She’s your favourite artist’s favourite artist, she’s your dream girl: she’s Chappell Roan.
Even a month ago you’d be forgiven for not knowing the lyrics to Hot To Go, but now a seat at her show is one of the most in-demand tickets around — save for Oasis.
The 26-year-old, who exudes a glorious drag queen energy that makes her captivating, has swiftly become a certified rock star and is one of the biggest-selling artists in the world right now, having conquered the UK album charts earlier this month.
However, Chappell has gone from being the internet’s darling new superstar to a controversial performer in a matter of weeks, with her adoring fans quickly turning furious after she scrapped her limited European dates with only a few days’ notice.
Her presence in the charts and public consciousness appears to be just as baffling to the Casual singer, as she recently begged for space from overzealous fans.
In the blink of an eye, she’s challenging the Taylor Swift for the top chart spot after The Tortured Poets Department has remained undefeated ever since its release months ago.
However, despite not having the huge backing of her chart rival, Chappell is now only a handful of unit sales behind the Grammy winner with her epic record The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Her monthly Spotify listener count has risen to a whopping 43.1million, with a 24% rise in followers across one month — that is actually insane.
According to Chartmetrics, over the last two months, her song likes have gone up by an impressive 16,000%, gaining over 4million followers on Spotify and 4.8million new TikTok likes in just two weeks.
Nobody has climbed through the charts in the way Chappell has in years, with her unique sense of style — dressing as the Statue of Liberty or a Lucha Libre wrestler — making her unmissable.
Her rise has been compared to that of Lady Gaga, partly due to their LGBTQ+ fanbase and wild outfits, making it an easy connection.
However, on a deeper level, Chappell’s rise also mirrors the trajectory of Gaga’s debut album The Fame, which initially struggled in the charts until Just Dance came out… and the rest was history.
Similarly, Chappell has been plucked from relative obscurity into a femininomenon through word of mouth, sheer fan determination, and incredible talent.
With a disgruntled European fanbase, growing annoyance at her (understandable) decision to keep fans at an arm’s length, and building pressure for a second album — her newfound success is teetering on a knife edge.
The question is can she maintain the momentum to become our next big pop icon?
What is Chappell Roan’s real name and who is she?
Chappell Roan’s real name is actually Kayleigh Amstutz, and she was born in Missouri on February 19, 1998.
Kayleigh grew up in a trailer park in Willard with her parents Kara and Dwight Amstutz as well as three younger siblings.
She has described her upbringing as a difficult time, suppressing her sexuality as she felt it contradicted her family’s Christian values.
Chappell is actually her mother Kara’s maiden name, which she adopted as her stage name in 2016 after the death of her grandad.
Roan is also a sweet tribute, as it was inspired by her grandad’s favourite song The Strawberry Roan by Curley Fletcher.
Her stage persona is inspired by drag artists, which is evident in the instantly recognisable makeup and hair.
At just 10 years old she began playing piano, taking formal lessons two years later and by 13 was performing live at her school’s talent show – which she, of course, won.
Her star continued to grow as she auditioned for America’s Got Talent the following year but didn’t land a spot on the competition show.
Instead, Kayleigh began to upload covers on YouTube until her original song Die Young attracted attention and led to her being signed by Atlantic Records in 2015.
While Chappell appears to have been an overnight hit, she has been working behind the scenes for over a decade now.
No rise for a Midwest princess
In 2017, Chappell released her first single Good Hurt, with EP School Nights following soon after to positive reviews.
After touring with Vance Joy, she relocated to Los Angeles – where she first began to engage with the LGBTQ+ community and live her authentic life as a queer woman.
By 2020 she had started working with Dan Nigro and had released Pink Pony Club but despite the initial success of the hit, she was dropped by her label.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, she later confessed: ‘I burst into tears. As time has gone on, I realised that no matter how hard that label experience was for five years, it was the biggest blessing ever.
‘And being independent has taught me I can do it by myself.’
Dan’s focus shifted to Olivia Rodrigo and produced the hit record Sour, leaving Chappell struggling to find another collaborator and moving back to Missouri.
The same week, she also split with her partner of four and a half years and ended up working multiple jobs to support herself, including as a barista and nanny.
Heartbreakingly the star admitted she didn’t want to ‘get in the way’ of Dan’s success with Olivia, who she would later support on tour.
This is where Chappell began to push as an independent artist and rebranded with her unique drag-inspired style and bubblegum pop lyrics.
Finally, in 2022, she and Dan reunited and released Naked In Manhattan and things began to shift back in her favour.
A femininomenon
Word of mouth and sheer star power are deeply underrated nowadays, but that is exactly what catapulted Chappell to the charts.
‘Have you heard of Chappell Roan,’ became the hot (to go) thing to whisper to your queer friends as she released more and more tracks.
My Kink is Karma, Casual, and Red Wine Supernova became staples on playlists after debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was finally released on September 22, 2023.
Casual took off on TikTok, with thousands of fans fixated on the lyrics ‘knee deep in the passenger seat’, attempting to deconstruct Chappell’s apparent flexibility.
Then came Hot To Go.
Chappell began dancing to the chorus and encouraging fans to do the same, which gathered attention online and was quickly dubbed the next YMCA by LGBTQ+ fans.
After months of H O T T O G O chanting, the track spilled outside of the queer community and suddenly Chappell became the next big thing – a real-life femininomenon.
More and more people started listening to the still-rising artist and in March 2024, she released Good Luck, Babe.
The first single since the album shot up the charts, suggesting her superstardom could have some staying power with a second record.
After announcing a tour, she performed at Coachella, the Governors Ball Music Festival, and Lollapalooza.
By the time the Chicago music festival rolled around on the first weekend in August, Chappell was huge and pulled in the biggest crowd the festival had ever seen with an estimated 90,000 attendees.
The Fall of a Midwest Princess
Unfortunately for Chappell, fame is a fickle beast and her recent controversies have caused huge swathes of fans to feel rather disgruntled with her.
In a recent TikTok, the Meanwhile singer asked her fans not to address her as Kayleigh when they met her in real life.
She said she needed to ‘draw lines and set boundaries’ after ‘creepy fans’ had seriously overstepped and stalked her.
This caused huge discussions around approaching celebrities in public, with many supporting her need for boundaries and others feeling let down by the decision.
While Chappell made it clear she was attempting to prevent obsessive and invasive fans, not regular ones, her statement angered many who felt she was shutting them out.
In other statements, she has broken down on stage when speaking about the pitfalls of becoming a megastar and said she has experienced abuse, harassment and stalking.
Many have supported these emotional outpourings, however, annoyance has bubbled as Chappell pulled out of multiple European gigs with short notice.
In July, the Picture You singer blamed ‘scheduling conflicts’ as she pulled out of Superbloom and Lollapalooza Berlin but added another Berlin date to her EU tour to compensate.
This date has since been rescheduled as she once again cited ‘scheduling conflicts’ — meanwhile, Paris and Amsterdam were cut from the tour.
Her London shows were also rescheduled by a week, however, Paris and Amsterdam received much less warning with only days to go before the gig.
Chappell wrote on X: ‘Due to scheduling conflicts, I have had to make the extremely hard decision to cancel my Paris and Amsterdam shows. I have rescheduled my Berlin show to 23 September.
‘I am so sorry & very disappointed 🙁 I promise I will be back. I’m heartbroken 💔 thank you for understanding.
‘Ticket holders for Paris and Amsterdam – refund will come from point of purchase. Berlin, your tickets will be automatically transferred over to the new date.’
While tour rescheduling and moving has become increasingly common, if Chappell is planning to stay in the big leagues with the likes of Taylor, Olivia, and Sabrina, she has a lot of work to do.
The world is anticipating big things from her follow-up album but with the growing anger and distrust for the singer, she might not have any momentum left by the time it’s released.
Chappell Roan is here, but is she here to stay? God, we hope so.