We don’t know what’s more surprising: that Chaka Khan‘s still doing shows (only because we haven’t heard about a performance in a while). Or that she’s not paying her bills.

TMZ reports she owes some promoters a little bread from a show in January. And it’s enough for them to seek legal action.

Long story short — Chaka hired 15/40 productions to take care of, among other things, the audio and video equipment for her performance at the 2010 Sony Open.

But 15/40 claims Chaka only paid half of their $10k fee … so they filed a lawsuit in L.A. small claims court demanding $5,000 ASAP.

The judge eventually sided with 15/40 — and ordered Chaka to pay up. So far, we’re told the production company is still waiting for their check.

We would say it was just a misunderstanding. But since January?