Chances are if you’ve listened to the radio recently or attended any major music festival or even just been browsing on social media, you’ve heard of Chappell Roan. Within the span of only a few short months, Roan has been catapulted into stardom. She’s been headlining main stages at major music festivals all across the United States, like Lollapalooza and Bonaroo, she achieved her first-ever top-ten charting single with “Good Luck, Babe!” It’s no small secret that Roan is dominating pop music right now, seemingly out of nowhere. In fact, many long nights have gone into Roan’s overnight success.
Chappell Roan – a stage name, in her own words: a drag persona – was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz and is from Missouri. She started performing music at a young age, uploading her first covers to YouTube at just 15 years old under her legal name. In November of 2014, she uploaded an original song to her YouTube channel titled “Die Young,” which would put her on the path to being signed to her first record label Atlantic Records, after which she officially adopted her stage name (it was inspired by her grandfather, Dennis K. Chappell and his favourite song “The Strawberry Roan” by Curley Fletcher.) Roan would go on to release her first single and EP School Nights under Atlantic Records and embark on a tour with Vance Joy as his opening act.
Beginnings
In 2018, she made the move from her hometown in Missouri to Los Angeles. This is when Roan began to flourish, coming into her own and being able to embrace and accept her identity as a queer woman, which would go on to have a truly authentic impact on her music, allowing her to write more personally and songs that she felt truly reflected her. She began a creative partnership and started working with Dan Nigro in 2020, and in the same year released – her now smash hit – “Pink Pony Club” in the summer of 2020, a pop ballad and love letter to the queer clubbing scene in Los Angeles, and the romanticization of Roan’s desire to become a go-go dancer.
Roan followed up the 2020 single with two more: “Love Me Anyway” and “California,” and while these singles (apart from “Love Me Anyway”) would eventually end up on her critically acclaimed debut album just a few years later, they were not profitable enough at that point for her label. Atlantic Records dropped her in August of 2020. Roan experienced a major shift in her personal life as well, with the end of a nearly four-year-long relationship. Her collaborator Nigro shifted his focus to work with Olivia Rodrigo on her debut album Sour. Roan decided to step back, moving back home to Missouri for a brief stint before returning to L.A. in October to continue working on music independently.
Finding Her Sound
She began working with Nigro again in 2022 and earned a publishing deal with Sony while working odd jobs, and began to release music independently. She released a few singles in 2022: “Naked in Manhattan,” “Femininomenon,” and “Casual,” which all received positive reviews from music critics, noting that it seemed Roan had truly come into her own and found her sound. During these releases, Roan began touring with Olivia Rodrigo as the opening act on her Sour Tour. The success of these singles and her stint as a supporting act allowed Roan to go on her first-ever headlining tour in the spring of 2023.
These shows that Roan played seemed to be the start of her (and her fanbase) cultivating their aesthetic. Each show had its own theme, and fans were encouraged to dress according to the theme. Roan would then show up in her own array of campy costumes for each stop of the tour. Her solo shows received a slew of positive, with critics comparing the beginnings of her career to the likes of Lorde and Billie Eilish.
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First Studio Album
All of this building success culminated in the release of her very first studio album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in September of 2023. The album has since received wide critical acclaim, with music critics praising Roan’s ability to tap into her niche artistic vision, and her ability to bring it to life on this record. Despite the positive reviews of her headlining tour and debut album, Roan had yet to break into mainstream success, until now.
2024 has seen new heights for Chappell Roan unlike any she has experienced in her career so far. She began the year supporting Olivia Rodrigo again on her sold-out Guts World Tour. This opening act slot on the tour gained Roan heaps of exposure, with streams of her music rising by almost forty percent. She went on to make appearances on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Her exposure in the mainstream of pop music was growing, and she was becoming more widely recognized in the industry. Then, she dropped Good Luck, Babe!
Today
Good Luck, Babe! is Roan’s first-ever top-ten single. She released the song in April of this year, and it gained seven million streams in just a week. In a raw and emotional pop ballad about the struggles of loving a woman who is struggling to accept her queer identity, Roan reached levels of stardom with this track that even she never saw possible. She made waves again in April with her performance on YouTube’s live stream of the Coachella festival. After this performance and the release of her single, her streams went up by a staggering five hundred percent.
Her Sudden Rise to Fame was Something None Saw Coming, Even Her.
She shuffled to the main stages at major music festivals across the United States, including the New York City’s Governor’s Ball and Boston Calling – where her mid-day performance slot drew in a crowd of nearly forty thousand. Roan’s Midwest Princess Tour venues were upgraded and shows were increased due to overwhelming demand. Roan is on top of the world. Her story proves it can take years to become an overnight success – and she’s just getting started.
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