Watch:
Olivia Rodrigo Handles Onstage Wardrobe Malfunction Like a Pro!
ChappellRoan was born this way, baby, though it took her a minute to realize she wasn't on the right track yet with her music.
Getting her start playing piano and performing moody original songs on YouTube, she was signed by Atlantic Records in 2015 when she was 17. But it wasn't until a few years later, when the Willard, Mo. (pop: 6,344), native made her way to Los Angeles, that she found her people.
"I was told this city is demonic and Satanists live here," Roan, now 26,recalled to NMEin February about her first move to California in 2018. "But when I got to West Hollywood, it opened my eyes, that everything I was afraid of wasn't always true—especially [what I'd been told] about the queer community. Going to gay clubs for the first time, it felt spiritual...I'd never even seen a drag queen before."
The culture shock prompted a creative awakening for the singer-songwriter, who, realizing that she didn't thrive on angsty dirges, leaned into synth-heavy, upbeat pop and drag-inspired performance glam. She released the très danceable "Pink Pony Club" in 2020.
And promptly lost her record deal.
"I had a very small fan base, but they were scared I would lose it," Roan explained. "And sure I lost a few people, but I gained so many more—and it was a new community that I was now in. But I don't think [the label] believed in me."
So, back she went to Missouri, where she played gigs in between shifts at a drive-throughcoffee shop. During this time, as she told Vanity Fair, she was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 22, which she said both explained a lot andallowed her to seek the righttreatment.
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
Through inner-child work with her therapist, "I got to this conclusion that I needed to be a tacky pop star," Roan said. Looking back, "I'm really attracted to sparkly things and cheetah print and I was really into Britney Spearsand Barbie and just hyper girly. I wanted everything to be pink, purple sparkle."
By the end of 2020, she had returned to L.A. to keep writing songswhile supporting herself with odd jobs such as working as a nannyand at a donut shop.
In 2022, Olivia Rodrigotapped Roan to be an opening act on her Sour Tour. Last year she was signed by Island Records, which released her official debut album,The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in September.And in February she hit the road with Rodrigo again on the "Vampire" singer'sGuts Tour before sets at Coachella and Bonnaroo (where she was switched last minute to a bigger stage to accommodate audience demand), followed by herTonight Showdebut.
On Roan's still-to-play list this year: Lollapalooza, the Hinterland Music Festival, Austin City Limits and many more.
Meanwhile, there's no question Roan has plenty of pluck, but here are more essential things to know about the rising star:
What is Chappell Roan's real name?
The artist was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz on Feb. 19, 1998.
Who is Chappell Roan?
"I think Chappell's a drag-queen version of me because it's very larger-than-life," Roan told Vanity Fairof her performance personain 2023. "Kind of tacky, not afraid to say really lewd things. The songs are kind of the fairytale version of what happened in real life. A lot of the songs are just enhanced versions of what happened or maybe they never happened at all."
Erika Goldring/Getty Images
She notedthat she'd neverdanced on stage at a nightclub like the protagonist of "Pink Pony Club" or yet dated or kissed a girl when she wrotequeer-positive tunes like "Naked in Manhattan" (Sample lyric: "Touch me baby, put your lips on mine/Could go to hell but we'll probably be fine") and "Red Wine Supernova."
"That version of me is really fun to play," she shared, "but it's very exhausting. Being a queen is just like—you're in makeup and hair and you exude all your energy and you're very dramatic."
Her off-stage self, Roan added, isa Fortnite-playing introvert who loves her alone time and keeps her costumes in a storage locker, "so I don't have to look at it 'cause it's so much." (Though to get in shape for her own tour last fall, she worked out in high-heeled boots because her stylist Genesis Webb reminded her she wouldn't be wearing sneakers onstage.)
What is Chappell Roan's background?
Shegrew up "very sheltered and very prude" in Willard, Mo,. Roan told NME, listening to Christian rock and increasingly curious about pop music.
"I just wanted to feel like a good person, but I had this part of me that wanted to escape so bad. I just wanted to scream," she told Varietyin September before her album came out. "I snuck out a lot, but I still went to church three times a week, you know what I mean? So it was just this dichotomy of trying to be a good girl, but also wanting to freaking light things on fire."
Jim Bennett/Getty Images
The queer coming-of-age story she tells in 2022's "Naked in Manhattan" was not yet hers when she wrote the song, and she had to overcome the hom*ophobia she witnessed (and couldn't help but internalize) as a kid to even get the words out.
"I was dating a man and I'd never even kissed a girl," she recalled to NME. "I was just yearning and longing for this feeling, and it was so close I could taste it, but I hadn't experienced it yet."
When she got to L.A, going to gay clubs "felt spiritual," Roan added. "I'd never even seen a drag queen before."
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
If adolescent Kayleigh could see her now, "I think my teenage self would be like, What is going on?" Roan told Crucial Rhythmlast year."I just shaved my eyebrows off randomly and I never would have done that as a teenager. Or accepted that I liked women and I was so scared to be myself because I felt so restricted where I was from. With the religious aspect and gender role aspect. It was a really small queer community that was not amplified."
Growing up, she continued, "I didn't know a single queer girl at my school. If I saw myself now when I was 16 I would be like, 'No way,there's no way I would do that,let myself write a song that's about being a hot person and being a cheerleader, I'm too serious for that.' If I had to give her advice, I would say, 'Follow your gut' and that you're cool. I always told myself I wish I was cooler, prettier, smarter. I would have told her that you are enough exactly how you are in every aspect."
At her own shows, Roan has an opening act featuring drag queens anda percentage from every ticket sold goes toGworls, a Black trans-led charity.
Nina Westervelt/Billboard via Getty Images
When did Chappell Roan change musical styles?
Her original foray into making music wasas amelancholysinger-songwriter—who was talented enough to be signed by Atlantic Records at 17. Her debut single was called "Good Hurt," from her eventual EP, 2017's School Nights.
After she moved to L.A. in 2018 and found a welcoming queer community, her musical interests shifted more in line with the joyful, flamboyant nightlife she was experiencing for the first time.
Her 2020 single "Pink Pony Club" was "a hard left turn" from her original EP, "which was really dark, angsty pop that was pretty boring," Roan told NME.And though being dropped by her label after the song underperformed left her feeling "discarded and misunderstood" at the time, ultimately she believed it was "the best thing that could have happened."
After she put out music independently for a couple of years, Island Records signed her in 2023 and released her official debut album,The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
How did Chappell Roan end up touring with Olivia Rodrigo?
Roan started working with songwriter-producer Dan Nigro—who'd go on to collaborate with Rodrigo on her Grammy-winning debut albumSour and her follow-upGuts—in2020, back whenRodrigo was still starring on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Nigro worked on Roan's 2020 tunes "California," "Love Me Anyway" and "Pink Pony Club," and when she moved back to L.A. they teamed up again for The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which was released by the producer's Island imprint, Amusem*nt Records.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Acrisure Arena
Meanwhile, Rodrigo snatched Roan up to open for her onher Sour Tour back in 2022before bringing her back for the Guts Tour that kicked off in February.
"I'm so grateful that she even asked me," Roan told Triple J Radio in November. "I was like, 'Oh my God'...I've only played my first headline show last May, and to go from, like, 200 people to 20,000 in less than two years is very intense and fast."
A month later, Spotify Wrapped informed Rodrigo that Roan was her top artist for 2023.
"She just put out her first album and Dan, my producer, produced it, and it's amazing," Rodrigo said onThe Hollywood Reporter'sAwards Chatterpodcast. "So I'm listening to a lot of her. And I think number two was Simon & Garfunkel."
How is Chappell Roan dealing with fame?
With success comes a whole lot of attention, too much of it negative, as Roan soon found out.
She hasa"pretty toxic relationship" with social media, she explained to the Washington Postin October,"because I feel like I'm a slave to it. And if I stop, then I'm missing out on my career. I feel really horrible about it, honestly." (At the time, she had ceasedreading comments and DMs and hired someone to manage her accounts.)
Earlier in 2023 she was"just really struggling with the bullying online," she told theIndependenttoward the end of the year."I was going to reach out to Phoebe Bridgersand see what she was doing, and I asked Olivia if she had talked to Billie [Eilish] or anything. People who are in similar circ*mstances."
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
Roan shared that Rodrigo told her, "'No one has it figured out. No one has the answer. It's different for every person.'"
She continued, "I do think it was really helpful for me to hear that no matter who you are or how big you are or how small you are, you feel the same. And you know what, of course there's not a solution for people hating you. People hate you and they want to say mean things to hurt your feelings. The only solution is to not read."
As for fans starting to inspect her music for hidden clues about her personal life, Roan said they were free to dig.
"It's their art to dissect now," she said. "It's no longer mine. If they want to overcomplicate it, good for them. Have at it. Have a ball!"
