The Highs and Lows of Chaka Khan, The Queen of Funk

Chaka Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens on March 23, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois, to Sandra Coleman and Charles Stevens. The oldest of five, Yvette grew up with a love of music, influenced by artists like Sarah Vaughn and Aretha Franklin. As a teenager, she and her sister started a singing group, The Crystalettes, with some of their friends from school.

Although access to opportunities to cultivate an interest in the arts was difficult for people of color in Chicago at the time, Khan says her father, who was a beatnik, exposed them to a vibrant arts scene in their diverse Hyde Park neighborhood.

“My sister and I used to go on his nocturnal excursions by the lake in the park. The weed was thick in the air, the wine bottles were flowing, music was playing – as tight as it was, I had a pretty magical life,” she said in a 2017 interview.

Although she was born Yvette Stevens, she changed her name to the one fans know and love at age 13. She was given the name Chaka, which means “woman of fire,” by a Yoruba priest.

“I was interested in the Yoruba way of life, which is a very healthy and spiritual way of life,” she told TODAY in a 2023 interview. “Chaka is warrioress. That’s feminine for T’Chaka, which is the male warrior. I married a guy named Hassan Khan and the two names just work really well together. They sound a lot better than Yvette Marie Stephens.”

In the late 1960s, Khan joined the Black Panther Party after becoming friends with leader Fred Hampton whom she called a “great friend and role model” in a 2024 birthday tribute. Khan told CBS Sunday Morning in 2023 that she was attracted to the party because “it was correct and honest and they were telling some truths.”

But while she passed out flyers and worked for the organization’s free breakfast program, Khan says she left the Panthers when they gave her a gun.

“Every moment I had that gun it changed me. I felt physically sick. I threw it away into Botany’s Pond by Chicago University, then I felt better. That finished me with the Panthers,” she told The Guardian in 2019.

In 1972, Chaka Khan joined the funk band Rufus. Her rich, soulful voice helped the group get the attention of ABC Records, with whom they signed a deal in 1973. The group released their first album, “Rufus,” later that year.

Although their first album didn’t generate much buzz, it wouldn’t be long before things would change. In 1974, the group released their second album, “Rags to Rufus.” One of the album’s biggest hits was “Tell Me Something Good,” a song written by Stevie Wonder.

The song cracked the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard R&B Songs charts, and it won the group a Grammy Award for best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus.

In 1975, Chaka Khan leant her writing talent to the soulful song “Sweet Thing.” The track soared to number five on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1992, Mary J. Blige released a cover of the song on her hit album, “What’s the 411.”

Chaka Khan scored her first solo hit with “I’m Every Woman,” a track from her 1978 album, “Chaka.” The song, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, became known as a female empowerment anthem and was famously remade by the late Whitney Houston. But Khan says she had no idea the song, written by Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, would have such an impact on the culture at the time.

“It took me a long, long time to feel some kind of comfort singing something like, ‘I’m every woman,” she told Jennifer Hudson in 2023. “See I was taking it literally, which is wrong. I was reading it from an insecure place. It’s really talking in a collective way, in a plural way. We are all every woman and it’s all in us.”

With an assist from rapper Melle Mel from Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Chaka Khan had another hit on her hands in 1984 with “I Feel for You.” The song, written and originally recorded by Prince, went all the way to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

In an interview with TODAY, Khan said covering the Prince song was the start of a beautiful friendship.

“Prince wrote it up and it was on his first album, a CD, whatever. And I liked it so I covered it. We weren’t good friends then yet, but we became good friends,” she said.

In 2004, Khan’s son, Damien Patrick Holland, was charged with murder after the fatal shooting of then-17-year-old Christopher Bailey at a party. According to Holland’s testimony, he had no intention of killing Bailey and shot him accidentally in the heat of an argument about an alleged affair Bailey had with Holland’s girlfriend. After a 2006 trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, Holland was acquitted.

Chaka Khan has been open about her struggles with addiction for many years – a painful time in her life in which she says she depended on drugs and alcohol to help her deal with her pain.

“Whenever I started feeling stuff that I didn’t want to feel, I got high,” she wrote in her memoir, ‘Chaka! Through the Fire.’

But in 2016, the death of her friend and collaborator Prince led Khan to take a step to save her life – postponing all performances and checking herself into a rehabilitation program. According to a statement from her team at the time, Khan “voluntarily entered the program to get healthy and stay that way.”

Despite her setbacks, Khan says her journey to recovery helped shape who she is.

“My struggles with addiction have made me the amazing human being I am now,” she told The Guardian in 2017. “I have no regrets and wouldn’t change a thing. I’m genuinely surprised I’m still here, though. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this.”

The music industry formally recognized Chaka Khan’s decades of accomplishments in November 2023 when she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of musical excellence.

“Imagine honey and fire captured in the same bottle, with all their defining qualities – the sweetness and rich texture, the ferocity and heat – somehow kept entirely intact. Add to this mix the inimitable balance of sensuality, muscle, and elegance that has defined Khan’s style – for a great voice alone does not a great singer make – and you’ll understand what artists from Stevie Wonder to Prince to Lizzo have recognized for years: Khan is not only every woman, as one of her most famous songs tells us, but a unique and irrepressible force,” wrote Elysa Gardner in an essay posted on the Hall of Fame website.

Despite all of her musical accomplishments, Khan told The Guardian in a 2017 interview she wants to be remembered for her character and her epitaph to read, “She was a good old girl… and a good person.”