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' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'artist' becomes 'goya' (Francisco Goya).
'an' reversed gives '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" .)