Chaka Khan has shared her thoughts on some of today’s biggest pop stars, and suggested that some might overcompensate for a lack of vocal talent with their bodies.
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The iconic singer, who celebrated her 73rd birthday on Monday (March 23) was on Jessie Ware’s Table Manners podcast when the host mentioned a recent The Breakfast Club interview with Khan and her tourmates Patti LaBelle and Stephanie Mills.
In that chat, LaBelle said it was important to “represent ourselves the right way,” without “pretend singing,” while Mills said that there were “no tricks” involved in their shows.
“You were all kind of commenting, ‘When we go on stage, we just sing. We don’t need to do the bells and whistles. We don’t need to show our bodies,’” said Ware, before asking: “Do you think that the demands have changed on female performers now, or do you think it’s always been there [and] you just haven’t played the game?”
Khan replied that the “game has changed because all bets are off,” explaining, “These women are doing any and every damn thing on stage and trying to sing, too. And the ones who are doing the most physicalities, with their butts and stuff, and their body parts, are the ones that usually are compensating for what they don’t have.”
Ware’s mother and co-host, Lennie, began, “Move your bottom if you don’t,” before Khan continued, “[Have the] voice. Absolutely. I came to sing, and I came to really do a good job, and that’s hard work. I don’t feel like it’s hard work once I’m doing it. I feel great.”
Check out the full interview here, with the aforementioned discussion taking place around 21 minutes in.
Khan, LaBelle, Mills and Gladys Knight’s ‘The Queens: 4 Legends, 1 Stage’ tour is set to continue in May following two previous successful runs, with a run of dates including shows in New Orleans and Houston – find tickets here.
As well as the tour, Khan has been busy in recent months. She received a Grammy Lifetime Award on January 31, the night before the main Grammy ceremony, alongside Paul Simon and Cher, with Whitney Houston and Fela Kuti also getting posthumous honours.
And last September, she joined Dua Lipa on the singer’s ‘Radical Optimism’ tour to perform her classic hit ‘Ain’t Nobody’ at her Chicago date.
Meanwhile, songs from the Queen of Funk have recently appeared on the ‘Cross’, ‘Wonder Man’ and ‘Ironheart’ soundtracks.