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Chaka Khan review – queen of funk sounds as majestic as ever

The peerless 71-year-old opens this year’s Meltdown festival sounding very much like the Chaka Khan of the 70s and 80s used to, and performs 50 years’ worth of potent disco, soul and jazz classics with effortless vibrancy

Then here she is: a diminutive, big-haired figure in sparkling black, alternately complaining about the British weather (a recent rain-drenched festival appearance was “like a horror film”) and joking about her advanced years (age-related memory loss is apparently less of a problem when you’ve lived a life as tumultuous as Chaka Khan’s, because “if I could remember everything I’d done, I’d probably kill myself”). Photograph: Pete WoodheadHer voice is as potent as ever – at its best when she leaves her backing singers to carry the hooks of Rufus’s Sweet Thing, or a reggae-tinged cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere, and improvises, with the raw power of her vocals effortlessly slicing through the muddy sound as she does. That’s partly because there are still artists queuing up to pay tribute (her forthcoming album sees her working with Sia, and she’s mooted a collaboration with the 23-year-old Willow Smith), but mostly because Chaka Khan seems so vibrant and alive up there: watching her kick up her heels, you struggle to imagine her putting her feet up.

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