b. 30 March 1964, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. During Nelson Mandela’s satellite-linked 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium, London in 1988, this guitar-playing singer-songwriter got her big break when, owing to headliner Stevie Wonder’s enforced walk out, her spot was extended. She won the hearts of enough viewers worldwide for her debut album, Tracy Chapman to climb to number 1 on the UK album chart within days, and become an international success. Following the Mandela show sales shot past the 3 million mark, and the album topped the US album chart. ‘Fast Car’ became a UK Top 5/US Top 10 hit and the track ‘Talkin’ Bout A Revolution’ became a concert favourite.
Chapman was neither a second Joan Armatrading nor the overnight sensation many thought her to be. The daughter of estranged but well heeled parents, she had attended a Connecticut school before attending the University of Massachusetts to study anthropology, where she became the toast of the campus folk club. Contracted by SBK Publishing, her first album had the advantage of the sympathetic production of David Kershenbaum who had worked previously with Joan Baez and Richie Havens. Next, she acquired a most suitable manager in Elliot Roberts - who also had Neil Young on his books - and a contract with the similarly apposite Elektra Records. She appeared with Peter Gabriel, Sting and other artists for a world-wide tour in aid of Amnesty International. Afterwards, she lost momentum. Although the impact of her second album, Crossroads was not insubstantial (UK number 1/US number 9), its title track single was only a minor hit. The pedestrian folk rock material on Matters Of The Heart suffered as a result of Chapman’s lengthy spell away from the spotlight, and failed to make the US Top 50.
A three-year hiatus ensued before the release of New Beginning, which found a much wider audience in the USA thanks to the left-field hit, ‘Give Me One Reason’. Telling Stories, released in 2000 after another lengthy lay-off, was probably Chapman’s best collection of songs since her debut, leavening her trademark self-absorption on affecting material such as the title track and ‘It’s OK’. The follow-ups Let It Rain (2002) and Where You Live (2005) by comparison, sounded jaded and uninspired. Chapman’s voice was undeniably as beautiful as ever, but the songwriting exhibited a notable dip in quality.
