Chappell Roan: The Actual Rise of This Midwest Princess
She's your favorite artist's favorite artist. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re breaking down the career of your favorite artist’s favorite artist.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're breaking down the career of your favorite artist's favorite artist.
00:12You look fantastic. Thank you so much for being here.
00:14Thank you for letting me borrow this outfit.
00:16No problem. I just give it back for the weekend. I need it for the weekend.
00:21School nights.
00:22I was so scared and just so reserved, and I just wanted to do everything right all the time and not ruffle any feathers.
00:32When Chappell refers to herself as a Midwest princess, she's not kidding.
00:37Born just outside of Springfield, Missouri in February 1998,
00:42the artist-born Kaylee Rose Amstutz was a regular churchgoer who harbored ambitions that exceeded what her small town could offer.
00:51I love where I came from because I have an incredible perspective on the Midwest,
00:56which I think a lot of people on the coasts kind of, you know, put all Midwesterners in one type of category.
01:04She first tapped into this as a teenager when she felt compelled to, quote,
01:09write the greatest love song of all time for a crush. Kaylee's family sent her to music camps in the summer.
01:15Yeah, I think people just think everyone in the Midwest agrees with, like, a far-right viewpoint, and it's just not true.
01:24Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2023, she mused that those camps were where she, quote,
01:29learned how to write songs and, for the first time, was around, quote,
01:34people who were passionate about writing poems and being emotional.
01:38I just didn't have that growing up. I had friends in theater, but the writing was different.
01:43Whenever I was 15, 16, it was the perfect time to be a teenager on YouTube because everything was happening.
01:50Harlem Shake, high school lift-offs, what does the fox say?
01:54Going to church camp, though, Roan has definitively described the experience as, quote, not it. Die young.
02:02I thought music was going to be a gateway into acting. I was like, just look at my foot in the door.
02:07That's what this whole thing was supposed to be.
02:09While attending a music summer program at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Roan,
02:14then going by the stage name Kaley Rose, wrote Die Young, which she uploaded to YouTube in November 2014.
02:21You say it wasn't die young, wasn't die young.
02:28The song, as well as Roan's other YouTube uploads, impressed record label execs at Atlantic.
02:34A few short months after the release of Die Young, she had a record deal.
02:38At this point, Roan was convinced she was on top of the world.
02:42Speaking to The Guardian, she revealed that, aged 17, she, quote, thought she was going to win a Grammy.
02:49This industry, like, you really flourish if you don't protect yourself.
02:55You flourish if you don't protect yourself.
02:58Yes.
02:59It was around this time that she adopted her now iconic stage name,
03:03a portmanteau of her late grandfather's surname and the strawberry Roan by Curly Fletcher,
03:09which she has said was Dennis Chappell's favorite song.
03:12Chappell Roan is a drag, is my drag project.
03:15And I think that's also helped personally to separate it as a job and as, like, a project.
03:22And there's me as Kaley.
03:24Good hurt.
03:24I just started doing themes because I love dressing up.
03:27I want any excuse to dress up.
03:29It goes without saying that Roan is beloved for her campy, wildly over-the-top visuals,
03:35an aesthetic that spreads to every aspect of her performance style.
03:39However, the original Chappell Roan, while still poppy, was dark, moody, and atmospheric.
03:45That's why I changed so hard to pop, pop, pop, because it was so boring performing sad songs.
03:53This is evidenced by the sound of the 2017 single Good Hurt,
03:57released while Roan was still signed to Atlantic.
04:06Far from an exuberant queer anthem,
04:08Good Hurt is much more reminiscent of dark pop artists like Lorde or Banks
04:13than what we now know her sound to be.
04:16The following month, Roan released School Nights, her debut EP,
04:20and toured with Van Stroy later in the year.
04:23I mean, I feel kind of like I made it already whenever I was like,
04:28oh my god, people showed up to my concert like a few years ago.
04:31I was like, people came?
04:32Despite these achievements, as well as warm, critical notices,
04:36a significant setback was on the horizon.
04:39Pink Pony Club.
04:40I just wanted to make something that I could party to and other people could party to,
04:45and something that, like, I would never be sad, like, or bored performing.
04:52Roan moved to Los Angeles where, for the next few years,
04:55she made moves to further her career.
04:58It wasn't exactly the dream life she'd envisioned.
05:01It's not like my parents knew. My mom's a veterinarian.
05:03My dad's retired from the Navy.
05:05It's not like we knew anything about the show business in Willard, Missouri.
05:09Looking back on this period of her life,
05:11Roan described the overwhelming isolation she felt,
05:15despite being able to truly embrace her queerness for the first time
05:18since moving out of Missouri.
05:20Quote, you can't do anything in LA or anywhere if you're under 21,
05:25because everyone just goes out and I was so sad.
05:282020 seemed to get off on a promising start,
05:31with Roan beginning a creative partnership with Dan Nigro,
05:34who would soon score a massive hit with Olivia Rodrigo's Driver's License.
05:39Guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me.
05:44Together, Roan and Nigro wrote Pink Pony Club,
05:48one of the first indications of what was to come creatively.
05:52While things were looking up, they didn't stay that way for long.
05:55In August 2020, Atlantic dropped Roan
05:58due to her relative lack of mainstream success.
06:01Essentially, she was right back where she'd started in 2017.
06:05I've been doing this for a decade.
06:06Yeah.
06:07I've been through like a major label deal already and dropped,
06:12and then another major label deal.
06:13So I think if this were to happen,
06:16when I was hoping it would happen when I was like 17,
06:20I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.
06:22Naked in Manhattan.
06:23What was going on with your life here?
06:26I had no money and I was working at a donut shop
06:29and I was performing at this weird gay festival, Ruv.
06:34Getting dropped by Atlantic was devastating,
06:37personally and professionally, to Roan.
06:39It was at this point that she returned to Missouri to reassess things.
06:43You know I hate to say, but I told you so.
06:50In a 2024 Paper Magazine interview with Trixie Mattel,
06:54she recalled,
06:56I had moved back in with my parents during the pandemic
06:58because I couldn't get a job in LA.
07:00And I was like, I have to give this a shot one more year.
07:04My relationship ended with my label like a lot of artists
07:08ended their relationships in 2020.
07:11You just get dropped if you're not making money in 2020.
07:13Like music industry crashed.
07:15With Nigro's attention diverted after driver's license blew up,
07:19she returned to her roots.
07:21Quote, I was working at a donut shop.
07:23No money.
07:24That's what I was doing.
07:25My kink is karma. Naked in Manhattan.
07:28It was all with my friends and for free.
07:31I didn't like actually start making money where I could afford my rent
07:35until like the past couple, maybe like a year.
07:40While using her phone's notes app to write the songs
07:43that would eventually appear on the rise and fall of a Midwest princess,
07:47Roan plotted her return to Los Angeles.
07:50Feminine omenon.
07:51Also, I'm going to be a drag queen.
07:53And also I'm going to say the raunchiest lyrics you've ever heard.
07:57My grandma's like maybe aren't like stoked on that part,
08:00but they like when I dress up.
08:02Roan landed back in LA in October 2020.
08:05The Washington Post notes that while making music independently,
08:09quote, she would sell out shows without label support,
08:12sewing her own over-the-top clothes,
08:14and learning to do drag for sets bursting with energy
08:17and call-and-response choruses.
08:20Playboy, Bridget Bardot.
08:23She showed me things I didn't know.
08:27After a year of working part-time jobs on the side,
08:30she signed with Sony Music
08:32and shortly thereafter collaborated with a newly free Nigro
08:36to release the aforementioned Naked in Manhattan,
08:39as well as a string of other singles,
08:42including My Kink is Karma, Feminine Omenon, and Casual.
08:46Touch me, baby.
08:47Touch me, touch me, touch me, touch me.
08:50Touch me, baby.
08:52Naked in Manhattan.
08:53At the same time, she was establishing her quirky,
08:57idiosyncratic TikTok presence.
08:59Juggling all of the above was no cakewalk.
09:02Roan recalled that it felt like, quote,
09:04hell most of the time trying to get it together
09:07as an independent artist and also having a part-time job.
09:11As if that wasn't enough,
09:12Roan was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder
09:15at around the same time.
09:17When you're bipolar and severely depressed,
09:19there's so many lies that depression tells you, so...
09:23Yeah.
09:25But so many kids are depressed.
09:27Yeah. You know?
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09:44Good luck, babe.
09:45Yes. Opening for Olivia Rodrigo
09:47at some of these gigantic stadiums around the country.
09:50Are you prepared for that?
09:52You know what?
09:56It's gonna be fine.
09:57That's all I'm saying in my head over and over again.
09:59Throughout 2023, Roan released three more singles
10:03from the then-forthcoming Midwest Princess album,
10:06Kaleidoscope, Red Wine Supernova, and Hot to Go.
10:11Although it was critically acclaimed,
10:13with the A.V. Club, Time, and Nylon
10:16all ranking it within their top 10 albums released in 2023,
10:20it failed to chart on the Billboard 200.
10:23This changed drastically in early 2024
10:26when she opened for Olivia Rodrigo on the Guts World Tour.
10:29And most crucially of all,
10:31once she released her breakthrough single,
10:33Good Luck, Babe.
10:34♪ I'm ready for someone to poison me ♪
10:38♪ But you ain't the only show I'm trying to stop the feeling ♪
10:42The rousing, unabashedly queer synth-pop belter
10:45was streamed over 7 million times in the week of its release.
10:49It's been on the Hot 100 for 10 weeks
10:51and has almost 200 million streams on Spotify.
10:54In just a few months,
10:56you went from 2 million to 21 million
10:58monthly Spotify listeners.
11:00Following a Coachella set a few weeks later,
11:02Roan had been cemented as a contemporary pop icon
11:06with Midwest Princess now having sold over 400,000 units.
11:11Already a queer icon for the ages,
11:13this princess is almost more akin to a phoenix
11:16rising from the ashes in a fiery red blaze.
11:19She's since spoken about struggling
11:21with her sudden rise to fame.
11:23However, she's also talked about the incredible support
11:26that she's received from other women in the industry.
11:29With her undeniable talent
11:31and already dedicated community of fans,
11:33Chapel Roan's journey is just beginning.
11:36Here's you last week or two weeks ago
11:39at the Governor's Ball. This is the crowd here.
11:42So, look at you.
11:45Come on.
11:47What's your favorite Chapel Roan song?
11:49Let us know in the comments.
11:51We've got Casual.
11:53We've got Supergraphic Ultra Modern Girl,
11:55which is one of my songs.
11:57And it's like alien girly.
12:01Do you agree with our picks?
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