Want me to tell you something better than good? The Queen of Funk has been added to the 2018 Halifax Jazz Festival lineup.

Chaka Khan will appear at the Waterfront Stage on July 12th in Halifax. With the festival running between July 10th and 15th, Khan joins the first eclectic batch of players revealed for the week including The War on Drugs, Daniel Caesar, Alvvays, Charlotte Day Wilson, The Mellotones, Whitehorse, Joel Miller Quartet and more.

At 65 years young, Chaka Khan remains a cultural and musical force.  Khan’s 48 year career can be traced to her early life of civil rights activism and an affiliation with the Black Panthers, to breaking ground and boarding the Soul Train with the influential 1970s funk outfit Rufus, to a storied solo career that stacks accolades of gold singles, platinum albums, and collaborations spanning from Ray Charles to Prince.

Amidst a plethora of musical endeavours that have sprawled genres from funk, soul, jazz, R&B, gospel and disco, Chaka Khan also became a forerunner in the breakthrough and crossover of pop and hip hop artists when she charted with her 1984 rendition of Prince’s “I Feel for You” featuring Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

A two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Chaka Khan has remained active and relevant in the music world, even winning a Grammy within the last decade for her album Funk This.

The Queen of Funk’s appearance at the Halifax Jazz Festival is a part of her round of summer fest dates that stretch from Halifax in July, to Dorset, UK in August.

Festival passes for the Halifax Jazz Festival are already sold out, but you can still buy tickets for individual shows through their website.

Tickets for Chaka Khan’s headlining performance on July 12th have limited availability remaining, so make sure to grab yours while you still can. They are $65.00 + HST and available right here.