Yesterday
Chaka Khan
Woman Of Fire
by Otis Stokes
If you’re ever in a conversation about female singers and
you mention the name “Chaka,” no one will ever respond,
“Chaka who?” Everyone knows who Chaka Khan is and has known
now for over 40 years. The 10 time Grammy Award-winning
vocalist is one of the greatest and most versatile singers
of this or any other generation, possessing the rare ability
to sing in eight different music genres, including R&B,
jazz, pop, rock, gospel, country, classical and dance. She
is a songwriter, producer, author, actor, philanthropist,
entrepreneur and activist.
Born Yvette Marie Stevens in Chicago, Illinois and raised in
the rough south-side housing projects, Khan attributed her
love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz
music as a child. Chaka became a fan of R&B music as a
preteen and at 11 formed her first all-female singing group,
the “Crystalettes,” which also included her sister Bonnie,
who would later have her own career known as Taka Boom. As
teenagers, Chaka and Bonnie became involved with an
Afro-centric organization called the Afro-Arts Theater,
where Yvette participated in a naming ceremony led by a
Yoruba priest, who gave her the name “Chaka,” which means
“Woman of Fire.” As her life and career would later attest,
the meaning was who Chaka became.
During that time, Chaka and Bonnie also changed their
group’s name to “Shades of Black” and replaced the other two
members. In 1969, she dropped out of high school, having
attended Calumet High and Kenwood High, and began to perform
in small groups around the Chicago area. First performing
with the group “Lyfe,” which included her then boyfriend
Hassan Khan, whom she would later marry.
After years of performing in local bands, Chaka Khan was
spotted by two members of a new group called “Rufus” in 1972
and joined the group soon after. Rufus later signed with ABC
Records in 1973. Prior to Chaka signing with the label, she
married her on-and-off boyfriend Hassan Khan, changing her
stage name to Chaka Khan. In 1973, Rufus released their
self-titled debut album. Despite their fiery rendition of
Stevie Wonder’s “Maybe Your Baby” from Wonder’s acclaimed
“Talking Book” and the modest success of the Chaka-led
ballad “Whoever’s Thrilling You (Is Killing Me),” the album
failed to establish the group.
The group’s fortunes changed when Wonder himself
collaborated with them on a song he had written for Chaka
Khan. That song, “Tell Me Something Good,” became the
group’s breakthrough hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot
100 in 1974 and later winning the group their first Grammy
Award. The single’s success and the subsequent Ray Parker,
Jr., Chaka Khan-penned follow-up single, “You Got the Love,”
which peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, helped their
second album, “Rags To Rufus,” reach platinum selling over a
million copies.
Between 1974 and 1979, Rufus would release six
platinum-selling albums including “Rufusized,” “Rufus
Featuring Chaka Khan,” “Ask Rufus,” “Street Player” and
“Masterjam.” Hits the group would score during this time
included “Once You Get Started,” “Sweet Thing,” “Hollywood,”
“At Midnight (My Love Will Lift You Up)” and “Do You Love
What You Feel.” The majority of the band’s material was
written and produced by the band itself with few exceptions.
Most of Chaka’s compositions were collaborations with
guitarist Tony Maiden.
Rufus became popular for their live performing act which
featured Chaka’s dynamic vocals, making her the star
attraction and selling out shows throughout the country.
With her growing popularity as a star, it was inevitable
that she would seek a solo career. Chaka’s debut as a solo
artist was with the release of the smash hit “I’m
Every Woman,” written by Ashford & Simpson. Working with
the late producer-extraordinaire, Arif Mardin (Aretha
Franklin, Bette Midler), her catalog grew even more
impressive with hits such as “Clouds,” “Papillon,” “What
‘Cha Gonna Do For Me?” and the song that made Chaka
Khan a household name the world over, “I Feel For You,”
written by Prince.
This chart-topping, Grammy® Award-winning song also made
music history. Released in 1984, it was the first R&B
song to feature a rap, which was performed by Grandmaster
Melle Mel. The album of the same name was certified
platinum, thanks to two other hits, “This Is My Night,” and
the ballad “Through The Fire.”
Unfortunately with success comes excess, and somewhere along
the line Chaka fell into the dreaded drug addiction pit and
although it didn’t destroy her career, it wreaked havoc in
her life both publicly and privately. But because of the
depths of her talent and her affable personality, Chaka was
able to remain active and relevant to the music industry.
Through these trying times, Chaka decided to broaden her
horizons to theater and made her musical theater debut on
London’s West End, where she starred in “Mama I Want to
Sing.” Later, she traveled to Las Vegas, where she starred
in “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” a critically-acclaimed
musical based on the music of Stevie Wonder.
Her Broadway debut came in 2004, when she took over the role
of Sofia in the musical “Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Color
Purple.” Now fully recovered, Chaka talks about her
struggles in her 2003 autobiography “Through The Fire,”
which details her battle with drugs and alcohol plaguing her
throughout much of her career. In her book, Chaka writes
about an incident that she describes as “shameful and
painful,” which helped propel her toward recovery.
With her sister’s encouragement, Chaka had begun working
with Reverend Alfreddie Johnson at the World Literacy
Project. She had, under his urging, started an arts program
for at-risk children in Compton, Los Angeles. She worked
with the children twice a week, and loved it and them, until
one day she showed up in what she describes in her book as
an “altered state.” She recalled, “The children were all
eyes… they giggled, whispered. I felt so naked, so awfully
wrong… how could I have done that to the children?”
In 2005, Chaka reached her final road to recovery by working
with a life coach and entering a traditional residential
rehabilitation program. Armed with her newly-found sobriety,
Chaka Khan has established the “Chaka Khan Foundation,”
which includes a variety of programs and initiatives that
assist women and children at risk. In July, 2012, Chaka
received the McDonald Corporation’s “365Black Award,”
honoring her for her leadership of the Chaka Khan
Foundation.
Besides being a successful musician and a devoted
philanthropist, Chaka is also an entrepreneur. In 2004, she
launched a line of gourmet chocolates, “Chakalates,” which
was sold in 20 Neiman Marcus stores around the country. In
February, 2013 she re-launched her signature brand of
chocolates nationally and internationally. She also
introduced the Khana Sutra candle, the first product in a
fragrance line for men, women and the home.
With a career resume that includes ten #1 Billboard magazine
charted songs, seven RIAA certified gold singles and ten
RIAA certified gold and platinum albums, Chaka remains a
force to be reckoned with. Her lifetime achievements being
constantly recognized as with her star on the “Hollywood
Walk of Fame” in 2011, the “Soul Train Legend Award” (2009),
the “BET Lifetime Achievement Award” (2006), the “Grammy®
Honors Award from the NARAS Chicago Chapter” (2006), the
“World Music Lifetime Achievement Award” (2003) and her
“Honorary Doctorate of Music” from the Berklee School of
Music in Boston, MA.
This vocal-meister has received acclaim from such notable
legends as Miles Davis (“She sings like my horn”), Aretha
Franklin (“A one-of-a-kind premier vocalist”) and virtually
everyone else from Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder, to Prince
and George Benson have been touched by her extraordinary
talents and have nothing but praise for her artistry. By all
accounts, this sultry songstress known as Chaka Khan has
definitely been “Through The Fire,” and has managed to come
out smelling like roses.