Chaka Khan began her career in the funk band Rufus and after a succession of hits with them she decided to pursue a solo career in 1978. Her first single I’m Every Woman was a huge success and she followed this up with the singles What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me? in 1981 and Got to Be There in 1982 to consolidate her position. Her biggest hit, however, came in 1984 with I Feel For You. The song was written by Prince and featured Stevie Wonder and also won a Grammy Award for the singer, the first of five. Khan has also collaborated with Robert Palmer and David Bowie, duetting also with Steve Winwood on his smash hit Higher Love.

1985 was a successful year for her on the charts with the singles This is My Night and Eye to Eye achieving strong sales. 1989 saw a remix of the single I’m Every Woman reach the top ten in the UK and she collaborated with Gladys Knight, Brandy and Tamia on the hit single Missing You in 1996, taken from the film Set it Off.

This release sees a live performance of Chaka Khan at the Roxy Theatre in 1981. It is a brief show that features only six songs and sadly was filmed three years before her biggest hit had been released. The performance itself is reasonable, but the poor quality of the footage really lets it down, more about that in the transfer section.

Track listing...

This really is a release for fans and only diehard ones at that. Filmed at the early stage of her career there is only one major hit featured and the running time of only 32:03 makes this a DVD that even the diehards will question whether to purchase or not. There is no disputing the vocal talent of this singer and there is nothing wrong with the performance here, however the shortness and poor quality is something that will deter most.

Coming all the way from the archives of 1981, the picture quality of this release looks every one of its years old. The source materiel looks like an old VHS copy and it really is a struggle to watch. Grain is a constant and poor detail and weak colours give this aged footage an extremely washed out look. Many will question why this was ever transferred to DVD, but there is a market of diehard fans out there and they will be the only ones who bother with this.

Is my hair too big?

Audio is much better, but still not up to scratch, even for a performance of this age. The so called remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is littered with hiss and although this is the fault of the source material and not the transfer, you still have to ask why bother with a 5.1 mix at all when a stereo mix would have sounded much the same. Rear speakers are active, but only just, and you will need to have an ear close to them to hear anything. Overall, this is better than the vision but only just.

Attempting to make up for the shortness and poor quality of the main feature, there are a couple of extras with this release. First is a documentary featurette that is an episode of the ‘80s television show Cover Story. The featurette runs for 23:01 and is of the same quality as the main feature. Frankly, it looks like someone has video recorded this from when it was aired on television. Next up is a selected discography that features three pages of text with the singer's record history. Lastly is Umbrella Propaganda which features four other music titles.

This really is for diehard fans only and many of those will perhaps already own a VHS copy of this. If you do and hope to get a better quality copy by buying the DVD, think again. The picture and audio are both substandard, with the picture in particular showing its age worse than most. The extras are nothing to get excited about either, so for those that like this singer you should perhaps look for something else, maybe a CD?