Tracy Chapman
In April 1988, 24 year old Tracy Chapman, a former Boston street
busker with a degree in anthropology, released her folky debut
album on the Elektra label. She quickly gained the seal of
approval from the music press (her voice was often compared to Joan
Armatrading) and left on a low-key tour with label mates and
darlings of the critics, 10,000 maniacs.
By chance, it was at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Concert
at Wembley in London that she got her big break in front of a huge
TV audience. Although she had a lowly spot on the bill, she was
called back onstage after Stevie Wonder
developed a technical problem with his synthesizer.
Chapman stepped into the breach with her acoustic guitar and
just started to sing. The response was amazing. People all over
the world rushed out in their thousands to buy her album.
In July of that year, the self-titled Tracy Chapman
album topped the UK album charts for three weeks. By August, it
was Number 1 in the States and her first single, Fast Car,
went Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic.
In September she was invited on Amnesty International's Human
Rights Now tour and found herself once again at Wembley Stadium -
This time with her name at the top of the bill.
Chapman's intensely personal music - gentle acoustic melodies
with harsh, idealistic lyrics telling tales of domestic violence
and social strife - spawned a host of imitators, acoustic
guitar-toting singer/songwriters with serious lyrics of a kind not
heard in over 20 years. She was adopted by ageing Sixties protest
rockers as well as by a new young generation of folk music fans.
She won Grammy, BRIT and American Music Awards for Best Pop
Female, Best International Newcomer and Favourite New Artist.
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