Amid the glitz and glamor of the 2024 music industry landscape, Chappell Roan sashays on stage as a blend of something old, new and borrowed. Kayleigh Rose Amstutz — stage name Chappell Roan — bursts through the scene with unapologetic buoyancy and the familiar artistic allure of performers past. The Missouri artist just released her debut full-length album, and the public is ready to put a ring on it.
With growing popularity on TikTok after opening for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour, Roan has finally hit her stride after seven years of work from YouTube uploader to Billboard Hot 100-charting artist. But what magic has Roan performed to garner enough buzz to be compared to the likes of Lady Gaga, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper?
Last week, Roan made headlines for her Coachella set, during which it seemed every attendee was there to dance in sync to the cheerleading bop, “HOT TO GO!” Weekend two brought Roan prancing the stage in six-foot-wide butterfly wings and neon pink, pencil-thin brows.
Under the costume, the 26-year-old star emits an air of consciousness, as if she walks alongside the people who listen to her music, and it may be because of her journey. When she was dropped by Atlantic Records in 2020, she lost her money and had to move back home. From one customer service job to the next, Roan was ready to desert music for whatever profession came her way. “When you’ve been poor, you’re not really scared of anything,” Roan said in a 2023 Los Angeles Times article.
Roan’s willingness to commit to her performance is something that sets her apart, like in her NPR Tiny Desk Concert, where she has lipstick on her teeth while wearing an audacious wig filled with butterflies and cigarette butts. Everything seems fresh and cinematic. Even her band is always dressed for the bit as they back Roan’s yodeling vocals worthy of the American Idol stage.
“Along with her staunch sense of self, Roan’s penchant for explicit lyrics that are equal parts introspective and horny makes her dance-pop anthems all the more infectious,” shared a Grammy interview on Roan’s recent success.
Back in 2018, Roan’s style was not the campy costume RuPaul’s Drag Race extravaganza we see in 2024. Roan describes her old style as “witchy” and “dark” in Amazon Music’s 2024 The Walk In, but it’s important to note that Roan’s transformation was not just aesthetic.
“I used to be very dark piano ballad pop. I was a depressed, sad teenager and it reflected that,” Roan shared in a 2023 Crucial Rhythm interview.
I grew up thinking being gay was bad and a sin. I went to the gay club once and it was so impactful, like magic. It was the opposite of everything I was taught.
Chappell Roan
Roan has also been vocal about her diagnosis of bipolar two disorder and how she still struggles with her body image, especially as she gets more famous. The costume of Chappell Roan helps her leave her introverted self and enter a bold, loud and colorful persona.
Roan’s relationship with the Queer community isn’t a secret, as she often credits many facets of the culture in all her latest interviews. However, as strongly as drag and sex positivity are evident in her persona, so are her small-town origins — as the addition of “Midwest” suggests in her debut album title. She was raised in Willard, Missouri, where she attended church weekly but was secretly beguiled by a different life.
“I grew up thinking being gay was bad and a sin,” she says in a 2023 interview with The Guardian. “I went to the gay club once and it was so impactful, like magic. It was the opposite of everything I was taught.”
Roan’s new single “Good Luck, Babe!” exemplifies her potential to fill in the gaps for lesbian experiences in the 2020s. In this Billboard Hot 100 hit, Roan’s powerful head voice carries the chorus: “You can kiss a hundred boys in bars / Shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling” and her pointed statement, “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.”
In the song “Pink Pony Club,” Roan sings about her failures as a daughter: “Won’t make my mama proud / It’s gonna cause a scene / She sees her baby girl / I know she’s gonna scream / God, what have you done.”
These are just a few examples as Roan’s music is littered with lyrics implying her dispassion for men romantically. The pop princess does not just whisper but belts these feelings into the ether.
Roan is not the first to express the social strain of the lesbian experience, but to feature female love interests on such a mainstream scale is impressive as it’s thought to be less marketable. Historically, many labels have been unwilling to support lesbian narratives.
The repressive years of the early 2000s and 2010s are right on our heels, and there is still a plethora of untold stories. Luckily, Roan is next in line to inspire the new generation of “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girls” in their endeavors to welcome what makes them feel alive.
Featured image by Chappell Roan/Wikipedia