Chaka Khan Apologizes to the Singers She Criticized in Recent Interview

Chaka Khan is backtracking on her comments on some legendary singers. In case you missed it, the legendary Chicago singer had smoke for Mary J. Blige, Adele, and Mariah Carey during a podcast appearance with Los Angeles Magazine, on The Originals.

The host, Andrew Goldman, began by congratulating the 10-time Grammy winner for making Rolling Stone’s selection of the 200 greatest singers of all time. Her reaction?  “I didn’t even know what the hell you were talking about, so obviously this don’t mean a great deal to me,” Chaka states. “These people don’t quantify or validate me in any way.” Aretha Franklin, who occupied the top slot, was the only one with whom she could agree. In agreement, Chaka said, “As she fucking should be.”

She called Mariah Carey being at No. 5 payola, said “I quit” to Adele being at No. 22, and said Rolling Stone was “blind as a motherfucking bat” when Mary J. Blige was placed at No. 25. Khan then takes a moment to remind listeners that Mary J. Blige previously botched her song “Sweet Thing,” which was first performed for her back in 1975, when she was a lead vocalist for the band Rufus.

“I told Mary J. Blige she fucked it up. Number one, her vocals were flat, and I asked her. I said: ‘what time did you, what time of day was it or night, what were you doing when you decided to cover ‘Sweet Thing’ and where were you at when you covered it?’”

Blige’s response was that she was up late and recorded at 8 a.m.

“I said girl you don’t sing nothing at eight in the motherfucking morning,” Khan continued. “Especially if you have to get up to sing it. If you’d been up all night, smoking crack or something, I don’t know, it might have been a whole different thing. But you don’t get up at eight in the morning to sing girl. But she and I have that kind of relationship we can talk…you know, I love her. She loves me. We don’t have a problem. Now the press would love to making it a motherfucking problem.”

Hitting Instagram, Khan backtracked on her comments stating she took the bait.

“Recently, I was asked about a list of the ‘greatest singers of all time’ and instead of questioning the need for such a list, I was pitted against other artists and I took the bait,” Khan wrote.

“As artists, we are unfairly put into ‘boxes,’ ‘categories’ or on ‘lists.’ Being an artist or musician is not a competition. It’s a gift, for which I am truly grateful.”

Chaka Khan would go on to “sincerely apologize” and will now work to empower and not criticize.