Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan, can add godmother of electro pop to her accolades, thanks to a new album collaboration with Australian star Sia, known for hiding her face behind massive wigs
Described as a blend of soul, funk, dance-pop and upbeat R&B, the 10 track record, Chakzilla, co-written with Sia, also includes collaborations with Snoop Dogg and Lenny Kravitz.
Working with Sia, 50 – a fiercely private performer, whose standout tracks include Chandelier and Titanium with David Guetta – has clearly been a blast for great grandmother Chaka, 73. She says of Sia: “That’s my baby. She’s my goddaughter. She really is. She is a genius. I couldn’t have written those lyrics better myself.”
Chaka, whose new album is out in September, even sang her iconic anthem – I’m Every Woman – with Sia, when she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.
The I Feel For You singer, who became world famous while performing lead vocals with the band Rufus from 1972 to 1983 – leading to iconic hits like Ain’t Nobody and Tell Me Something Good, written with Stevie Wonder – says working with Sia was seamless.
“So easy, I’m just freaking out, “ she tells The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service/BBC Sounds. {SUBS: MUST INCLUDE THIS REFERENCE} “There were times with Rufus when it was that easy. It was all mine and I was writing the words and I was doing the music.”
Impressed by the sophistication of Sia’s work, she continues: “I said. ‘how can you know all this? How can you feel this stuff? And where do you get this from?’ She says, ‘well, I’ve been listening to you since I was born.’”
The influential singer was born Yvette Marie Stevens, and grew up in a bohemian but cash-strapped family on Chicago’s South Side. She was given the African name, Chaka, aged 13, by a Yoruba priest.
The eldest of five children, her parents were artists and painted murals on their walls, while her grandmother and great aunt introduced her to Billie Holliday records and jazz.
And, aged 13 – 60 years ago – she formed a girl band, the Crystalettes (who later became Taka Boom) with her sister Yvonne. Quitting school to sing, after performing in Chicago clubs, Chaka joined Rufus, aged 18, and never looked back – singing on their first self-titled album release when she was 20.
Asked if she ever felt intimidated, being so young, she says, firmly: “No, never. For them more than me. I knew why I was there. I knew why I was on this earth.” According to Chaka, who has 13 Grammy awards, singing, for her, has been fulfilling God’s purpose.
She says of her remarkable voice: “That’s what God gave me, along with a whole schpiel, because he said ‘you’re down here. I’m sending you down to sing and to say something.’ You know what I’m saying? And I’m still at it.”
Married three times, to Hassan Khan, Richard Holland and Doug Rasheed, although currently single, Chaka is having far too much fun to slow down. Mum to Indira Milini and Damien Holland, she says she is glad to have been born into a generation where social media did not invade stars’ lives.
She says: “There’s something to be said for mystique and there is none of that anymore, or very little. As hard as we had to work to be well known, now you have to work that hard or harder just to keep some stuff to yourself.”
But Chaka’s rise to fame has, at times, incurred immense personal cost. She has made no secret of past addictions to heroin, alcohol and prescribed painkillers, although her close pal Prince’s 2016 death, aged 57, from an accidental fentanyl overdose, served as a wake-up call and she and her sister Yvonne entered intensive drug rehab.
Cocaine use was also listed as a factor when Whitney Houston – a woman she loved and admired and who called Chaka “the ultimate” – died in 2012, aged 48. Hugely complimentary about Whitney’s 1992 cover of her own 1978 hit, I’m Every Woman, Chaka – who made a cameo appearance in her music video – says: “Well, she got it on.
“She was an honest, amazing singer and they only come once in a blue moon. And I miss her more than almost anybody. Aretha [Franklin} her. I really miss them. I miss her [Whitney] because of her singing, but more for her sense of humour. She kept me on the floor. Rolling. She was one of the funniest, wittiest people I’ve ever met. She wasn’t for everybody, you know what I mean? I’m not for everybody. What we shared was what we shared and other people didn’t get that.”
Family life has also been fraught at times for Chaka, whose son Damien was arrested for the fatal shooting of aspiring rapper Christopher Bailey, 17, at her LA home in 2024 – although he was acquitted of murder and manslaughter in 2026, after claiming the shooting was an accident while handling the rifle. And in 2011, Chaka was granted legal guardianship of his daughter, Daija, as her parents were struggling with drug addiction.
But singing has always been there to bring her joy. Someone who has always enjoyed work, Chaka continues: “I have always had fun singing. I always do. I mean, I’ve had a few moments, but for the most part, I have to feel good about it. “
Chaka – who is known for philanthropic work through her Chaka Khan Foundation, which focuses on empowering women and children – does admit that she is more relaxed and at peace now than she was in her younger days. She says: “I was working on it and I got it together now.”
Chaka, who used to split her time between London and Germany, bought an ultra-private estate in the Chattahoochee Hills in Georgia, in America’s deep south, in 2023. And it’s become a sanctuary for her and her close-knit family. She has three additional grandchildren, besides Daija – Raeven Alexis, Jett and Josh – and is now a great grandmother to Caiiya and Mackenzie.
She says: ”I live in the country. I’ve got a lake. I’ve got land, I’ve got chickens, I’ve got horses, I’ve got family. I’ve got what I want. I’ve found my peace and that’s everything. I’ve got family at the farm and free range eggs.”‘ Her fans will surely agree, there ‘ain’t nobody’ like Chaka Khan.
- This broadcast can be heard in full on BBC Sounds.
