“Fast Car” is a song by American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. It was released in April 1988 as the lead single from her self-titled debut album. Her appearance on the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute was the catalyst for the song’s becoming a top 10 hit in the United States, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 4 on the charts. (More from Wikipedia)
Women’s music artists for the most part are not particularly political or polemic – with the exception of Holly Near, and even she is normally not focused on gay/lesbian issues – so non–lesbian-identified performers have dropped by from time to time. Tracy Chapman is perhaps the most prominent; she was at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival during her meteoric rise to the top of the charts with her hit album Tracy Chapman (1988). The lead single “Fast Car” was a Top 10 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K.; and Tracy Chapman won a clutch of Grammies in 1989 also. Remarkably, Michael Collings, a contestant on the television series Britain’s Got Talent performed the song in April 2011; and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” re-entered the U.K. charts and attained the same #4 peak as it had in 1988.
Tracy Chapman is from Cleveland, Ohio and was given a ukelele by her mother once she noticed her talent at a young age; she was writing songs by the age of 8. Tracy’s performance of “Fast Car” during the nationally televised Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute led to its quick rise up the music charts.
(January 2014)
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