled performances for six months, friends say.

Franklin is also expected to be present at the concert and Thanksgiving dinner, the Detroit Free Press reported. She has been hosting the concerts for seven years, although she does not always perform herself.

This year's concert is to be at New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father, C.L. Franklin, was pastor.

The lineup at "Aretha's Thanksgiving Gospel Fest" includes Dorinda Clark-Cole of the Clark Sisters, Esther Smith, Paul Porter of the Christianaires, Spencer Taylor and the Highway QCs, Slim and the Morning Echoes, and the Mighty Voices of Wonder.

Franklin has canceled a number of events recently. This week, her staff announced that she had been released from Sinai-Grace Hospital and had been ordered to take it easy for six months. The nature of her illness was not released.

"She is up and about and doing real good but not well enough to perform right now," an old friend, Fannie Tyler of Detroit, told the Free Press.