By now, you may be familiar with a certain Midwest Princess named Chappell Roan. The pop singer's meteoric rise in 2024 has been nothing short of unprecedented. While she had been somewhat known in niche internet circles — especially those interested in queer musicians — the last few months have proved that her very queer, very emotional music is connecting with audiences across spectrums of sexuality, gender and age.
Need more proof? There are not one but two different Chappell Roan-themed dance parties in Spokane this month alone (one at the Chameleon on Aug. 3 and another at the Knitting Factory on Aug. 30). That's the sort of attention usually only paid to the Beyoncés and Taylor Swifts of the world.
For the uninitiated, Roan is a pop musician from Missouri who released some pre-pandemic music under her birth name, Kayleigh Rose. Her first single, "Die Young," got her a record contract with Atlantic Records. Around this time she began to develop the Chappell Roan persona, releasing a few more songs for Atlantic before being dropped by the label.
One of these songs was "Pink Pony Club," produced by Dan Nigro who'd soon become Oliva Rodrigo's go-to producer, and Rodrigo tapped Roan to open for her on the Sour tour. Roan released a few more singles as an independent artist including other singles including "Femininomenon" and "Naked in Manhattan."
Starting with her own headlining tour in 2023, Roan began bringing along drag queens as openers as a way to connect to queer culture, and because she began viewing her alter ego more like a drag persona, drawing inspiration from drag artists of all eras. Each tour stop was also tied to a theme based on one of her songs, like mermaids, riffing on the music video for "Casual." A serious grassroots fanbase began bubbling up before the volcanic explosion to come.
In September 2023, Roan finally released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess featuring 14 songs of queer love, loss and joy. While the album is crammed with catchy earworms, it's Roan message of queer joy that quickly began connecting on a deeper level than what most pop stars can achieve.
This message has connected a lot with me and my fellow queer women. While there have always been LGBTQ+ folks in music, a woman making pop hits while so openly celebrating her queerness has never been the norm. Songs like "Casual" and "Red Wine Supernova" charting with lyrics about queer fem sexuality instead of being banished by censors is something that would've seemed inconceivable just 10 years ago. Pop songs have always been sexy, and many have also been explicit, but women's sexuality is almost always muted or through a male lens.
But those messages likely wouldn't resonate if Chappell Roan songs weren't also pure fun. Take, for example, the TikTok craze of doing the "Hot to Go" dance where folks spell out the chorus ("H-O-T-T-O-G-O"). The fact that fans know everyone else at Roan's shows will also be doing the claps, snaps, body rolls and letters screams pure communal queer joy.
With Midwest Princess out in the world, things began to snowball. There was a fall headlining tour followed by joining Rodrigo again for her Guts World Tour. Roan performed on Late Night with Stephen Colbert on Valentine's Day. Her NPR Tiny Desk concert dropped a few weeks before her Coachella debut.
By the time of her performance in Louisville at Kentuckiana Pride in June, people were lining the bridges and the buildings around Waterfront Park just to feel spiritually closer to Chappell if they were physically far, far away from the stage.
When I was a kid, I didn't have many queer role models to look up to, and the fact there are teenagers out there seeing a queer woman be unabashedly herself and exuding such jubilation makes my jaded heart overflow. In an age where drag queens and trans folks simply existing has become criminalized in some states and nationally has become the fear-baiting fuel for a felon-led GOP party hellbent on culture wars, just being an LGBTQ+ person can be terrifying and exhausting. But there is still value to feeling musically seen.
Those few moments of dancing and singing along with Chappell Roan songs while wearing pink cowboy hats in a safe space is a pretty great escape. ♦
Pink Pony Club: A Chappell Roan Dance Party • Sat, Aug. 3 at 9 pm • $10-$15 • 21+ • The Chameleon • 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. • chameleonspokane.com
Club 90's Chappell Roan Night • Fri, Aug. 30 at 8 pm • $21 • 18+ • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com
