Tracy Chapman @ Taratata, musical TV broadcast

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. News 2010

Tracy Chapman @ Taratata, musical TV broadcast

By Aurelie M. ⋅ April 7, 2009 ⋅

Tracy Chapman has been added to the final headline of Taratata, the best french musical tv show :) It’s been years and years that we wanted it, they finally made it! The show is taped on April 7 @ 6pm.

Tracy Chapman’s performance will be aired on May 29, 2009 on France 2 (@10:50pm) and on June 12, 2009 on France 4 (@8:35pm)

Sing For You (select HD for a higher resolution):

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Here’s my review of the taping of the show:

Tracy actually performed after after Sinsemillia (who sang 2 songs, including one duet with lead singers of Zebda). Dressed in a pair of jeans and a beautiful orange shirt, she performed solo on the squared stage:

“Sing For You” with her Backpacker guitar, introduced by a “Un, Deux, Trois, Quatre” en français dans le texte and an audience singing with her.

“Talkin’Bout A Revolution”: requested by Nagui (the speaker of the TV show), she seemed to be on her way to play it entirely until the audience, singing with her, made a mistake into the verse and then she jumped directly to the last verse, those who prefer the lines «Don’t you know you better run, run, run, run…» will be sad not to hear it. Since it was improvised, Tracy played on her Backpacker guitar and it was the first time I could hear this particular sound on this classic song. It revitalizes it abit, I like it :)

“Stand By Me” with her Strumstick guitar, the orange light on the set gives marvelous images on the screen.

The 500 people in the audience were not all aware of the fact that Tracy would play tonight because she had been added at the last minute. Though, she had a huge answer from them, she’s really known in France and sells alot (more than 200,000 Our Bright Future CDs)

In the interview, those who know the artist very well won’t learn anything new. But in substance here’s what they talked about: Nagui dared to ask if Tracy had tried all the things that the character of “I Did It All”, things like «alcohol, drugs, men, women, cats, dogs…»(?!?!) All he had was Tracy’s laughing. The ironic side of the song «Our Bright Future» was compared to Bruce Springsteen «Born in the USA». Tracy’s mother was mentionned as the first one to have bought her a guitar, the Reverend Tate for collecting money to buy her a better guitar. She talked about the fact that it was strange for a little black girl to play acoustic songs while she was supposed to sing some RnB songs. She said that she was overthrilled that Barack Obama was elected and was happy so far of what he already did. She was in LA when he was elected and confessed that she cried of Joy. To write her songs, she needs a quiet place, and writes rather early in the morning or really late at night…

Nagui said that Tracy was releasing albums often (each 2 or 3 years) but not touring each time (??!) and that she didn’t tour in the last 10 years!!! That man should have better source of informations, and obviously he didn’t attend a Tracy concert in many many years!

But this TV show is really great, you will be able to see it online, the 3 songs, the interview, some extra bonuses backstage (they usually shot the artist backstage in their lodge, rehearsing, having fun…) and at the end of the show they all gather onstage for a family picture.

Tracy seemed to like being here and she confirmed it ith those few words:

One last thing, they will show a funny scene of an excellent Belgium singer Milow who was asked to sing “Talkin’Bout A Revolution” in French backstage, as it didn’t work out, he eventually sang a part of it in English and his version is absolutely gorgeous! To me the best “Talkin’Bout A Revolution” cover I’ve ever heard, and I can tell you that I heard so many (bad) ones in 20 years… Too sad that he only sang a few lines of it, I do hope he will cover her on stage. I discovered him yesterday, he has an amazing voice, write beautiful songs and covers Springsteen, 50 Cents/Justin Timberlake…

It will be aired in the next coming weeks. Stay tuned! Good news for the non-french, you will be able to watch all the broadcast show on the official website of the TV broadcast: MyTaratata.com