Happy birthday to Tracy Chapman, who turns 62 today.⁠ ⁠ At the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, Stevie Wonder was set to headline, but he had to pull out of the show minutes before taking the stage after the hard disc carrying all his synthesized music went missing. Tracy Chapman, who had already performed her set earlier in the day, stepped in to fill the gap for a crowd of 80,000. She played "Fast Car" and "Across the Lines." "Fast Car" hadn't even been a part of her original set, which included "Why?" "Behind the Wall," and "Talkin' Bout a Revolution."⁠ ⁠ The performance was broadcast to a global television audience of around 600 million. She had sold around 250,000 albums before that night. Within two weeks, that number had climbed to two million. ⁠ ⁠__ ⁠#pigeonsandplanes #tracychapman #fastcar #steviewonder #nelsonmandela