Chappell Roan, An Icon Is Born: ‘The Crowds Inspire Me’ (Cover Story)

‘When I’m at the venue, with my band, in makeup, in costume – it flips a switch.’

Chappell Roan, in very short order, has become a technicolor icon for the “girls, gays and theys,” as she says, and a “Femininomenon” of this moment — and far, far beyond.

The Chappell mania we are witnessing in real-time is suddenly everywhere all at once: from daily clickbait headlines to her hook-laden songs played in coffee shops in small-town USA and high-end WeHo fashion boutiques alike to endless Instagram and TikTok posts ranging from Doug the Pug (dancing at the “Pink Puggy Club”) to Zion National Park using Roan’s sing-songy track “Hot To Go” to illustrate scorching temperatures in Utah.

The tsunami of Chappell buzz, which has exponentially expanded in the last few months, is propelled first and foremost by the openly queer artist’s brilliant muse. Her synth-pop anthems, ballads and rock songs are filled with earworm-y lyrics ranging from sex-positive declarations of knowing what you want to vulnerable confessionals decrying situationships, all carried on the back of her sublime voice. Roan’s messages of inclusivity are right on time and resonate deeply with generations who’ve long felt left out of the party.

Her rollicking, meme-worthy live show has to be seen to be believed. Chappell herself always brings it with killer costumes and striking, campy makeup, joined by her all-female backing band. Her performances elicit full-on audience participation complete with decked-out fans, local drag queens and a group dance moment with the YMCA-esque choreography of “Hot To Go.” It’s combined to create an insatiable fan demand as her ongoing “The Midwest Princess Tour” is turning into underplays, despite venues already being bumped up to larger rooms.

A self-described introvert, the 26-year-old artist who was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz and grew up in a conservative Christian family in Willard, Missouri (population 6,511), sees Chappell as a drag queen version of herself and explains that her performances have allowed her and her larger-than-life persona to soar.

“It’s really easy to get in the groove when I am at the venue, with my band, in makeup, in costume — it just flips the switch on pretty easily,” Roan tells Pollstar. “What’s hard is when I am in public and very much not in costume or makeup and I am put into situations when I have to turn on that part of myself. Singing automatically gets me into that mood. And to see the crowd dressed up is very inspiring for me to do the same — to give them the energy that they give me.”

Days before Pollstar went to press, Chappell made headlines for her electrifying Bonnaroo performance and the size of the crowd drawn to her June 16 set, which was moved from a tent to one of the largest stages at the Tennessee festival. Some got there at 3:30 a.m. to get a good spot twelve hours before her performance Several ‘Roo festival veterans said Roan easily had one of the biggest crowds they’ve ever seen at the WHICH stage.

Along with other huge festival sets including Coachella and Gov Ball, the past several months have been filled with milestones including her NPR Tiny Desk set, supporting Olivia Rodrigo in arenas on her “Guts World Tour” and making her late-night debut on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” That said, her manager Nick Bobetsky of State of the Art (SOTA), says that Roan’s career has seen very “steady and consistent growth” thanks to her passionate fanbase: “Even when we put up her first headline U.S. tour, the number of tickets we were selling versus her streams, the ratio was incredible — basically every listener was a real fan.”

Wasserman Music agents Kiely Mosiman and Jackie Nalpant point out that even before Tiny Desk and Coachella, the shows on her “Midwest Princess Tour” sold out immediately. They upgraded almost every venue on the run. For example, the 1,500-capacity The National in Richmond, Virginia, was upped to the 6,530-cap Brown’s Island (May 23) and the 1,100-cap Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York, moved to the 6,000-cap Terminal B at Outer Harbor (May 24). The duo says Chappell has sold more than 80,000 tickets in 2024 on her “Midwest Princess Tour” that runs through October, with drop counts for the number of fans in the door at 96-98%, which is unheard of, compared to the industry standard of 85%.

“We upgraded a lot of [shows] back in February … so you can only imagine how much demand there has been since we have not had tickets to sell for a while,” Mosiman says with a laugh.

Nalpant added, “Her singing is incredible. Her voice is just beautiful and how she performs so personally it’s just beyond her years. And where you’re seeing her — you’re seeing a stadium show at a club.”

For Roan, beyond all the sellouts, a meaningful part of her tour is the routing, which include secondary and tertiary markets such as Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Norfolk, Virginia; as well as Springfield, Missouri — 20 minutes from her hometown of Willard.

“Every hometown show means so much to me, probably the most on any tour,” Roan says. “Also in the smaller cities, in the South and Midwest where not a lot of artists come, it’s just a greater appreciation that I can’t really describe between the audience and I. But every festival I’ve had a blast at, too. Coachella was really memorable and really special. It’s just kind of another level of performing because you are also performing with artists that are legendary and that I look up to a lot.”

Roan’s story isn’t one of an artist blowing up out of nowhere, but rather a classic Phoenix rising tale — an artist empowering her fans to find their own confidence as she embraced her true identity and kept moving forward despite the setback of getting dropped from her label and considering an end to her music career.

Roan came up with the song “Die Young” while attending summer camp at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and posted it to YouTube, which led her to getting signed to Atlantic Records at age 17.

She took on the stage name Chappell Roan in tribute to her grandfather Dennis K. Chappell (whose favorite song was a cowboy tune from the 1930s called “The Strawberry Roan” by Curley Fletcher) and released her debut EP School Nights in 2017, followed by support slots on Vance Joy’s 2017 tour and Declan McKenna’s 2018 trek.

After moving to Los Angeles in 2018, Roan started reinventing her music in a more synth-pop style — as Bobetsky recalls, Roan was “sick of singing sad songs.” He linked her up with a variety of collaborators including songwriter/producer du jour Dan Nigro, who’s behind many of the tracks on Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 album Sour and 2023’s Guts, as well as songs by Carly Rae Jepsen, Conan Gray and others. The two penned the “Pink Pony Club,” an ode to finding acceptance at a gay bar, inspired by Roan’s experience visiting West Hollywood, California’s The Abbey.

It took a year for Roan to convince Atlantic to finally release “Pink Pony Club” in April 2020, but she was dropped from the label just four months later. That same week, her boyfriend of four years broke up with her and she was forced to move back to Missouri to live with her parents. Around that time Roan was also diagnosed with bipolar II disorder.

It would have been easy to give up, especially with the ongoing global pandemic — and Roan has shared she considered quitting music, perhaps going back to school — but she carried on. She continued writing songs while working at a drive-through coffee kiosk and eventually made her way back to Los Angeles. Upon her return, she took on a variety of jobs while working on her music including serving as a nanny, production assistant on an HBO show and cashier at a donut shop.

Bobetsky explains that post-Atlantic Records, they just started building her career independently with the focus on putting the creative first — “and the belief that she’s really, really good (laughs) and so if she just keeps making music and keeps on building her presence and all of that — that it was gonna work.”

He adds, “It’s funny because right now obviously we’re having a pretty wild moment and it feels like everything’s kind of converging but … I use the ‘Field of Dreams’ reference a lot — ‘If you build it, they will come’ — and I think that it’s never rung truer for an artist than for Chappell Roan.”

Roan again teamed up with Nigro and her first song released as an independent artist was “Naked in Manhattan” in 2022, which also marked her first tune expressing romantic interest in a woman. After releasing singles “Femininomenon” and “Casual,” Roan signed with Amusement Records, the new Island Records imprint launched by Nigro, which put out her debut, full-length album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in September 2023 (which just hit the top 10 on the Billboard 200, nine months after its release).

As Roan’s sound evolved, she transformed her look, trading in her long brunette curls for a fiery red color and learning how to do drag makeup.

February 2023 marked the launch of her debut headline tour, “Naked in North America Tour” — featuring local drag queens and theme nights such “Pink Pony Club” and “Slumber Party Kissin’” for fans to dress the part — followed by the launch of the “Midwest Princess Tour” in September 2023.

A month ahead of the album release, Roan spoke to Rolling Stone about the LP and the “Midwest Princess Tour” and said: “This is for queer pop fans. It’s for everyone, but really this is for the gays, girls and theys to have a fucking blast and dress up however you want. … This is literally a fun, silly drag project that is meant to have a party to.”

Justin Eshak, Island Records co-CEO, praised the party Roan has created as she’s taken her alter ego project to the next level: “Chappell’s ascendancy is largely attributable to her live show. It’s a cathartic experience where fans feel part of something bigger than themselves. From inviting local drag queens as openers, to outfit-themed shows, she and her incredible team have put tons of thought into creating an exciting and inclusive environment. Her vision is inspiring and it’s thrilling to watch the world discover the next generational superstar.”

For uber fan and content creator Reyna Cohan, she connects with Chappell’s music because it brings the feeling of being a kid and dancing to pop music in your living room with your friends into adulthood.

“Her concerts are such a cool and welcoming place,” says Cohan. “Everyone has bought into the camp aspect and is dressing up and there to let loose. She has the words on screen so singing along feels almost mandatory, and it’s so clearly not about her but about the community. She has local drag performers open for her and they just set the perfect tone for a Chappelle show — interactive, boisterous, raunchy but also wholesome. If she’s within an hour of me, I’m going to that show, period.”

Cohan adds, “I recently saw her in Asheville, North Carolina, and also saw her last year in Charlotte. There’s something really special about seeing her in a state where legislation is so hateful towards the LGBTQ+ community. Like, it’s such a celebration of queerness in places where it’s often unwelcome. It rules.”

Close to Roan’s heart is making sure that fans feel welcome and using her platform to lift up others. Maya Bizness, who is one of the drag queens who performed at Roan’s June 7 show at KEMBA Live! in Columbus, Ohio, said that Roan even came backstage to her dressing room to take pictures with the performers and was “kind enough to post all of our Cash App and Venmo information on her [Instagram] story a few hours before the show started. So before the show even started people were sending us tips. People started following us on social media and it’s done a lot of good for my social media presence as a whole.”

Mosiman explains that when Wasserman Music started working with Roan, one of the first things she told them was how it was important for her to have inclusive venues including gender-neutral bathrooms and making sure everything is up to code as far as ADA accessibility.

“Her morals are the throughlines for everything we do as her agents and it’s pretty incredible that she has taken the time to think so carefully about everyone else and what everyone else is experiencing at a show,” Mosiman says.

Plus, Roan also uses her guest list for scholarships for fans that can’t afford tickets and proceeds from every ticket sold on her tour are going to For The Gworls, a Black- and trans-led charity based in New York.

As for what’s next for Roan, her agent Nalpant says “world domination.” Mosiman adds, “I think we’re watching history be made every time we see her — she is the moment.”