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The GRAMMYS were on Sunday, and the famous award show featured incredible performances and rare appearances. One was by the legendary singer, Tracy Chapman, who performed her hit single, “Fast Car” with Luke Combs. The performance has led to her songs soaring on Spotify and iTunes.
© GettyImagesIt was the first time Combs and Chapman performed the song together. The country singer covered the track in 2023, which landed him a Country Music Award for Song of the Year. Combs took home the award, which is a songwriter award, making Chapman the first Black artist to win Song of the Year at the CMAs.
Released in 1988 on her debut self-titled album, “Fast Car,” became a top-ten hit in the United States, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100. She won three Grammys that year: Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Thirty-four years later, daily streams of the track have increased by more than 260 percent, while the average daily searches have gone up by more than 1,300 percent between February 5 and 7th. Overall, there has been a 370% increase in streams of her music.
The original version of the song also topped the iTunes charts a day after the performance, with several of her other songs climbing the charts. Her 1995 hit “Give Me One Reason” went to #7 on iTunes charts. “Talkin‘ ’bout a Revolution,” also from her debut album, charted at 32.
Who is Tracy Chapman?
© GettyImagesChapman was born in 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, and she got into music at a young age. Her mom bought her a ukulele when she was 3, and she began to play guitar and write songs when she was 8.
She was signed to Elektra Record in 1987, releasing her debut album Tracy Chapman in 1988, which became a commercial success, earning her six nominations for the GRAMMYS.
Chapman went on to release 5 more albums, with her most recent being Our Bright Future, in 2008. She mastered and curated her compilation album, Greatest Hits, in 2015.
She made headlines in 2018 when she sued Nicki Minaj for copyright infringement after sampling her song “Baby Can I Hold You” without permission. Chapman stated that she had “repeatedly denied” permission, and in September 2020, a District Court Judge ruled in favor of Minaj on the initial count of her complaint, determining that Minaj’s creative adaptation of Chapman’s song qualified as fair use and not copyright infringement. Ultimately, in January 2021, Minaj and Chapman resolved, with the rapper compensating Chapman $450,000 to settle the dispute.
