CELEBRATING 50 YEARS IN MUSIC
ON FINDING PEACE AND HOW FAMILY MAKES HER HEART SING
Her dazzling 50-year career and catalogue of hits has earnt her a place among the greatest names in music. These days, however, it’s the sound of silence that’s golden for Chaka Khan.
Swapping the hubbub of city life in Los Angeles for a tranquil corner of rural Georgia last year was “the biggest and best thing I’ve done”, the ten-time Grammy-winning Queen of Funk tells hello!.
“I’m communing with nature, I’ve got all this beautiful land and a lake, I’ve got my family out here with me, I’ve found real serenity – I truly get silence and it sustains me.
“For me, a fun day is doing absolutely nothing, laying on a chaise longue watching telly. I listen to as little music as possible because that’s what I do for a living.
“If I listen to music, I have a hard time having fun with it. I get enough of it.”
Instead, Chaka, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last November, relishes being surrounded by her large family – children Indira Milini and Damien, plus several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Nothing delights her more than seeing the younger members of her clan discover her back catalogue, which includes disco anthems Ain’t Nobody and I’m Every Woman.
“I’ve seen it happen a couple of times – where the babies realise what they’ve been brought into – and it’s always a beautiful thing to see that discovered,” she tells us.
“I don’t have to share my music with them, it’s out there. They have iPads and they play the stuff they like.”
A particularly proud moment came in LA a month ago, when her three-year-old great-granddaughter attended her first Chaka Khan concert. “She enjoyed it,” says the star. “She has her own favourite songs – she loves Sweet Thing.”
BACK IN THE UK
hello! is joining Chaka ahead of a busy summer, during which she will spend a lot of time in the UK.
As well as playing at Nocturne Live at Blenheim Palace on 13 June and topping the bill of July’s Love Supreme Jazz Festival in East Sussex, she is continuing celebrations of her 50 years in music by overseeing Southbank Centre’s annual artist-curated music festival, Meltdown.
The event will bring together a line-up of artists spa
