Tracy Chapman, 17 years on since her last album: ‘I’m worried about democracy in the United States’

Tracy Chapman, 17 years on since her last album: ‘I’m worried about democracy in the United States’ In one of the few interviews she’s given in over a decade, the singer-songwriter reflects on a career that began with her 1988 debut record, which has now been reissued June 11, 1988, changed Tracy Chapman’s life . That day, a massive tribute concert was held at Wembley Stadium in London to celebrate the 70th birthday of South African activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison between 1963 and 1990 for his opposition to apartheid. More than 90,000 people packed the venue; 600 million watched the event on television.

The lineup included a large cast of renowned musicians: Sting, Eurythmics, Al Green, Joe Cocker, Bryan Adams, Jackson Browne, George Michael, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Whitney Houston, Dire Straits, Bee Gees...



Film luminaries such as Whoopi Goldberg , Richard Gere, and Richard Attenborough roused the audience with fiery speeches. And among so many iconic names appeared Chapman, a 24-year-old newcomer with a guitar in her arms. “I still have it,” she says in a telephone conversation with EL PAÍS from her home in San Francisco.

It was a beautiful Martin D-18E, different from the one she used to record her only album at the time, but just as meaningful: “The director of my school and several professors gave it to me as a surprise gift because they knew I needed a new one. So I love that guitar.” Chapman, now 61, studied anthropology at Tufts University, near Boston.

She had recorded her first demos at the university’s radio station. Used to playing in intimate theaters after the release of her album, facing such a large audience made a strong impression on her. “It was absolutely new for me; I was tremendously overwhelmed by everything,” she says.

“I watched some of my musical idols walk by backstage and felt very emotional. I also felt excited looking at the crowd, which was the largest I’d ever seen in my short career. I felt very proud to be there, at such an important event honoring Nelson Mandela.

I experienced a mixture of emotions.” As if there wasn’t enough pressure already, she didn’t perform just once at the festival — but twice. Hours after her first set, Stevie Wonder left the stadium due to technical problems, prompting the organizers to ask her to sing again.

“The producers realized that, since I was performing solo and acoustically, it would be easy to place me anywhere. I was waiting backstage with my manager, and the organizers came over and said, ‘You’re here, we need you!’ So we ran from the dressing room to the stage. Basically, they pushed me out there.

Only minutes passed between them saying, ‘This is it,’ and me starting to sing. It was a bit chaotic.” That appearance had the unlikely effect of turning the then-young singer-songwriter into a late-1980s pop star.

Sales of her self-titled debut album, which had reached 250,000 copies before the concert, soared to over a million just one week later. It shot to number one in the U.S.

, the U.K., and many other countries — an unimaginable feat at the time for a stripped-down, folk-style album in an era dominated by glitter, glamour, and dazzling productions.

“When the album came out, in 1988,” she explains, “it was unusual for the time. Especially because the production was austere. Maybe that was the difference from what radio stations were programming or labels were publishing.

Maybe that’s what made it stand out.” It won Chapman three Grammy Awards: for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for the single Fast Car ), Best New Artist, and Best Contemporary Folk Album. Chapman and other sharp-minded women of her generation, such as Suzanne Vega and Tanita Tikaram, restored the shine of singer-songwriter music from the previous decade.

Now, Tracy Chapman is being reissued on vinyl, after being out of print for years. That’s the reason Chapman — who’s stayed largely out of the public eye since her last album, Our Bright Future , in 2008 — is reconnecting with the media. That album stood out not only for its stripped-down sound; its cover — featuring a simple sepia-toned portrait of Chapman, with her short dreadlocks and gaze turned downward — also broke away from the technicolor frenzy of the era.

But even more significant than its visual or musical style was the subject matter of the songs. Instead of singing about parties, hookups, and excess, Chapman tackled social issues: revolution ( Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution ), sexual assault ( Across the Lines ), domestic violence ( Behind the Wall ), war ( Why? ), and a world without hope for young people ( She’s Got Her Ticket ). Chapman says her motivation for addressing those topics wasn’t so much about wanting to make people think, but rather to capture the unease of the environment she grew up in.

“The inspiration for many of the songs on the album comes from my own experience and what I observed around me. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Cleveland, and I saw those kinds of concerns in older people, as well as the working class struggling to support their families. Just as my mother and the families of my friends also struggled, working in tough industries like the steel industry.

That sparked my interest in these topics from an early age and encouraged me to write about them.” The daughter of separated parents, Chapman began playing the ukulele — gifted to her by her mother— at the age of three. At eight, she began composing songs.

“I did it because I loved music and poetry, and it was a natural way to unite those two loves. I composed to entertain myself and ask questions. I observed the world and tried to represent it in song.

It was always something I did for my own pleasure. It wasn’t until later that I discovered that other people were interested in listening.” Most of those lyrics — if not all — could still be applied to today’s turbulent world, 37 years later.

“People have told me they feel those themes still resonate; that those songs, unfortunately in some cases, seem to speak to the current moment and the struggles we all face as people try to deal with race, violence against women...

These are issues that unfortunately still have relevance. We’re still not getting the answers, so I guess, when you look at it that way, those songs are still important.” In the United States, Donald Trump’s authoritarian drift continues to stoke fears among much of the population, who watch in alarm as hard-won progress is rolled back.

“I’m worried about democracy right now,” the singer admits. “All Americans must be vigilant to ensure that our democracy is healthy, which includes people being able to exercise their right to vote. I’m not afraid of Trump, but I am worried.

” Although most young people’s musical tastes are moving in other directions, she is confident about their social awareness: “Absolutely. I think each generation asks the same questions and seeks the same answers as the one before. They may approach finding those answers in a different way, but I think there is still commitment.

” After the surprising success of her debut album — six million copies sold in the U.S. alone — Chapman found herself in the spotlight when she released her second album.

Crossroads (1989) was less successful, although it went platinum in the U.S. (over one million copies sold).

Unexpectedly, her career surged again in 1995 with the release of New Beginning . Thanks to songs like Give Me One Reason , that album reinvigorated her career, selling five million copies. But her relationship with commercial success ended there.

In the 2000s, Chapman released five more albums, all of which were poorly received; the last, Our Bright Future , came out in 2008, meaning that the singer-songwriter has not set foot in a recording studio in 17 years. “I’m not disappointed at all with the reach my career has had,” she says. “The only measure for me is simply that I’ve had the opportunity to express myself however I wanted, and I must say that over the years I’ve felt connected to the fans who have been willing to follow me, beyond record sales or any kind of commercial success.

I’ve had a considerable amount of success in terms of sales and awards, and I view my career as long and very satisfying. I never even expected to be on the charts, so I’m grateful for the success I’ve had.” Her most recent appearances have been few and far between.

In 2015, her performance of Stand By Me , the Ben E. King classic, on The Late Show with David Letterman , prompted several U.S.

media outlets to refresh readers’ memories of the singer, who was over 50 at the time. That live version was included on a greatest hits album released the same year. She was also involved in a high-profile legal dispute with rapper Nicki Minaj over the unauthorized sampling of Baby Can I Hold You in the song Sorry ; in 2021, a judge ordered Minaj to pay Chapman $450,000 in damages.

In 2023, country singer Luke Combs recorded a cover of Fast Car that topped the country charts, making Chapman the first Black woman to ever lead the ranking as a songwriter — and soon after, to win a Country Music Association award. Chapman’s social activism didn’t end with the Mandela tribute concert. She participated in Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary event in 1998 in Paris, performed at benefit concerts for Cambodia and Tibet (in the latter singing a duet with Luciano Pavarotti in 2000), and took part in several events supporting the fight against AIDS.

Still, she resists the “activist” label. “It’s a way to raise awareness and contribute, but I’m not one: I’m a musician. That’s my role in the world.

” Little is known about her private life, apart from what writer Alice Walker — 20 years her senior — revealed about a supposed romantic relationship between the two in the mid-1990s. It could be said that Chapman’s music is bigger than her; even at the height of her fame, she avoided capitalizing on her identity as a woman, a Black artist, and someone seen as sexually ambiguous to become a symbol for minorities. “Making music is my job and also my passion,” she clarifies.

“I’ve never had much interest in the spotlight. I’m an artist, and that’s the role I prefer to play publicly.” An artist who, however, has been leaning toward taking a step back in recent years.

By way of explanation, she refers to it simply as “a break.” She adds: “I continue to write songs, play, rehearse..

. I’m still involved in all the creative aspects of making music, but I just haven’t tried to go into the studio or tour in quite some time.” What she does do is garden, go for walks, spend the day with her family and her two dogs, read.

.. “I read all the time, all kinds of books, mostly nonfiction,” she says.

Modest by nature, she’s never lived like a rock star. She didn’t splurge on luxury cars or mansions. “When I was starting out, I just hoped to make enough money to take care of myself and my family, and I did.

So, for me, those are the rewards in a material or financial sense: having a certain amount of security. Coming from a working-class background, having needed government assistance at times, that was the most important thing. After my parents’ divorce, my mother raised me on her own, so you have a history; your desires are narrowed down to making ends meet, and I consider that an achievement in my case.

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