Chaka Khan

Rufus, which was renamed Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and then Rufus & Chaka, continued to have a number of successes over the coming years. Khan helped write their number one hit, ‘Sweet Thing,’ climbed to the top of the charts in 1975. Later hits included ‘Do You Love What You Feel’ and ‘Ain’t Nobody.’

Chaka made an impressive debut as a solo artist, in the late 1970s. In 1978, she released Chaka, which featured the hit ‘I’m Every Woman,’ which was written by Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. In an odd twist of synchronicity, she won two Grammy Awards as a solo artist, and one as a member of Rufus in 1983.

The next year, however, Chaka the solo artist, reigned supreme. Covering a Prince song, she reached the top of the R&B, hip-hop, and dance charts with ‘I Feel for You.’ Featuring one of the most famous rap cameos of all time by Mel Melle, the infectious track incorporated elements of rap, R&B, and electronic dance music. It also won her another Grammy Award in 1984. She won a Grammy Award in 1990 for her duet with the legendary Ray Charles on ‘I’ll Be Good to You’ and another one in 1992 for ‘The Woman I Am.’

In the early 1990s, she left the United States for London to have a better environment to raise her two children. Her daughter Milini was born in 1973 and her son Damien was born in 1979. Near the end of the decade, she established the Chaka Khan Foundation, which provides education programs to at-risk children and helps low-income families with autistic children.

In 2002, Chaka Khan scored her eighth Grammy Award this time for her cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ with the Funk Brothers. The next year, she shared her life story with the world in her autobiography, Chaka! Through the Fire. Khan experimented with different musical styles. She did an album of standards with the London Symphony Orchestra entitled ClassiKhan in 2004. Khan returned to the studio to make Funk This in 2007.