Tracy Chapman

Chapman was born in Cleveland and was raised by her mother, who bought her a ukulele at age three. Her parents divorced when she was four years old. She began playing guitar and writing songs at age eight. She says that she may have been first inspired to play the guitar by the television show Hee Haw. In her native Cleveland, she experienced frequent bullying and racially motivated assaults as a child. Raised a Baptist, she attended an Episcopal high school While a student at Tufts, she busked in nearby spots, including Harvard Square and on MBTA Red Line platforms. Chapman recorded demos of songs at the Tufts University radio station, WMFO, for copyright purposes while she was a student at Tufts, in exchange for the station's right to play her songs. ==Career==

Chapman made her major-stage debut as an opening act for women's music pioneer Linda Tillery at Boston's Strand Theatre on May 3, 1985. Another Tufts student, Brian Koppelman, heard her playing and brought her to the attention of his father, Charles Koppelman, showing him a demo tape he had smuggled from her college radio station containing the song "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution". Charles Koppelman, who ran SBK Publishing, signed her in 1986. After she graduated from Tufts in 1987, he helped her to sign a contract with Elektra Records. and she began touring and building a fanbase. This appearance is credited with greatly accelerating sales of the single and album. "Fast Car" became a No. 6 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending August 27, 1988. Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 167 on their 2010 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", the follow-up to "Fast Car", charted at No. 75 and was followed by "Baby Can I Hold You", which peaked at No. 48. The album sold well, going multi-platinum and winning three Grammy Awards, including an honor for her as Best New Artist. Her fourth album, New Beginning (1995), proved successful, selling over five million copies in the U.S. alone. and going Platinum. She was commissioned by the American Conservatory Theater to compose music for its production of Athol Fugard's Blood Knot, a play about apartheid in South Africa, staged in early 2008. Atlantic Records released her eighth studio album, Our Bright Future (2008). The album earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album the following year. She performed Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" on one of the final episodes of the Late Show with David Letterman in April 2015. The performance became a viral hit and was the focus of various news articles including some by Billboard and The Huffington Post. On November 20, 2015, she released Greatest Hits, consisting of 18 tracks including the live version of "Stand by Me". The album is her first global compilation release. In October 2018, she sued the rapper Nicki Minaj over copyright infringement, alleging that Minaj had sampled her song "Baby Can I Hold You" without permission. Chapman stated that she had "repeatedly denied" permission for "Baby Can I Hold You" to be sampled. The lawsuit alleged that Minaj had engaged in copyright infringement (a) by creating the song "Sorry" and (b) by distributing it; she requested an injunction to prevent Minaj from releasing the song. According to the lawsuit, Chapman has a policy of declining all requests for permission to sample her songs. In September 2020, District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips granted summary judgment in favor of Minaj on the first count of her complaint, stating that Minaj's experimentation with Chapman's song constituted fair use rather than copyright infringement. However, the judge ruled that the second count of the complaint should go to trial. In January 2021, the dispute was settled when Minaj paid Chapman $450,000. On the eve of the 2020 United States presidential election she performed "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" on Late Night with Seth Meyers, encouraging people to vote. When Luke Combs' version of her song "Fast Car" hit number one on the Country Airplay chart in July 2023, Chapman became the first Black woman to score a country number one with a solo composition. At the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards in November 2023, she became the first Black woman to ever take home a CMA Award, winning Song of the Year for "Fast Car", which also made her the first Black songwriter to win that award. During the 66th Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, she joined Combs onstage to sing "Fast Car". ==Social activism==

Chapman is politically and socially active. In a 2009 interview with National Public Radio, she said, "I'm approached by lots of organizations and lots of people who want me to support their various charitable efforts in some way. And I look at those requests and I basically try to do what I can. And I have certain interests of my own, generally an interest in human rights." That same year she performed at a tribute concert in honor of South African activist and leader Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday, an event which raised money for South Africa's Anti-Apartheid Movement and several children's charities. She also performed at the event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International held in Paris on December 10, 1998, known as "The Struggle Continues...". She was one of the guest artists at Pavarotti & Friends for Cambodia and Tibet on June 6, 2000, at which she performed a critically acclaimed duet with Luciano Pavarotti of "Baby Can I Hold You Tonight". In 2004, she performed and rode in the AIDS/LifeCycle event. She has been involved with Cleveland's elementary schools, producing an educational music video highlighting achievements in African-American history. She sponsored "Crossroads in Black History", an essay contest for high school students in Cleveland and other cities. She received an honorary doctorate from Saint Xavier University in Chicago in 1997. In 2004 she was given an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by her alma mater, Tufts University, recognizing her commitment to social activism. On April 16, 2023, the South African Presidency announced that Chapman along with others would be bestowed with a National Order – The Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo which "recognizes eminent foreign nationals for friendship shown to South Africa. It is therefore an Order of peace, cooperation and active expression of solidarity and support." The Order was bestowed in Silver on her "for her contribution to the fight for freedom by participating in efforts to free Nelson Mandela and raising awareness of human rights violations globally." An investiture ceremony for the bestowment was held on April 28, 2023. Chapman often performs at charity events such as Make Poverty History, amfAR, and AIDS/LifeCycle. She is a feminist. ==Personal life==

Although Chapman has never publicly discussed her sexual orientation, writer Alice Walker has said she and Chapman were in a romantic relationship during the mid-1990s. Chapman maintains a strong separation between her personal and professional life. == Legacy ==

A street has been named after Tracy Chapman in Saint-Jean-d'Heurs, a rural commune of France. ==Discography==

Studio albums • Tracy Chapman (1988) • Crossroads (1989) • Matters of the Heart (1992) • New Beginning (1995) • Telling Stories (2000) • Let It Rain (2002) • Where You Live (2005) • Our Bright Future (2008) ==Awards and nominations==

Grammy Awards Other awards and nominations ==References==