CLEVELAND, Ohio – Four living legends of music took over Rocket Arena on Sunday night.
Billed as “The Queens: 4 Legends, 1 stage,” singers Stephanie Mills, Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, and Chaka Khan graced the stage in a three-and-a-half-hour, old-school revue-style concert that featured major hits and fan favorites.
Although promoted as a single-stage showcase, the setup was actually a smaller rotating platform atop the main stage. To keep the show moving, a raised circular stage held each artist’s band — reminiscent of the circle-in-the-round at the old Front Row Theatre — allowing the next act’s band to quietly set up during each performance and keeping the downtime to just a few minutes.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 1996 inductee Gladys Knight opened with an easy groove onto the stage, flanked by backup singers, for a short 25-minute set. Essentially a medley of hits, it included snippets of uptempo classics like “Love Overboard” and a velvety smooth “Heard It Through the Grapevine,” along with ballads such as “If I Were Your Woman,” “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” and a full audience singalong on “Midnight Train To Georgia” — complete with everyone playing the Pips (“Whoo-Whoo!”). At 81, Knight can’t reach the vocal heights of her heyday, and occasionally needed some vocal help from her backup singer. But when she dug in — especially on “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye),” her best vocal of the night — she was unmistakably Gladys.
Stephanie Mills, who never quite reached the crossover success of her tourmates, offered up an energetic 30 minutes, shimmying her shoulders in a strapless sequin gown and working all sides of the stage. She sang familiar songs, including the ’80s dance hit “What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’” and “(You’re Puttin’) A Rush On Me.” During the gospel-inflected “I Learn To Respect the Power of Love,” Mills let her three male backup singers — including her son Jason — share their vocal talents, impressing the crowd. Mills closed with a powerful rendition of “Home” from “The Wiz,” made more poignant with a montage of lost famous folks and friends on the big screen. By the emotional ballad’s crescendo, Mills had taken the crowd to “chuuch,” with folks standing in their seats.
Patti LaBelle quickly followed with a nearly hour-long set and the only costume change of the evening. For the first half of her set, LaBelle battled a muffled mic during “Love, Need and Want You,” amending the line “I got a burning desire” with a declaration of “menopause!” Afterward, LaBelle, whose stage presence has always been informal and honest, quipped, “Oooh child, I’m tired already!” At 81, she can’t pull off the melismatic acrobatics that made her famous, but she still hit and held many of the high notes on “On My Own” (a duet with a backup singer) and “Somebody Loves You Baby (You Know Who It Is).” She even kicked off her shoes during a brief “New Attitude,” explaining she’d cracked her ankle and praising the crowd’s hat game. LaBelle reminded fans she turned 81 last March and thanked Jesus she was still alive: “People ask me, Patti, how are you? I said, ‘I woke up this morning!”
During a mid-set DJ break featuring old-school ’70s and ’80s R&B, LaBelle changed into a sleek, all-black outfit and a new wig “You Are My Friend” played over a montage of lost artists and friends, including Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Donna Summer, Chadwick Boseman, David Bowie and more. LaBelle ended her set with “Lady Marmalade” — sort of. She sang the first verse and chorus, then brought five men from the audience on stage to handle the “Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, da-da,” hook with varying degrees of efficacy, never finishing the song.
Chaka Khan, the evening’s other Rock Hall inductee (2023) served as the headliner. Her hour-long set was filled with solo hits and Rufus classics, spotlighting her talented band and very tight trio of backup singers. The bouncy “Do You Love What You Feel” led into the Quiet Storm staple “Everlasting Love.” Khan then “let” the audience and a backup singer take on much of the reggae-tinged “Sweet Thing,” while her bassist played an extended solo during “Through The Fire.” After praising her tourmates, Khan dipped into her love of jazz with a torch ballad version of “My Funny Valentine” before getting funky with a singalong “Tell Me Something Good.”
Khan ended with an upbeat double shot: “I’m Every Woman,” which had fans grooving, and an encore of “Ain’t Nobody,” which got folks already up past their bedtimes dancing.
If there was a through line through all four performances, it was this: savor every day and moment of your life and be happy when you wake up each morning — because one day you simply won’t. The crowd, whose median age skewed “old,” came out to enjoy themselves and the singers who soundtracked their lives. Some wore their Sunday finest, complete with elaborate hats; others rocked their Saturday night best.
The Cleveland show was the end of this leg of the Queens. The performers seemed ready for a break — “This tour has been hard work,” Khan admitted — but also genuinely appreciative that, several decades into their careers, fans still want to see and enjoy what they have left to give.
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