Where has Tracy Chapman been for the past 14 years?
After quietly retreating from performing in 2009, the folk musician made a triumphant return to the Grammys stage to perform ‘Fast Car’ alongside country star Luke Combs.
The Grammy Awards pulled off something miraculous on Sunday night when Tracy Chapman was coaxed out of her sabbatical to perform ‘Fast Car’ with Luke Combs, the country music star whose cover of Chapman’s 1988 song was one of the biggest hits of last year.
Award show performances typically teeter between overwrought spectacles and phony emotional displays. In her first appearance in nearly a decade, a barefaced Chapman, dressed in a plain black button-up and jeans, transcended the status quo with a performance of serene magnetism.
The Grammys crowd was just as quick to leap to their feet in cheers as Chapman played the song’s unmistakeable opening riff on an acoustic guitar, as they were to fall into an awe-struck silence.
Chapman has always possessed the strange power to hush a crowd. In June 1988, two months after releasing her debut self-titled album, she performed for a television audience of 600 million in front of a packed Wembley stadium for Nelson Mandela’s 70s birthday benefit concert.
Chapman was no household name, but as she performed her a cappella song, ‘Behind The Wall,’ total quiet crept over the crowd.
Stevie Wonder — who also performed at The Grammys last night in tribute to his one-time collaborator Tony Bennett — was supposed to play at the benefit, but after some of his equipment went missing, he refused to take the stage. Chapman was enlisted to take the stage for an unplanned second set, and it was here that she played ‘Fast Car.’ Within months, the album went platinum, and Chapman became a — perhaps unwilling —superstar.
Chapman’s Grammy appearance marked her first live television showcase since 2015 when she sang ‘Stand By Me’ on the Late Show With David Letterman. With the exception of a pre-taped performance of ‘Talkin’ Bout a Revolution’ on Seth Meyers aimed at encouraging voter turnout, Chapman has remained reclusive. The last time she performed an entire live set was back in 2009.
In a 2015 interview she gave to The Irish Times, in promotion of her greatest hits compilation, Chapman explained her tug of war relationship with fame.
“Being in the public eye and under the glare of the spotlight was, and it still is, to some extent, uncomfortable for me, but there are some ways by which everything that has happened in my life has prepared me for this career. But I am a bit shy,” she said. “I have this personality that is a bit on the reserved side, and which had never really sought out the limelight. That has made me perhaps not the ideal person for this job.”
In the hours since Chapman and Combs’ performance, ‘Fast Car’ has shot to No. 1 on the iTunes Top Songs Chart. Her eponymous album, Tracy Chapman, also reached No. 1. Chapman returning full-time to live performing is wishful thinking, but a little of that never hurt.