In front of a diverse audience of races and age groups that spanned across several decades, the powerful voices of each of the Queens could be heard and felt by all inside the venue (and possibly some outside as well). “A glorious night” as one fan described it afterwards, as just about everyone left singing their favorite tunes from the breathtaking catalog of hits that these ladies had made over the years.
WJLB and Mix 92.3’s The Bushman welcomed the eager crowd. First up was Ms. Gladys. At 81, she was escorted out shortly after 7:15p to center stage by her three background singers. She was dressed in a beige pants suit looking ever so fabulous and the ladies beside her, along with her six member band, were dressed in all black attire. She greeted her band and the night was underway.
The seven time Grammy Award winner was onstage for almost thirty minutes, serenading the audience with hits such as ‘Love Overboard’, ‘Neither One of Us’, ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’, and ‘That’s What Friends Are For’. She closed her set with one of her most popular songs, Midnight Train to Georgia’, and blew kisses to her fans as she exited.
With a revolving stage with the back half hidden, one band performed allowing the next to set up eliminating a break between performances for set change. After Gladys walked off, the stage rotated around and within a couple minutes the next performance began.
Gracing the spirited arena next was the New York born singer and actress Ms. Stephanie Mills. The Grammy winning songstress wore a black sleeveless sequins outfit and her five member band and three male background singers all had on black sequin jackets to match. Mills kept the crowd engaged, going from one side of the stage to greet her fans on the left, to the other and showing love to those on the right. Performing songs like ‘Home’, ‘Something In The Way You Make Me Feel’ and ‘I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love’ which she says is her favorite, Mills hit high note after high note just as she did when she recorded those songs back in the 70s and 80s.
After taking time to give her male vocalist their time to shine with solos, Ms. Mills had the crowd on their feet, dancing and waving their hands, as she continued her show singing ‘Never Knew Love Like This Before’. To close out her set, she brought her son, Farad Mills, who was born with Down Syndrome, onto stage and the audience gave him a Detroit welcome full of love and cheer.
Soon after, the revolving stage rotated around again and the band for the third Queen, Ms. Patti Labelle came to life before the “Godmother of Soul” herself walked to center stage. Her outfit was a vibrant yellow dress that buttoned up in the front. Of all the bands, hers was the largest with ten musicians which include a sax, trumpet, and trombone player all dressed in black. Her background vocalists were made up of three ladies and a gentleman dressed to match the band in black on one side of the stage and on the other side was the pianist who played a piano with several sets of fashionable heels sitting on top. Labelle is known for changing shoes throughout her set, which she did, and even changed her outfit midway through to a pink pants suit including a jacket that buttoned up and had a ruffled wrap around her waist.
Ms Labelle marveled the crowd, even throwing white roses out as she was singing ‘The Right Kind of Lover’. She had the audience laughing as she mentioned several times about being “81 years young” but needing to catch her breath. She also took a moment to thank a gentleman who walked up to the front and handed her a bouquet before she performed one of her hit songs “On My Own” that she created with Michael McDonald.
Her fifty minute set was the longest of all the Queens and included a short break (when she changed outfits) as her DJ kept the concertgoers entertained with a mix of old and new party hits to dance to. During the second portion of her performance, the Detroit audience erupted as Labelle hit the high notes in the song ‘If Only You Knew’ not once or twice but three times receiving a standing ovation at the end.
It was then a perfect time to thank the patrons in attendance, letting everyone know she was “feeling the love”. She talked about supporting free speech and loving each other during the moment and mentioned how blessed she was to get up that morning. She also took a few seconds to thank her band and brought out one of her background singers to the front, Ms. Debbie Henry (who has toured with her for 45 years) to sing.
Labelle wasn’t done yet! As she went into singing ‘You Are My Friend’, the screen behind her scrolled many names of her deceased friends as a way to pay tribute to them. Some of them in the music industry, others just in entertainment in general whom she had known throughout her career. Angie Stone, Chadwick Boseman, Bernie Mac, Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, Kobe Bryant, Barry White, James Brown, Quincy Jones, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, and Prince were some of the many names that flashed across the screen. Of course when the names Aaliyah and Aretha Franklin came up, those two, with their ties to Detroit, received some of the biggest applause from the crowd.
After keeping an already astonished crowd going with her singing of ‘Lady Marmalade’, Patti had another onstage moment in store as she brought six gentlemen from the audience on to stage with her to showcase their dancing or singing skills (or lack of). In all, her set went for approximately fifty five minutes and ended close to 9:20p before the finale Queen was set to come out.
The stage rotated one last time with the band for Chaka Khan ready to close the show out. After a short intro video, the “Queen of Funk” came out in a black sequin pants outfit with a gold chain belt. She had a seven member band with three female background vocalists taking the audience back, as they were singing and dancing along to some of her old school hits like ‘Everlasting Love’, ‘Sweet Thing’, and ‘Through the Fire’.
One of the highlights of her set was a lively guitar solo by a member of her band during the song ‘Tell Me Something Good’ that had the crowd mesmerized. As if there was any doubt, Chaka Khan went through her hits and showed exactly why she was indeed fit to be a Queen on the tour. Despite being the last to perform, the crowd was still highly energized and after hearing ‘I Feel For You’ and ‘I’m Every Woman’, it was obvious that nobody wanted the show to end.
Following an approximately forty five minute set, the show did finish and needless to say, it was hard to find a single patron that wasn’t thrilled with what the four Queens treated them to.
The Queens tour, which started in May of 2025, is produced by The Black Promoters Collective (BPC) and had two legs with multiple stops across the nation. The next show is scheduled for October 3 in Washington DC, before they head to Atlantic City and Cleveland to close the second leg out and finish.
About Post Author
