The Grammys scored a significant victory as they welcomed back Tracy Chapman, an influential artist who had stepped away from the spotlight, to the awards stage on Sunday night.
At 59, Chapman has released eight albums spanning from 1988 to 2008. Her debut self-titled album featured hits like "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution," "Baby Can I Hold You," and her iconic track, "Fast Car."
The Grammy for Best New Artist in 1989 and nominations for both Record and Song of the Year for "Fast Car" underscored her early success.
Despite its enduring popularity, the song has experienced remarkable longevity, inspiring dance covers, being sampled by Nicki Minaj, and resonating in dorm rooms for decades. However, Luke Combs, the country star, breathed new life into it with his faithful cover, which gained significant traction last year, sparking a sort of renaissance for the track.
On Sunday night in Los Angeles, Chapman and Combs took the stage at the Grammys for their first-ever duet performance of the track. Chapman kicked off the performance by playing the song's signature riff on an acoustic guitar, while she and Combs traded verses before uniting on the chorus.
Many audience members stood and sang along, with Taylor Swift among them. At the song's end, Combs bowed to her as they received a standing ovation from the crowd in the arena.
Combs’s “Fast Car” — which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 as a single from his 2023 album, “Gettin’ Old” — was up for a Grammy for best country solo performance (and lost to Chris Stapleton’s “White Horse”).
Surprising many in the industry, however, “Fast Car” missed out on a nomination for record of the year. (The cover was not eligible for song of the year, an award that goes to songwriters, because it was already nominated in that category in 1989.)
Chapman has made few public appearances since her most recent tour ended in 2009, mostly taking the stage on late-night shows.
In 2015, she covered “Stand by Me” as David Letterman prepared to retire from the “Late Show,” and in the lead-up to the 2020 election, she performed “Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution” on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”
Combs’s meticulously faithful take on Chapman’s working-class anthem, delivered with unassuming earnestness, has crossed eras like a time-traveling DeLorean. In November, thanks to the cover, Chapman won song of the year at the Country Music Awards for “Fast Car,” becoming the first Black songwriter to clinch the honor.
In a statement at the time, Chapman apologized for not attending the country awards ceremony in Nashville. “It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut,” she said in the statement.
Combs described “Fast Car” as “one of the best songs of all time,” in his own C.M.A.s acceptance speech for single of the year. “I just recorded it because I love this song so much,” he added. “It’s meant so much to me throughout my entire life.”
The original “Fast Car” hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1988 and earned three Grammy nominations. Chapman won for best female pop vocalist at the 1989 Grammy ceremony. There, too, she performed “Fast Car.”
“Fast Car” was a fan-favorite staple of Combs’s live shows long before he recorded it in the studio. Asked in July about the potential to duet on the song with Chapman, Combs’s manager, Chris Kappy, told Billboard, “We would be more than excited if the opportunity arose for Tracy and Luke to perform the song together.”
At the same time, Chapman told Billboard that she was “happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”