Nmonths after the release of their debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess, Chappell Roan is seeing the kind of success new artists dream of. On Thursday, her album reached No. 1 on the US iTunes chart, beating Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. In recent months, her monthly listeners have grown to more than 20 million on Spotify, and she is attracted crowds of thousands at festivals like Boston Calling and Gov Ball in New York (where she arrived dressed as the Statue of Liberty).
Although his meteoric rise seems to have happened overnight, Roan has been working for nearly a decade, releasing his music online and using social media to gain a cult following. After starting out sharing music on YouTube in 2014 under her first and middle name, Kayleigh Rose, she switched to Chappell Roan and released an EP on Atlantic Records in 2017.
Although Roan released several songs in 2020 that would later appear on his debut album, these singles did not achieve the success Atlantic had hoped for, and the label dropped her that year. In September 2023, she released The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess with Amusement Records – Island Records producer Dan Nigro’s label – to great acclaim. Princess of the Midwest made several best-of-the-year lists, including TIME’s in 2023. After a solo tour in support of the album, Roan found a new audience after opening for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour in early 2024. In April, Roan made her Coachella debut and has since skyrocketed to fame.
Audiences are falling in love with the 26-year-old star for several reasons. His incredibly catchy yet honest songs speak to listeners, as does his sincerity online and with his fans. Here’s everything you need to know about the rise of Chappell Roan.
She goes there in her song
Chappell’s music is about queer experiences, from confusing moments of heartbreak to ecstatic discoveries of love and sex. His witty lyrics and infectious melodies take listeners on journeys through situations, passionate affairs, breakups, and even the satisfaction of seeing an ex get what he deserves.
In “Pink Pony Club”, one of the singles she released in 2020, the narrator longs to leave her home in Tennessee and go to a “special place where boys and girls can be queens every day” and in “Red Wine Supernova” she sings about the rush of falling too fast in a “Brigitte Bardot” kind of way. Her last, “Good luck, darling!” has a blunt message for a woman who prefers men over her: “When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night, with your head in your hands, you are nothing more than his wife. And when you think of me, all those years ago, you come face to face with ‘I told you so’.”
“This is a really exciting time for queer music, but for pop music in general,” she told TIME earlier this year. “I think people are taking a little more risks and that’s always where good pop music is born. Don’t be afraid to appear cheeky or make people upset.
She gained millions of fans in just a few months
A chart created by a data journalist and shared online shows how Chappell’s monthly listeners on Spotify have grown rapidly since she released her album in September. As of March 2023, she has around 3 million monthly listeners. Just over a year later, she has more than 20 million per month.
The huge increase in their fandom can be seen in the crowds at their most recent performances.
At the Gov Ball earlier this month, Roan revealed that he turned down the opportunity to perform at the White House. “In response to the White House asking me to perform at Pride: we want freedom, justice and freedom for all. When you do, that’s when I will come.”
It wasn’t just fans who noticed the public’s positive responses: in recent days, programmers at the Bonnaroo music festival took her to the main stage for her performanceand the All Things Go music festival announced that he will perform on their stop in New York.
Chappell Roan’s vulnerability online and with fans
Roan’s social media presence goes back a few years. On TikTok, she often promoted her music with occasional makeup tutorials for some of her more dramatic looks in one of her singles.
Roan is also honest about her struggles with mental health. At her most recent performance in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 12, she gushed over her rapid rise to fame and shared how overwhelming the experience was. She took a second to address the crowd as she wiped away her tears.
“I just want to be honest with the crowd. Today I feel a little discouraged, because I think my career is moving too fast and it’s hard to keep up,” she says in the video. “I’m just being honest, I’m having a hard time today.”
Last year, she uploaded a video where she revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder and that she struggled with body image issues, which increased as she began to gain popularity.
“Everything is very exciting right now and I’m realizing that success actually makes me quite uncomfortable and self-conscious and I’m not sure why yet,” she says in the video. “This career is very difficult, but I will be fine.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
