Sunday’s duet between Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on the Grammys introduced us a kind of uncommon moments in as we speak’s America wherein appreciation was louder than criticism. From the illuminating pleasure on her face to the admiration on his, we have been as soon as once more reminded of music’s plain potential to show strangers generations aside into sisters and brothers … if just for a track.
It has been 35 years since Chapman first carried out “Quick Automotive” on the awards present. We lived in a really totally different world then. For context, neither Taylor Swift nor Travis Kelce was alive when it occurred. Neither was Combs.
Right here’s one other technique to measure how way back 1989 was: Among the many different performers that 12 months have been Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross and Melissa Etheridge — all queer, none overtly so at the moment. George Michael, who gained album of the 12 months for “Religion” that 12 months, was outed nearly 10 years later.
And within the midst of all that Nineteen Eighties glamour stood an unassuming newcomer, a storyteller with darkish pores and skin, little to no make-up, quick locs and a guitar. Chapman by no means introduced her sexuality — her onetime lover, the writer Alice Walker, did that for her in 2006 — however she by no means pretended to be something aside from the queer Black girl she was.
That’s not meant to throw shade on the closeted members of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood who have been a part of that night time’s festivities (it’s not like I used to be out again then both). However so as to correctly give Chapman her flowers for Sunday’s efficiency, we should acknowledge the atmosphere wherein her story started.
The queer love in Walker’s “The Colour Purple” was controversial when the novel was revealed in 1982. It was controversial when the movie by the identical identify was launched in 1985, and sadly, the 2023 musical was additionally met with pushback due to the love between Black ladies on the display. And Chapman, who turns 60 subsequent month, has been her genuine self, performing onstage via all of it.
The one noticeable distinction all through these years has been the colour of her hair, which glistened Sunday beneath the Crypto.com Area’s lights. The jet-black hair of yesteryear now adorned with the grey she has earned.
What does it imply to age gracefully?
I’ve been making an attempt to reply that query ever since my solely little one graduated from highschool practically a decade in the past. On that Grammys stage, Chapman offered us all a solution. It’s not about accepting getting older; it’s about embracing age with gratitude. That’s what we witnessed in her smile throughout the opening moments of her efficiency with Combs — gratitude.
Grey hair is usually characterised as an intruder that should be eliminated whereas wrinkles are thought-about deformities in want of restore. Particularly within the leisure trade. Particularly in L.A. The urge to dye our hair in an try to chase away Father Time is a temptation that may be tough to withstand. For years I gave in, not eager to look my age despite the fact that I’ve additionally been making an attempt to stay an extended and wholesome life — discuss a contradiction.
And there stood Chapman, simply as genuine as we speak as she was 35 years in the past after we first heard her identify and listened to that track. Whitney, Luther and George are now not with us. Melissa survived most cancers. All reminders that life is fragile. Life is brief. Too quick to spend pursuing what we as soon as have been or what others suppose we ought to be. Too quick to sacrifice who we actually are or turning into what we are supposed to be.
As a result of Chapman was her genuine self — folks, Black, queer — she linked with a straight white nation artist from a small city in North Carolina. And collectively they created probably the most talked-about second of their trade’s greatest night time. They did it not by avoiding what made them totally different however embracing it. All of it.
