CLEVELAND, Ohio – Rocket Arena will host four living music legends on Sunday, Oct. 5, uniting to give fans an evening of classic songs sung by beloved voices
Iconic R&B and pop singers Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Stephanie Mills embarked on the “The Queens: 4 Legends. 1 Stage” tour back in May 2025. Luckily for Northeast Ohio fans, the initial leg of the tour was so successful that a second leg was added, including a stop in Cleveland. Tickets start at $106 and are on sale now at seatgeek.com
Between the four queens, they have spent a total of 220 years making and performing music, earning 20 Grammys. Both Knight and Khan were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame back in 1996 and 2023, respectively. Patti LaBelle’s lengthy hit-filled career earned her the Sammy Kahn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition to her career in music, Mills has starred on Broadway as Dorothy in the original production of “The Wiz,” along with “Ragtime” and most recently, portrayed Hermes in the Tony Award-winning “Hadestown.”
But the folks who show up on Sunday won’t be there to celebrate awards and accolades — they’ll be there to hear the many songs by these women that have become woven into the fabric of their lives. The format has Mills opening the evening with a half-hour set. The remaining legends all perform for just under an hour, so fans can expect an evening focused on classic R&B and pop bangers.
Chaka Khan, who first came to prominence fronting the funky R&B band Rufus, which had several hits including “Tell Me Something Good,” the Quiet Storm classic “Sweet Thing” and the funky “You Got The Love.” Inevitably, Khan went solo and crossed over into the pop market, becoming known for her big voice and frequently big hair. As a solo artist, Khan’s star rose quickly with her platinum debut album “I’m Every Woman,” which included the R&B chart-topping title track. She continued to have hits in the ’80s with “What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me,” and in 1984 her fifth album, “I Feel For You,” featuring the Prince-penned title track and the ballad “Through The Fire,” also went platinum. Across her discography, Khan has sung R&B, funk and jazz.
Gladys Knight, an Atlanta native, first found musical fame as part of Gladys Knight & The Pips, which she co-founded in 1952 with family members. After signing with Motown in 1966, the group began having hits with Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” in 1967, predating Gaye’s own hit version. The group won a Grammy with “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye).” Knight and Pips ruled the 1970s R&B charts with more ballads, including the chart-topping, gold single “Midnight Train To Georgia,” and “The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.” Knight went solo in the late ’80s and had R&B hits with songs such as “Men” and the multigenerational 1996 single “Missing You,” featuring Khan along with singing acolytes Brandy and Tamia.
Patti LaBelle’s recording career began in the early ’60s with The Bluebells, soon renamed Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, and by the 1970s simply LaBelle. The group, which also included Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx, became known for their elaborate futuristic costumes and inadvertently helped jump-start the disco era with their beloved and definitive cover of The Eleventh Hour’s “Lady Marmalade.” The group broke up in 1976, and LaBelle went solo the next year, finding success on the R&B charts through the decade before crossing over to the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980s with “New Attitude” and “Stir It Up,” both from the “Beverly Hills Cop” soundtrack, and finally hitting number one on the pop charts with her duet with Michael McDonald, “On My Own.” LaBelle has also maintained a strong acting career, including starring in the Broadway production of “Your Arms Too Short To Box With God” and appearing in numerous films such as “A Soldier’s Story and the sports comedy ”Semi-Pro,“ playing Will Farrell’s late mother.
Stephanie Mills may not have had the crossover pop success of her tourmates, but she is beloved among R&B fans of a certain age — over 45 — who remember and still sing along to her five No. 1 R&B hits. Those include “The Wiz” ballad “Home,” “I Feel Good All Over” and her peppy Grammy-winning hit “Never Knew Love Like This Before,” along with the dance classic “Put Your Body In It and her four platinum albums.
“The Queens: 4 Legends. 1 Stage” tour title is not just hyperbolic press blather. Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Stephanie Mills are all true queens of song — and living legends.