Chappell Roan Is Making Pop Music Fun Again – Here's Everything You Need To Know
Unless you are part of a dedicated legion of fans now proclaiming you ‘liked her before she was big’, it’s probable you had never heard the name Chappell Roan until recently. In the span of just a few months, the American singer has gone from small-town obscurity to viral fame, performing at Coachella and appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Her ascent has been rapid, but it’s clear that Roan is a musical artist with staying power – no small feat in the attention-deficit age. She has already built a distinctive look and a collection of catchy songs, from dance anthems to devastating ballads. The singer’s powerful, emotive vocals have drawn comparisons to Kate Bush and Lana Del Rey, and it's not hard to see why.
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So, who is the singer that Rolling Stone is heralding as ‘the future of pop’?
Here's everything you need to know about Chappell Roan:
Where is Chappell Roan from?
Born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, the performer chose the stage name ‘Chappell Roan’ as an homage to her grandfather, Dennis K Chappell, who died in 2016, and his favourite song, ‘The Strawberry Roan’ by Curley Fletcher. Rebranding as Chappell also allowed the aspiring star to create a more confident on-stage identity, which she refers to as her Hannah Montana, or drag persona. This separation helped to inform her maximalist aesthetic (think The Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Claire’s Accessories… but make it fashion).
An air of mystery surrounds the real life of 26-year-old Kayleigh Amstutz. Internet sleuths know relatively little about her upbringing and personal experiences, and the creation of her pop star identity reveals the intentionality behind that mystery. What we do know is that Roan is definitely not a 'nepo baby'. She was raised in a trailer park in Missouri and had a conservative, Christian upbringing. No one in her family has a musical background.
How did Chappell Roan become famous?
While the artist only just appeared on the world’s pop-music radar, Roan’s ‘overnight success’ took nearly a decade to take shape. After posting videos of her singing to YouTube as a teenager, she was initially picked up by Atlantic Records at just 17 years old.
Around this time, Roan began touring. She has performed as the opening act for Declan McKenna, Fletcher and, most famously, Olivia Rodrigo, on both her Sour and Guts World Tour. Aside from the support she’s received from her friend Rodrigo, Roan has been praised by Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter and Elton John.
Then, in 2020, after getting a taste of success, Roan was dropped from Atlantic Records. She considered giving up altogether, but decided to move home and develop her music independently. After a year working at a drive-through, Roan was signed by her long-time collaborator Dan Nigro and his newly founded Amusement label, under Island Records. Nigro is a Grammy-winning producer who has worked with Rodrigo and Caroline Polachek. In 2023, after many years of trying to break into the industry, Roan dropped her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
What is Chappell Roan's music style and genre?
Though it didn’t make the Billboard 200 upon its release, Roan's single ‘Midwest Princess’ would become a sleeper hit. It garnered a cult following and, eventually, went viral in 2024 (it’s now at number five on the Billboard chart). Roan dabbles in different styles throughout her debut, including pop, synth, rock and disco, with 1980s and early-2000s influences. The album also sees Roan embrace her Sapphic identity, with audacious, intimate lyrics exploring queer hookups, queer heartbreak and queer horniness. For the cover, Roan is in a campy, pageant-queen get-up, solidifying her now-signature style: bright-red curly hair, theatrical make-up and hyper-femme clothing.
The popstar's image is heavily inspired by drag culture, which she is a fan of. As well as her dramatic tour costumes that coordinate with song themes (glittery, fuchsia Western outfits for ‘Pink Pony Club’, and so on), some of her most memorable looks include her butterfly Coachella outfit and the Statue of Liberty ensemble she wore for her Governor’s Ball set in NYC. The latter involved Roan being painted green in full-body make-up. When asked what her influences are, she listed burlesque, horror movies and theatre. 'I love looking pretty and scary. Or pretty and tacky. Or just not pretty. I love that, too,' she said.
Where is Chappell Roan touring this year?
Performing is the LA-based artist’s favourite part of the job. In a TikTok, she revealed she practises singing while jogging, so she can belt as she dances and ‘not pass out on stage’. Currently playing US and Canada venues on her Midwest Princess tour, Roan is set to come to Europe in September. With her Spotify streams now at nearly 32 million (and rising by the day), it’s unsurprising that all of her UK tour dates are currently sold out.
How did Chappell Roan become a queer pop icon?
Roan’s rise has aligned with a surge in Sapphic pop culture in 2024, a year that brought us the viral opening of London’s second lesbian bar, the release of dating show I Kissed a Girl and Billie Eilish’s venture into queer songwriting. Roan is considered a figurehead of what some are calling a ‘lesbian pop renaissance’.
While there are tracks on ‘Midwest Princess’ that play into a gay-icon persona, in the tradition of Madonna and Lady Gaga, there are also vulnerable lyrics about the highs and lows of lesbian desire. On ‘Naked in Manhattan’, Roan sings: ‘Could go to hell but we'll probably be fine… I’ve never done it’. She confessed some lyrics are autobiographical, while others are based in imagination, or ‘manifestations’ of things she wants to happen. ‘I'm about 30% Kayleigh on the stage,’ she said, in an interview with the BBC. ‘But if I'm doing a song like "Kaleidoscope", then I'm fully Kayleigh.’
As she likes to keep her private life fairly private, it’s unclear whether Roan is currently dating anyone. She told Nylon last July that she had just entered her first same-sex relationship. She has also said she is done dating men, and now identifies as lesbian.
What’s next for Chappell Roan in 2024?
Her newest single ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ – a bittersweet bop about liking a girl who is in denial about her sexuality – was met with social-media frenzy upon its release in April. Roan has called it ‘the first song of the next chapter’, hinting at a second album in the works.
Despite being somewhat of a newbie on pop’s global stage, the musician’s journey to stardom is the first step of what will certainly be a career-to-watch. For Roan, this is only the beginning. We can’t wait to see what she will do (and wear) next.
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