By: Sanya Wason
Queer icon Chappell Roan recently released her song, “Good Luck, Babe,” which earned her a spot on the Daily Global Spotify chart for the first time. The song charted with 1.2 million streams, according to Spotify, on Apr. 9, the day of its release.
But, how did she rise to fame so fast? Where did she come from?
Roan’s song “Casual,” from her 2023 album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” blew up on TikTok a few months ago.
In mid-February, Roan opened for Olivia Rodrigo’s “Guts World Tour,” earning her thousands of new followers and listeners. By the end of her opening act on the tour on Apr. 2, Roan had over 4.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
However, Roan was doing pretty good on her own before she joined the ranks of Rodrigo. She went on tour for her debut album, kicking off dates in early spring of 2023, selling out multiple venues. Due to high demand, Roan went back on tour in the fall.
While Roan approaches the end of her personal tours, she’s scheduled to appear at bigger festivals, such as Coachella, Lollapalooza (Aug. 1) and the DMV’s own All Things Go (Sept. 29).
Roan quickly became a well-known queer icon after her performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. On Feb. 16, she sang “Red Wine Supernova,” a song about one of her first experiences of wanting to have sex with a woman. The song brings a queer-pop vibe that makes many queer women feel heard and seen.
The video has over 308,000 views, with hundreds of positive comments. One of the top comments read, “It warms my heart to see queer joy represented on this Valentine’s day.”
However, Roan’s sexuality isn’t the only thing she’s open about. According to NME magazine, Roan admitted that, “when people hear [her] name, [she] want[s] [their] first thought to be ‘drag queen.’”
Roan’s sets, costumes, and makeup go the extra mile. She continued her icon legacy by inviting local drag queens to open for her “Naked in North America” tour, which took place in spring 2023. She even has a story highlight on her Instagram page of the queens who opened for her shows.
Although she is “holding on press right now,” Roan has “seen all the support and appreciate[s] it,” according to her publicist Dana Meyerson.
The campy, early-2000s style of pop that Roan creates is a fresh breath of air in today’s society.