Japanese city backing an artist (6)
I believe the answer is:
nagoya
'japanese city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'backing an artist' is the wordplay.
'backing' is a reversal indicator.
'artist' becomes 'goya' (Francisco Goya).
'an' back-to-front is 'na'.
'na'+'goya'='NAGOYA'
(Other definitions for nagoya that I've seen before include "Eastern city" , "City in central Japan" , "central Japanese city" , "Asian city" .)