Chaka Khan (born
Yvette Marie Stevens; March 23, 1953) is an American
singer-songwriter whose career has spanned four decades, beginning in the 1970s as the
frontwoman and focal point of the
funk band
Rufus. Widely known as the
Queen of Funk, Khan has won ten Grammys and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide. She has seven gold singles, seven gold albums, and three platinum albums. Khan was ranked at number 17 in VH1's original list of the
100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2015, she was nominated for induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second time; she was previously nominated as member of Rufus in 2011. Khan was the first R&B artist to feature a
rapper with "
I Feel For You" in 1984.