Few artists have captured the public’s attention in such a short time as Chappell Roan . Through challenges, rejections, and extraordinary determination—culminating in a 2025 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist— Roan is redefining the landscape of contemporary pop music with her signature style that blends ’80s synth pop, drag energy, and queer lyrics .

Kayleigh Rose Amstutz was born in 1998 in Willard, Missouri . She grows up in a conservative community, where her talent seems out of place. Her high school is known more for producing two Olympic athletes than for any connection to the music industry. She finds his escape in music. At thirteen, she takes the stage for the first time in a school competition, which she wins, repeating the following year. Two years later she wrote her first song Die Young &ndash; a melancholy ballad about a boy she couldn&rsquo;t have. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the corniest song in the world,&rdquo; she would say years later.

In 2014, during a summer camp for young artists, everything changes: the song ends up on YouTube and attracts the attention of Atlantic Records . At 17, she flies to New York for an audition and gets her first record deal. That&#39;s how Chappell Roan was born, a stage name chosen in honor of her grandfather and his favorite song, The Strawberry Roan . But the fairytale dream is soon shattered. In 2017, she releases the EP School Nights , a melancholic and refined pop project, with atmospheres reminiscent of Lorde. Atlantic asks her to write &quot;sad pop ballads&quot;, and she does, but she feels that something is not working: &quot;I was so tired of singing depressing songs&quot;, she recalls, &quot;I wanted my music to sound like a party&quot;. In 2018, she meets Daniel Nigro for the first time, a music producer who will accompany her for a long time in her artistic production.

After releasing what would become one of her most famous hits, Pink Pony Club in May 2020, and after other releases that were not enough for Atlantic Records, in the midst of the pandemic the record company terminated Roan &#39;s contract. In a week she lost everything: her contract, the team that followed her and even her four-year relationship. &quot;I was devastated,&quot; she says. For a time she worked in Los Angeles as a production assistant, bartender and nanny. But with no money or prospects she was forced to return to Missouri, where she <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">went through a phase of deep personal reflection.

<h3 style="text-align: justify;">The artistic rebirth and the creative independence so sought after</h3> When Chappell Roan was diagnosed with bipolar II , everything changed. After years of uncertainty, she decided to take charge of her career , abandoning industry expectations to build a world that was all her own. &quot; I don&#39;t give a damn about what people think anymore. If I like it, then it&#39;s fine,&quot; a thought that became the backbone of her subsequent discography. Theatrical, ironic, unabashedly queer. Her &quot;drag queen popstar&quot; aesthetic , as she calls herself, comes to life with extravagant costumes, high-impact shows and an outsider attitude that doesn&#39;t knock on the door, it knocks it down. The sound? A perfect mix of synth-pop, hooks that get in your head and make you scream at the top of your lungs, lyrics that tell of desire and freedom . <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">After being dropped from her label <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">, Chappell Roan had to rebuild from scratch <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">. But instead of giving up, she played by her own rules <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">. She signed a publishing deal with Sony <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">, and in February 2022 she returned to the studio with Daniel Nigro <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">to work on Naked in Manhattan <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">. It&#39;s not only her first single in two years , it&#39;s also the first time she&#39;s written openly about an attraction to another girl . &quot; I&#39;d never written a queer love song before. It was a huge step for me.&quot; While she works in the studio, Olivia Rodrigo is next to her. Without thinking twice, Roan ends up recording backing vocals on three of Rodrigo&#39;s songs. Shortly after, the invitation that changes everything arrives: to open for the Sour Tour. &quot;I didn&#39;t have an audience of my own, but Olivia gave me the opportunity to steal a little of hers.&quot; In August 2022, she released Femininomenon , &quot; a perfectly orchestrated chaos,&quot; as she defines it. &quot;I just wanted to see how far I could go. Be as ridiculous as possible, and get away with it.&quot;

<h3 style="text-align: justify;">The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, the first studio album</h3> After years of self-promotion, self-directed tours, and unfiltered TikTok , Chappell Roan finally released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess , in September 2023. Produced by Daniel Nigro , the man behind Olivia Rodrigo &#39;s success, the record is a blast of &#39;80s synth-pop, queer theatrics, and pitch-perfect hooks. &quot; I wanted it to sound like a night out with the funniest drag queens you know.&quot; And it more than succeeded.

She also includes her first hit , Pink Pony Club, in the album: «They told me it would never work. Now it&#39;s one of my most listened to songs. It took four years, but we did it. And now I feel vindicated. And accidental revenge is much more satisfying than intentional revenge». The story of the Midwest that meets the freedom of the West Coast is the beating heart of her music. Her sound overwhelms even the most unexpected spaces with Hot to Go!, a song that made the leap from clubs to baseball fields, also conquering an unsuspecting audience. « I knew it would become the perfect song for a party. I didn&#39;t know it would end up being danced to by bros in college» . But it is Good Luck, Babe! the song that officially catapults her into the Olympus of pop. A song full of melancholy and nostalgic synths that tells of an unrequited love between two women. « This song is for all the people who have felt like a secret to someone» , she declared. The album debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, just behind Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. But Roan isn’t too concerned about the competition. “I just want to put on the best show I can. And I want it to be gay. And ridiculous. And beautiful.”

In 2024, Chappell Roan is having a remarkable year. At Coachella, she wows the crowd with a theatrical and provocative performance, appearing in a bright pink butterfly costume and proclaiming herself “ your favorite artist,” to paraphrase drag queen Sasha Colby. At Governors Ball , she makes her entrance on a giant red apple dressed as the Statue of Liberty , smoking a joint and delivering one of the festival’s most iconic moments. At Lollapalooza , she draws one of the largest crowds in the festival’s history, even outperforming some headliners. The pinnacle comes at the 2025 Grammy Awards , where Chappell Roan wins Best New Artist . In her acceptance speech, she reads a handwritten note denouncing the music industry’s treatment of young female artists, emphasizing her long journey to success.

<h3>Chappell Roan has already become a queer icon</h3> Beyond music, Chappell Roan has become a figurehead for the LGBTQ+ community . Openly lesbian, she uses her platform to celebrate sexual freedom and gender identity , without ever censoring herself. In June 2024, she turned down an invitation to the White House for Pride Month, openly criticizing the Biden administration for its policies on Palestine and transgender rights. “I will not be a circus monkey for Pride,” she said.

&quot;Labels, we support you, but do you want to support us?&quot; When Chappell Roan accepted the award for Best New Artist of 2024 , her speech was not a simple thank you, but a direct attack on the contradictions of the music industry. &quot;I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy I would demand that the record labels and the industry that earn millions of dollars from artists provide a living wage and health care, especially to emerging artists.&quot; Words that left their mark on an evening where the celebration of music was intertwined with social denunciation.

Just hours earlier, while walking the red carpet in an archive dress from Jean Paul Gaultier’s 2003 Haute Couture collection , Roan had already made her voice heard by speaking out about transgender rights . “It’s brutal right now, but trans people have always existed, they will always exist, and no one will ever take away the joy of trans people, no matter what, and that needs to be protected more than anything else.” Unafraid to speak out, she has turned her moment of glory into a platform to amplify messages that for her are non-negotiable.

Chappell Roan who is the Pop «Supernova»?

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