African Celebrities: Chaka Khan

Yvette Marie Stevens popularly known as Chaka Khan is an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned four decades, beginning in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk bank Rufus.

Chaka Khan was born on March 23, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. She is the eldest of five children to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman.

Her sister Yvonne Stevens later became a successful musician in her own right under the name Taka Boom. Her only brother, Mark Stevens, who formed the funk group Aurra, also became a successful musician. She has two other sisters, Zaheva Stevens and Tammy McCrary, who is her current manager.

Chaka Khan has been married twice and is the mother of two children, daughter Indira Milini and son Damien Holland. Her first marriage was to Hassan Khan in 1970, when she was 17. They divorced a short time later. Milini's birth was the result of a relationship between Chaka Khan and Rahsaan Morris.

Chaka Khan married her second husband, Richard Holland, in 1976. Chaka Khan and Richard Holland divorced in 1980.

Chaka Khan married her third husband Doug Rasheed in 2001.