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Luke Combs is slated to take the stage at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday evening (February 4), and unnamed sources reportedly told Variety that Tracy Chapman will join him to perform her classic single — and Combs’ award-winning 2023 cover — “Fast Car.”
The Recording Academy, however, has not publicly confirmed or commented on a potential collaboration between the two artists as of publication time on Thursday morning (February 1).
Chapman has not performed live since wrapping up her last tour more than a decade ago, though she’s appeared on camera since then. She was not in attendance at the 57th CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Downtown Nashville, Tennessee, when “Fast Car” won in two categories: Song of the Year and Single of the Year. Chapman, the singer and songwriter of the original “Fast Car” in the 1980s, made history as the first Black woman to win a CMA Award, the Country Music Association confirmed at that time. Combs honored Chapman when he took the stage at the November ceremony to accept the awards, and credited her with writing “one of the best songs of all time.”
“It’s been a long journey. That song’s been a huge part of my life for a long time, and all credit to Tracy for writing one of the best songs ever written. It’s insane to be holding this, for sure,” Combs said backstage. He added: “I’ve never met Tracy…but that’s something that I hope to do one day in the future. I think she was a trendsetting, barrier-breaking artist when she came out, and she continues to be that to this day. I think tonight is point-proven in that, so I’m super, super humbled to just be a super small part of that. …The song that I’ll play for my son, and a song that ultimately will go down in my history, too. It’ll be synonymous with me now, as well, which is insane to think about because it’s meant so much to me. I would just tell her thank you and congratulations.”
Combs, who is also a Grammy Awards nominee, has previously shared that “Fast Car” is a song that always resonated with him because he can remember listening to it with his dad. He began to play it in his live show several years ago and “everyone — I mean everyone — across all these stadiums relates to this song and sings along,” he previously said in a statement to Billboard. “Fast Car” was the sole cover on Combs’ 18-track album, Gettin’ Old, which released in early 2023. It was the follow-up project to 2022’s Growin’ Up (which won Country Album of the Year at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards).
The 66th Annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, will air live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles from 8:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. PT. See the list of Grammy nominees here.
Combs is one of many country artists nominated at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards, along with Lainey Wilson, Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll and many others. Combs is nominated in country categories in addition to genre-spanning categories at the 12th annual awards show. See the list of country artists nominated at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards here.
Fans across the country will be able to watch the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards live as the show will be airing live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday, April 1st from 8pm-10pm ET live/PT tape-delayed on FOX. The event will also be broadcast on iHeartRadio stations nationwide and on the free iHeartRadio app.