Most performers leave their belongings in the dressing room. Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, took hers on stage. As Vanity Fair Italia recalls this week, her handbag was a near-constant companion at concerts, sometimes hooked over her arm while she sang, sometimes set down on the piano or the floor behind her. It looked like a diva’s quirk. The real reason was far more practical.
Paid in cash, before the first note
Franklin famously insisted on being paid in cash, on the spot and before she performed. In a 2016 New Yorker profile, David Remnick described stacks of hundred-dollar bills beside her make-up mirror backstage, and explained that the money went into her handbag, which either stayed with her security team or came out on stage, where she could keep an eye on it.
The habit had its roots in the era in which she came up. Her friend, the broadcaster Tavis Smiley, said she had watched artists such as Ray Charles and B.B. King being cheated, and Billboard has noted that African-American musicians of her generation were routinely short-changed by promoters. According to her biographer David Ritz, quoted by Vanity Fair Italia, she learned from James Brown to keep her earnings close. People who booked her told Billboard she would perch her reading glasses on her nose and watch the money being counted, and after some shows she paid her band and backing singers in cash herself.
The clutch on the piano
The most famous example came at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2015, when Franklin paid tribute to Carole King with “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, bringing King and President Barack Obama to their feet. Before she began, she placed a sparkly clutch on the piano in front of her. She later told Vogue that her dressing room had no lock and she did not want to leave the bag with anyone, adding that it was small enough not to be noticed.
Her bags were rarely modest, though. The Cut has pointed out that she favoured Chanel and Louis Vuitton, alongside jewelled evening clutches. For Franklin, a handbag was both a finishing touch and a way of making sure her work was properly rewarded.
If you like the idea of a bag that never leaves your side, take a look at our women’s bags, from hands-free crossbody bags to the full bags collection, and finish the look with statement earrings or a sparkling choice from our women’s rings.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia, “La borsetta di Aretha Franklin era sempre sul palco con lei” by Filippo Iarocci (28 October 2026); The New Yorker (David Remnick, 2016); Billboard, “How Aretha Franklin Took Care of Business”; The Cut, “An Ode to Aretha Franklin’s Many Handbags”; American Songwriter. Featured image: AI-generated scene.
