Chappell Roan did the thing. With six nominations under her belt for the 2025 Grammys, Roan officially won Best New Artist — and what she said in her speech is *everything.* Majestically making her way up to the stage, Roan made the moment her very own by not only showing the audience her true vulnerability, but also by calling out her old record label for dropping her and leaving her with close-to-nothing.
Accepting the award, Roan was in disbelief, yet her gratitude never failed to shine. Topping off her vulnerability and exposé of how many artists are treated in the industry, Roan went on to call for everything she wasn’t given from her record label when starting out. She stood her ground, “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off artists would offer a liveable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists.”
Opening up and revealing who she is not only as an artist but as a human, she went on to expose her record label for dropping her at a young age. “I got signed as a minor and when I got dropped, I had zero job experience under my belt,” she said to a standing ovation from the crowd. “And like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance.”
Roan also went on to note how it discouraged her as an artist and made her feel inferior, saying, “It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have health [insurance].”
At age 17 Roan was signed to Atlantic Records, where she released her debut EP School Nights, and her 2020 single “Pink Pony Club,” which we all know and love. Disappointed with how the single performed, Atlantic Records went on to drop her in the midst of COVID-19 — leaving her jobless and inexperienced after being reliant on music from such a young age. Drawing from her personal experience, to highlight the important role record labels play in not only an artist’s career but their mental and physical being, she noted, “And if my label would have prioritized artist health, I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to.”
To really reel everything in and leave the audience and labels to their thoughts and acknowledgment of the sad reality for many artists, Roan went on to leave one last message. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” she asked to a still-standing audience as the camera pushed into a tearfully empowered Sabrina Carpenter.
Miss Roan once again gracefully leaves an impact on the audience about realities that are so concealed to the public eye and I think her ability to hold people and corporations accountable has been one of her most admirable qualities. Stan Chappell, y’all.