Four-time Grammy winner and 13-time nominee Tracy Chapman gave her first televised performance in years, duetting her original “Fast Car” with country giant Luke Combs, whose cover of the song took over the charts in 2023.
According to Grammys executive producer Raj Kapoor, securing Chapman and Combs for a duet performance was a “long process”.
Kapoor told Rolling Stone that he and Grammy executive producer Patrick Menton first came up with the idea of the duet back in May 2023. They contacted Combs’ publicist Carla Sacks of Sacks and Co., who then connected them with Mathew Renkin, Senior Vice President of Nonesuch Records and close personal friend of Chapman’s,
From there, Sacks claims that the rest of the process was “pure magic” now that she knew exactly what “doorbell to ring”. “Quite frankly,” Sacks recalls, “I think that made it very helpful to not be reaching out as a stranger and to be able to open the line of communication”.
When reaching out to Chapman, the team insisted that Rankin allow her to “think about [it] creatively and what it could be.” By January, Rankin has received the official confirmation from Chapman to begin preparing for a performance.
Rankin later described the team’s communication with Chapman as a “moment of confluence” as they approached 35 years since Chapman had first performed the song at the Grammys in 1989. Chapman and Combs’ Grammy performance also followed a year of Combs’ astounding success with his cover of the song, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top 100 in June 2023.
As for the performance, Chapman had the idea to collaborate with old friends, many of whom were recording musicians from the original track, including drummer Denny Fongheiser and bassist Larry Klein.
Combs later said of the performance “Its still hard to process how amazing it really was to be up there on that stage.” “Tracy”, he continued, “I want to send my sincerest thanks for allowing me to be a part of your moment.”