11-05-2025
Broadway Alumna and R&B Superstar Stephanie Mills Headlines The Queens Tour with Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle
Stephanie Mills, the Grammy Award-winning singer and actress who catapulted to stardom in 1975 headlining as Dorothy in the original seven-time Tony Award-winning Broadway run of The Wiz, scoring a number one smash hit with the musical's anthemic ballad 'Home', is one of four female music industry icons taking center stage for The Queens: 4 Legends, 1 Stage tour. The Queens tour–which also features legendary singers Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan and Gladys Knight–kicked off its second leg on May 9 in Las Vegas and runs through October 6, arriving at the Kia Forum May who cut her teeth singing gospel music as a kid in Brooklyn's Cornerstone Baptist Church, left a groundbreaking impression in the soul, pop and R&B arenas, recording a string of number one hits in the 1980s, including 'Home,' 'I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love' and the Grammy-winning chart-topping single 'Never Knew Love Like This Before.' Mills also collaborated with R&B superstar Teddy Pendergrass on hit duets such as 'Feel the Fire' and 'Two Hearts.' 'Teddy was gone much too soon,' says Mills of Pendergrass, who died in 2010 following complications from a car accident that left him paralyzed. 'I miss Teddy every day because we used to talk a lot. It was like a brother and sister relationship.' Working with fellow musical artists is a joy and privilege that Mills never takes for granted. Uniting with LaBelle, Khan and Knight on tour is an experience Mills describes as nothing short of 'exciting.'
'It's very exciting, and I think this will never happen again,' says Mills. 'And I say that because Patti is in her 80s and Gladys is in her 80s and Chaka and I—we're the youngest. I'm the baby of the group at 68 years old. But it's all just so wonderful, Black women all coming together and bringing R&B back and showing the low and respect we have for each other. I mean, I bowed down to Patti and Gladys and Chaka because they came before me. They paved the way for me to exist.' Gathering four generations of soul songstresses on stage—each performs one roughly 45-minute set, but, says Mills, 'come together to do something at the end'—is something that Mills has wanted to do for a long time. 'I've always wanted to tour with these women—I call them my sisters. So, this is like a dream come true for me. I really, really wanted to tour with Chaka, I wanted to tour with Gladys and Patti. Gladys is like sweet potato pie. She's just as sweet as she can be, and so is Patti. So, for all of us to finally come together and do this is just amazing. And we keep adding to the tour. We were initially supposed to do 20 shows, and now we're doing 25.' 'That the L.A. show is on Mother's Day is also a really nice little coincidence,' adds Mills.
In the wake of the COVID pandemic when touring came to a halt, Mills says that getting back on a stage is like an artistic rebirth of sorts. 'I live for it. I love live performances,' she says. 'We're all using our own bands and our own singers. We will have a rotating stage, so the minute Gladys is over then I come around. The minute I'm over, Patti comes around. There won't be any lull in the performances.' This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Broadway debut of The Wiz, a moment that Mills refers to as 'the yellow brick road of my introduction to the world.' That numbers such as 'Home' and 'Ease on Down the Road' are still sung and heard and enjoyed by generations both young and old is a 'gift,' says Mills, who this April dropped her latest single, an upbeat, high-energy house dance mix of the classic 1967 track 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough,' written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson and originally recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. 'I'm just really excited about this new version,' says Mills. 'This is a happy time. It's a peaceful time in my life.'
