She wants a ticket to anywhere.
Tracy Chapman, 59, took to the Grammys stage on Sunday night to perform her hit song “Fast Car” with country singer Luke Combs, 33.
It was her first big performance in four years — as Chapman’s last significant public performance was the night before the 2020 presidential election on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” to perform “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution.”
The singer-songwriter, who is best known for her hits “Fast Car” and “Give Me One Reason,” first rose to fame in 1988 with her debut album “Tracy Chapman.”
She was nominated for six Grammys for that album after it came out, and took home three (Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Contemporary Folk Album).
She followed it with her second album, 1989’s “Crossroads,” which also earned her a Grammy nomination, and her third album, 1992’s “Matters of the Heart.”
Her most recent album was 2008’s “Our Bright Future, but Chapman largely retreated from the spotlight and laid low in the years after her big break.
35 years after her release of “Fast Car,” the song got a second life.
Chapman was thrown back in the spotlight and the song won more awards – because Combs did a hit cover of it.
In 2023, Chapman became the first black woman to score a country number one with a solo composition – and to win the Country Music Association Award for “Song of the Year,” when Combs covered “Fast Car.”
When Country singers Bill Anderson and Sara Evans announced “Fast Car” as the winner, Chapman received a standing ovation, but she wasn’t at the award show being held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t join you all tonight,” Chapman said in a prewritten speech. “It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut.”
“I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” Chapman told Billboard in a statement in July 2023.
“I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”
Billboard estimated that Chapman had already earned approximately $500,000 in publishing royalties since Combs’ album dropped in March.
In an Instagram post with live concert footage from a stop in Pittsburgh, Combs revealed why he wanted to record “Fast Car.”
He shared a memory of driving around and listening to music in his dad’s 1988 Ford F-150,
“There was this one song that really stuck out to me. It was called ‘Fast Car,’ ” Combs told the crowd.
