Jody Watley is tonight’s headlining act at Northalsted Market Days, the annual neighborhood festival held in Chicago’s Boystown. Now in its 28th year, Market Days is billed as the Midwest’s largest two-day fair.

The performance is a homecoming of sorts for the 50-year-old Watley, who was born in Chicago and raised on the city’s South Side for a time. In an interview with the Windy City Times, the singer says she’s calling Sunday’s performance an “odyssey of classic hits and modern grooves.” Watley, who has never stopped writing, performing, and releasing the occasional album, recently expanded her solo chart run to an impressive 22 years and change with “Candlelight,” which debuted on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play in May.

The song previews her 10th studio album, Chameleon, expected later this year. Watley’s last set, 2006’s The Makeover, was an eclectic mix of originals and songs she termed “contemporary classics,” even giving new grooves to a couple of her own biggies: “Don’t You Want Me” and “Friends.” Included among the covers of Bob Marley, Diana Ross, Chic, and the Carpenters is Madonna’s “Borderline.” In the liner notes, Watley expands upon the choice of “Borderline” and how she approaches covering other artists:

“I’ve always loved this song. Though originally dance pop, the melody and lyric always struck me as melancholy. In all covers — or ‘makeovers’ as I call them — creatively, there’s no point in trying to do a carbon copy. The original of anything will always stand. But to be ambitious artistically, well, I enjoy the challenge of that.”

Watley does bring something fresh to “Borderline,” offering a somewhat subdued, jazzy take that brings out the emotion at the heart of the song. Longtime collaborator Rodney Lee handles piano duties, providing a tone that reminds Watley of Brenda Russell’s “Piano In The Dark.” I think that reference is spot-on.

“Borderline” was the first single released from The Makeover, and its remixes reached #2. A follow-up cover of Chic’s “I Want Your Love,” went to #1, giving Jody Watley her seventh such career high.

Purchase Jody Watley – “Borderline” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.