No, Ben Shapiro did not say Tracy Chapman stole Luke Combs’ spotlight. That X post is fake.

You’ve got a fast car. But the internet has Photoshop.

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs’ Grammy duet performance of Chapman’s 1988 hit "Fast Car" drew mountains of praise. But a viral image made it appear that conservative political commentator and podcast host Ben Shapiro was less than thrilled.

"Of course the Grammy cultural Marxists had to force us to watch some black queer female perform and steal the spotlight from Luke Comb’s popular new country music song," read typo-laden text in the image. "The woke war on straight white male success continues."

The image appears as if it was shared by Shapiro’s account on X.

Besides spreading on Facebook, we saw it being widely shared on X, with one post getting almost 3 million views.

(Screenshot of Facebook post)

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We found no evidence Shapiro ever shared this post. We reviewed his X timeline and searched archival sites. When we reached out to Shapiro’s team at the Daily Wire, publicist Jen Smith confirmed that Shapiro did not make the post. 

Featured Fact-check

X posts

stated on October 22, 2024 in a post on X

“BREAKING: Lizzo charged the Harris-Walz campaign $2.3 million for a single appearance at a Detroit rally.”

Shapiro weighed in on the Grammys during a segment on his podcast, "The Ben Shapiro Show." But he didn’t criticize Chapman. Moreover, he shared a link on his Facebook page to a Daily Wire article headlined, "WATCH: Tracy Chapman’s Unforgettable Grammys Performance Singing ‘Fast Car’ With Luke Combs."

Shapiro recently collaborated with rapper Tom MacDonald on their own song, "Facts," which reached No. 1 on iTunes after its Jan. 26 release.

But Shapiro did not accuse Chapman of stealing the spotlight from Combs.

The image that says he did is fake. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!