Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ Streams Triple After 2024 Grammys Performance

Tracy Chapman‘s triumphant return to the stage to perform her hit “Fast Car” with Luke Combs was among the most celebrated parts of the 2024 Grammy Awards — and the heartwarming moment has resulted in a significant streaming boost. According to Luminate, U.S. streams on Chapman’s original version of the song tripled the day after the broadcast, with about 637,000 streams, representing among the highest spikes for songs featured during the show.

Streams for Combs’ version rose about 46 percent, according to Luminate, with the recording seeing about 500,000 more streams.

Combs’ cover, which spent much of last year near the top of the charts, brought the classic song back into the national consciousness over 30 years after its original release in 1988. Last year, Chapman made history when she became the first-ever Black woman to have the sole songwriting credit on a Number One country hit song on Billboard’s airplay chart.

It’s a noticeable windfall for Chapman; as the sole songwriter, she sees the publishing revenue on both versions. Billboard estimated last summer that Chapman had earned nearly $500,000 for Combs’ version, a figure that certainly would’ve grown since then.

On Spotify alone, Chapman’s original version has seen about 145 million new streams since the Combs cover was released last year, representing as much as $430,000 in new earnings for the recording when averaging at about $.003 per stream. As of Wednesday, the song has over 800 million streams on the platform.

Outside of “Fast Car,” the Grammys boosted several other winners as well. Per Luminate, Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” which won Record of the Year, nearly doubled in streams between Sunday and Monday with about 2.1 million, and Billie Eilish’s Song of the Year winner “What Was I Made For” saw a 50 percent jump in the same time period. Streams on Boygenius’s “Not Strong Enough,” the Best Rock Song winner, doubled to about 501,000 as well.

Andre 3000 and Killer Mike’s “Scientists & Engineers,” winner of Best Rap Song and Performance, saw a staggering 421 percent increase, about 1 million streams.

As far as complete artists’ catalogs, Killer Mike’s catalog streams jumped 458 percent (about 1.56 million streams), while Andre 3000’s spiked 421 percent (1.04 million). Chapman’s whole catalog saw about 1.81 million streams, a 268 percent increase, and Boygenius’s more than doubled with 2.75 million.

Joni Mitchell’s moving Grammy debut caused her streams to more than double with about 427,000, even as her music has been off of Spotify since 2022 when she pulled her catalog over misinformation Joe Rogan had aired about the Covid-19 pandemic.

From Rolling Stone US.