Chaka Khan was handed the Vanguard Award on Friday as the second annual Black Women in Music event gathered Black women from across music and media at the Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles. Sherrese Clarke, founder and CEO of HarbourView Equity Partners, presented the honor during an evening that placed Khan at the center of the program.
The award fits Khan’s place in the room. She has won 10 Grammys and has also received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academ, giving the Vanguard label a simple logic: it was reserved for a career that has already crossed generations and industry eras. Chaka Khan and Kelly Rowland were among this year’s honorees, alongside Fatima Robinson, Natina Nimene, Gail Mitchell and Ebonie Smith, while Zainab Johnson hosted and Chanté Moore, David Michael Wyatt and Yuli performed.
The event was executive produced by the Connie Orlando Foundation and presented in tandem with Harbour/View, with support from Amazon Music, Atlantic, BET Media Group, CMG The Label, Jesse Collins Entertainment, TDE, OWN and Universal Music Group. Connie Orlando called the gathering “the living answer to a prayer” and described it as her “personal love letter” to Black women she called the true guardians of the music industry.
That celebration sat next to a harder purpose. Orlando also tied the evening to breast cancer and the healthcare disparities Black women face, a reminder that the tribute was built to do more than hand out trophies. That mix of praise and urgency is what changed the event from a standard industry salute into something with a sharper edge, and it is why Khan’s honor landed as part recognition, part statement about who has carried the work and who still bears its costs.
For Khan, the night added another marker to a career already heavy with them. For the event itself, the question now is not whether it can draw names, but whether this second edition can keep turning recognition into a durable annual platform for Black women across the industry.
