she's always been talented intriguing and very private tracy chapman came onto the music scene
in the late 80s and made her presence known immediately even though fans and critics alike
have tried finding out more information about what goes on behind closed doors in tracy's life
she's consistently maintained her professional and personal boundaries american singer-songwriter
tracy chapman was born to a working class family in cleveland ohio on march 30th 1964. her parents
divorced when she was four after that she and her sister were raised by their mother
even though there wasn't much money to go around tracy's mother saved up and would buy
her a ukulele when she was just three years old after she noticed her daughter's interest in music
growing tracy would also develop a love of reading spending a lot of time at the public library that
led her to start writing poetry and short stories she would begin playing guitar and writing songs
at the age of 8. tracy would later reveal that she ended up singing the acoustic style of music she
would become known for because the guitar just happened to be the instrument she gravitated to
and was completely different from the r b jazz and gospel tunes her mother played around the
house tracy has spoken about her childhood being very difficult the environment she grew
up in was volatile full of economic depression and racial tension her goal from a very young
age was always to find a better life when she was 15 tracy received an academic scholarship
to a private boarding school in connecticut she ended up bonding with the chaplain after
he discovered that she played guitar he did as well and even allowed her to borrow his
after some time he told her that she really needed her own she told him that she didn't
have the money for it then one day he called her into his office and presented her with a check
that everyone at the school had chipped into so she could finally get her very own guitar
she put together a demo tape and with the help of a friend whose uncle worked for cbs records tracy
sent it over nothing ended up panning out but help from another school friend a few years later
would get tracy exactly what she wanted continuing her education beyond high school was always the
plan since tracy saw it as an opportunity to improve her life she was accepted by numerous
institutions but ultimately decided on enrolling in tufts university following her childhood dream
to become a veterinarian she started out as a biology major however she ended up switching gears
and graduated with a degree in anthropology while completing her studies tracy continued honing her
musical skills singing in coffee houses and doing street performances then another tough student and
friend of tracy's heard her playing and brought her to the attention of his father who was also in
the music business he signed tracy to a publishing deal and also helped her get her record deal with
elektra in 1987. tracy released her self-titled debut album the very next year in april
fast car her debut single began its rise on the u.s charts soon after her sensational performance
at the televised nelson mandela 70th birthday tribute concert in june 1988. it became a top
10 hit on the billboard hot 100 and captured the number one spot in several other countries
the follow-up single talking about a revolution achieved low positions on the us charts but it
was a major top 40 hit worldwide a third single baby can i hold you also received more love
outside the us the album would eventually go six times platinum and win tracy three grammy awards
including best new artist tracy though didn't interpret all the attention and
success as entirely positive all the attention that was something that was
pretty immediate and and kind of hard to to handle i i had spent most of my time you know in what was
felt like a fairly small community where i went to school and i had lots of friends and routines and
and found that you know trying to do just basic things in my life
became more difficult her second album crossroads was released the following year
it was less commercially successful than her debut but did give tracy her first experience
at producing her third album would follow three years later titled matters of the heart
this project was a departure from a couple of major things it was the first without
her longtime producer david kirschenbaum and there was also a noticeable switch in sound
from her earlier words it received generally mixed reviews from music critics new beginning
tracy's fourth studio album and return back to her trademark acoustic folk rock sound was released in
november 1995. it included the hit lead single her most successful today give me one reason
it's actually an older song that tracy wrote while still in college she never included it
on any of her other albums before because she thought that it didn't fit it peaked at number 3
on the hot 100 and also won her another grammy for best rock song plus four other nominations
following a five-year hiatus tracy then released telling stories in 2000 let it rain in 2002 and
where you live in 2005. tracy's received a couple of honorary doctorates over the years
one from st xavier university in 1997 and one from her alma mater tufts in 2004.
tracy's eighth and last album today our bright future was released in 2008. she also embarked
on a european tour to promote the album as well as celebrate the 20th anniversary of her debut
after discussing it for years and feeling like the timing wasn't right tracy finally did release her
greatest hits album in november 2015. it includes the live version of ben e king's 1961 hit stand by
me that she performed on one of the final episodes of the late show with david letterman that april
the outstanding performance was a moving tribute to the r b soul singers legacy who passed away
just two weeks later tracy has always been quite protective of her work and has routinely refused
requests to use her songs in other projects so what happened in 2018 was no surprise
in october of that year tracy sued rapper nicki minaj over copyright infringement alleging that
nikki had sampled her song baby can i hold you for her song with fellow rapper nas called sorry
without permission there were two parts to the lawsuit firstly concerning the creation of the
song and secondly the distribution of the song a request for an injunction to prevent nikki
from releasing the track was issued and stated that tracy had repeatedly denied permission
for her song to be sampled the lawsuit also stated that tracy has a long-standing policy
of declining all such requests in september 2020 a judge ruled in nicki's favor on the first count
stating that her experimentation with tracy's song constitutes fair use rather than copyright
infringement however it was ruled that the second count should go to trial
before the trial even came to pass though nikki decided to squash the whole thing
when it was announced in january 2021 that she agreed to pay tracy 450 000.
even though the track that was intended for nikki's 2018 album queen was never officially
released it had been leaked to radio courtesy of new york's hot 97 host funk master flex and was
also available online tracy claimed in her lawsuit still that nikki authorized the song to be played
since the beginning of her career tracy's been aware that due to the subject matter of her songs
as well as her involvements outside the studio many people have labeled her a social activist
but she doesn't call herself one she realizes the unique position she's in to be able to
use her public status to bring attention to issues that matter to her and she thinks may
matter to a number of other people overall tracy's continued to maintain a strong separation between
her personal and professional life including her sexual orientation she's never publicly spoken
about it but writer alice walker did reveal that they were in a romantic relationship
during the mid 90s when asked in a 2006 interview with british daily newspaper the guardian
why they didn't use their relationship to make a big social impact like other celebrity lesbian
couples such as ellen degeneres and anne hage alice answered i would never do that my life is
not to be somebody else's impact you know what i mean and it was delicious and lovely and wonderful
and i totally enjoyed it and i was completely in love with her but it was not anybody's business
but ours as far as social media goes back in 2015 tracy did an interview with the associated press
where she explained why she doesn't even have any she said simply it just doesn't appeal to her
she doesn't even have a smartphone and she also feels that it requires a lot of energy
in november 2020 tracy popped up unexpectedly on talk show late night with seth meyers on
the eve of election night and in her first tv performance in five years
she sang her hit song talking about a revolution as an appeal for people to get out and vote
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