Chaka Khan blows Sydney crowd’s minds with powerful pipes and smoking hot jumpsuit

Everyone was saying the same thing after a 72-year-old superstar smoked the stage with her soaring voice and rocked a skintight glitter jumpsuit.

After the Queen of Funk Chaka Khan whipped the Sydney Opera House concert hall into a heaving dancefloor over two wild shows this week, her adoring fans were all raving about two things.

That powerful voice, which has lost none of its range or potency. And how Khan rocked that glittering jumpsuit at 72.

Before the ageless superstar took the Opera House stage this week, her stellar band of musicians and backing singers warmed up the crowd with an old school soul show introduction, demanding everyone “get up on your feet”.

And for most of the next 80 minutes, everyone stayed on their feet as Khan and her crew romped through a tight setlist of songs from her old band Rufus and her signature solo hits from the 80s.

Chaka Khan sizzled in sequins at her Sydney Opera House concert. Picture: Ashley Mar / Supplied.

Just a week after the equally age-resistant Cyndi Lauper concluded her joyous farewell tour of Australia, so Khan demonstrated at her opening Sydney show that music is one of those rare careers that keep you young.

The septuagenarian superstar stamped her intentions with the opening number, This Is My Night, from her mid-80s pop peak when the funk star became a bona fide global chart star.

The crowd cheered when she introduced Tell Me Something Good, the 1974 hit for the band Rufus, written by Stevie Wonder.

A strategically-positioned onstage fan acted both as a hair prop to billow those disco-frizzed locks and airconditioning for the all-singing, all-dancing diva who admitted she was sweating up a storm in that body-hugging jumpsuit.

It was a contest as to whether Khan or the audience were having the most fun. Picture: Ashley Mar

“It’s hotter than the dickens,” she told the crowd as she then went old school and cooled herself down with a giant ornamental fan, a rare accessory on a concert stage these days.

While most pop concerts now are tightly choreographed affairs with big screens, dazzling production and the same setlist every night, Khan brought back the old showbiz stardust of a freewheeling concert which also trained the spotlight on her peers.

Cynics may suggest those moments where the backing vocalists take the lead or the guitarist stretches out in a solo are just to buy time for the main attraction to get their breath back.

But when you’ve got singers and players as good on stage, why wouldn’t you let them do their thing?

Everybody dance now the Queen of Funk is in the (Opera) house. Picture: Ashley Mar.

“Maybe I’m gonna sing a bit of background with the girls … improv … nothing better than off the cuff,” she told her fans.

By the time she got to her signature hits, the 1978 classic I’m Every Woman and 1983 dance smash Ain’t Nobody, the beaming Khan was feeling the love from the euphoric crowd.

“Thank you mums and dads for playing my songs for your kids; and thank you grandparents for playing my songs for your kids.”

Originally published as Chaka Khan blows Sydney crowd’s minds with powerful pipes and smoking hot jumpsuit