[There was a video here]

It's a dark day. The woman who crafted the best assessment of Taylor Swift that has ever been verbalized has made nice with the perpetually perky singer-songwriter. Why, Aretha? Why?

You may remember that during a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Aretha Franklin was asked for her opinion on Swift and Franklin replied, "OK, great gowns, beautiful gowns." That's funny! It's succinct. It's a way of getting at Swift's utter soullessness. It's the most delicious example of celebrity-on-celebrity shade that we've been treated to this year.

But now, for some reason, Franklin decided to serenade Swift at Billboard's 2014 Music in Women event.

Making matters worse is that the rendition, via the video above, finds Franklin in lovely voice. Franklin's recent showings have been flawed (albeit fascinating), but this is straight-up gorgeous. Great gowns on my body. Beautiful frowns on my face.

Swift turns 25 tomorrow. Turns like milk.

Note: Since publishing this post we received a high-quality and longer version of the videos originally posted. This clip, which comes via High10 Media and has been swapped in for the previous ones, reveals that Ariana Grande was supposed to sing "Happy Birthday" with Aretha. Ariana tried to work herself in a few times and then just gave up, deferring to the Queen of Soul. I never realized that Ariana Grande was so smart.