Chappell Roan STUNS During Performance
By Eva McNally ‘25
She’s your dream girl's dream girl. She’s your favorite artist's favorite artist. She’s the queer, Midwestern popstar princess we’ve all been dreaming of: Chappell Roan. Roan stopped at the Sylvee on a beautiful day in May–fans lined up outside the venue hours in advance and enjoyed lounging in the sun, making bracelets, doing hair, and bedazzling their makeup looks with rhinestones and pearls. For each city of the tour, Roan gives the night a theme for which she also dresses up, and Madison’s crowd embraced the mermaid dress code. Fans lined the street decked out in mini skirts and gogo boots, sequins, scales, and shells.
Roan’s growth over the past year has been exciting and inspiring to see. After embarking on her first headlining tour, cleverly titled Naked in North America, after her song “Naked in Manhattan,” she released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in late September 2023. In January 2024, she was announced as a Lorem Artist to Watch, which listed “Casual,” a song about the inherently evil nature of situationships, as an essential track. In late February, she hit the road with Olivia Rodrigo and opened for the first twenty shows of the Guts World Tour. In early April, she released the track “Good Luck, Babe!” which garnered over one million streams on the day of its release. A week later, she gave a landmark debut performance at Coachella.
When Crayola, a local London drag queen, opened for Roan in London, she said to Roan: “Girl, you are a drag queen,” which Roan has cited as the moment that her vision for her music career became clear: “Chappell Roan” is a drag project persona. She began to further explore her queer identity within her artistry, embracing drag culture through her extravagant costumes, big hair, and bold makeup. Her iconic NPR Tiny Desk Performance will be remembered as perhaps the campiest and queerest ever. With her hot pink getup, lipstick-stained teeth, staple red hair, powder-white face, and dramatic blue eyeshadow, her performance cemented her status as a rising superstar.
Roan is adored for her unapologetic queerness and joy and has been a consistent supporter of the queer community. Before performing “Kaleidoscope", the ninth song of her set, she expressed her understanding of how hard it can be to be a queer person in the Midwest, as she grew up in a conservative, Christian household in Missouri. She is committed to giving back to the queer community, donating to LGBTQIA+ charities and local pride events. Furthermore, she brings local drag queens from each city on tour as an opening act. Madison was no different, the three queens Lola Rome, Lola Lue, and Yvette La Sidora graced us with their presence on stage, bringing the energy (and the heat).
Roan performed in April of 2023 at a 525-capacity venue in Boston–a little over a year later she is selling out venues nearly five times that size in presale. At that point, her discography was still relatively small. She played “Hot to Go,” “Coffee,” “Kaleidoscope,” and “Red Wine Supernova,” all of which were unreleased at the time. Then, she surpassed half a million monthly listeners on Spotify and now, she has over nineteen million monthly listeners. Her most popular song then was “Pink Pony Club” which had amassed over fourteen million streams. Now, “Good Luck, Babe!” sits at number one with over 131 million streams.
Roan opened her set with “Femininomenon,” a play on the words “feminine” and “phenomenon.” In this Making the Album PopBuzz podcast she said: “It was about how it's a phenomenon if sleeping with a man is better than sleeping with a girl.” On The Rise and Fall of A Midwest Princess, this track appears first, welcoming the listener to Roan’s world of sound: synthy, witty, and charming. In the bridge of the song, Roan playfully does a call and response with the crowd when she says: “Ladies, you know what I mean / And you know what you need / And so does he / But does it happen?” To which the audience responded, “No!” She repeats the question and then says: “Well, what we really need is a femininomenon!” She follows with: “A what?” Holding the mic to the crowd, they shouted: “A femininomenon!”
Another song that was especially demonstrative of Roan’s vocal and lyrical prowess was “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” a comedically kitsch, energetic, and catchy track. The opening spoken word verse is humorously truthful as Roan details a wasted Friday night on a first date with a man who wouldn’t dance, didn’t ask a single question, and was wearing these fugly jeans. She then says: “It doesn’t matter though / He doesn’t have what it takes to be / With a girl like me.” In blending humor and passion together, Roan has created a zany, heartfelt, and honest tune that provides a burst of queer joy: she knows what she wants. If you’re looking for your anthem of the summer, this is it.
Roan’s song “HOT TO GO!” appeared midway through the set. The upbeat, cheerleader-esque number was participatory fun, as it features an infectious chorus in which Roan invites the crowd to join her in spelling out “H-O-T T-O- G-O” before launching into the song. The audience was familiar with the routine and met Roan with enthusiasm–not one person didn’t have their arms up, mirroring Roan on stage. Folks on the balcony sprung from their seats to join in on the fun. Even in the pit, where there was little elbow room, fans managed to make do. This was one of the rare instances where accidentally bumping your neighbor was not only acceptable but encouraged.
For the encore, she stepped back on stage for a beautiful rendition of “California,” which candidly details that California isn’t all that it’s chalked up to be, especially for a musician looking to make it in the industry. It delves into themes of homesickness, describing how she stretched herself across several states and made a brave, yet terrifying leap in chasing her dream. The song was born shortly before she was dropped by a major label. In an Instagram post, she said that she was “heartbroken in so many ways but it was all meant to be.” The release of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is a testament to Roan’s perseverance and resilience. Sometimes, to truly miss and appreciate home, we need to get away–a feeling that Roan clearly knows all too well.
She concluded the show with “Pink Pony Club;” her voice barely discernible as the crowd loudly sang along. This track was inspired by her experience at The Abbey, a world-famous gay bar and nightclub in West Hollywood. A disco ball, in time with the line “Black lights and a mirrored disco ball,” spun above the crowd, reflecting specks of light across the entire venue, making for a magical moment. Singing along with Roan felt like being a part of a community, part of something much bigger than one person. It was refreshing to be in a musical space made by queer people for queer people–she truly is the people’s princess.
Roan is on the road for the next few weeks, performing a handful of headlining shows and Festivals, including Pittsburgh Pride on the Shore, Governors Ball in New York, and Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. She will return to the Midwest in July for a Lollapalooza aftershow at The Vic Theater and the following day, will hit the IHG Hotels & Resorts stage from 6-7 PM on the opening night of Lollapalooza. She’ll wrap up at the Hinterland Festival in Iowa, then she’s off to Europe in September. This Midwest princess is well on her way to stardom, and rightfully so!
