Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, better known as Chappell Roan, has risen to stardom over the past year. Many consider her to be an “overnight success”. Her latest album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released over a year ago, in September of 2023, but it has only recently caught fire and made Roan a major star.
Roan started her career in the conservative hometown of Willard, Missouri, when she was in high school. She uploaded demos of her music to YouTube, which then caught the attention of record companies.
Roan got her stage name from her grandfather, whose last name was Chappell, and whose favorite song was “The Strawberry Roan” by Curley Fletcher. In 2020, she wrote and produced the song “Pink Pony Club” with popular producer Dan Nigro, who has worked with several artists in the pop scene, such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, and Sky Ferreira.
In 2024, Roan’s streaming numbers rose drastically. This can be attributed to many factors, including the fact that she was the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour. Roan also opened for Rodrigo during her Sour Tour a few years ago.
Many also discovered Roan during her NPR Tiny Desk concert, on their YouTube recommended page. Fans thought this performance was campy and raw, so they first saw the greatness in her work.
Another single, “Good Luck Babe”, was a major hit as soon as it came out. The song can be interpreted in many multiple ways, but at its heart, it’s a letter to someone struggling with compulsive heterosexuality. Chappell and her former girlfriend were together at one point, but years later, her ex realized that she was doing nothing with her life and was essentially just someone’s wife.
The first song on The Rise and Fall, “Femininomenon”, is a very upbeat track. It’s a song about celebrating women over mediocre men. It’s a song best listened to at the club, while jumping up and down. This is best exemplified when Roan asks her listeners, “Ladies, you know what I mean! And so does he! But does it happen?”
“Casual” is a grueling song about a relationship, where Roan thought they had something more serious, but the person she was with felt differently. She felt used in the relationship due to this.
In the music video for this song, Roan made the interesting choice of having her love interest be a sea creature, or a siren, one that in folklore typically calls in men with their voice and eats them afterward. Throughout the music video, it cuts to the artist decorating her bedroom to be more sea-like. Towards the end of the music video, Roan is still rejected, despite her efforts.
“Picture You” is a low-tempo, ethereal masterpiece. It features Roan’s beautiful vocals, as she yodels throughout the song. She uses a technique called “vocal flipping”. It’s challenging to master, yet she does it so beautifully every time she performs the song.
“Pink Pony Club” is a song Roan wrote after going to her first gay bar in Los Angeles. She felt liberated by being there, after growing up in her conservative hometown in Missouri. The song title refers to an invented location, but it was inspired by The Abbey, a bar in West Hollywood.
Roan sings, “You’re a pink pony girl, and you dance at the club. Oh, Mama, I’m just having fun on stage with my heels. It’s where I belong.” She describes a sense of belonging at the “Pink Pony Club”, as though it is an escape from her previous life.
“HOT TO GO!” is probably Roan’s most commercially successful and memorable song. She created a dance for it, where fans spell out the title with their hands. At Lollapalooza 2024, a festival that takes place every year in Chicago, Roan amassed an estimated crowd of more than 110,000 people, the largest in the festival’s history. It is amazing to watch this giant group of people all doing the dance.
Roan’s career is just getting started, and it’s moving fast. She recently just hit the top of the Billboard Artists 100 for the first time in her career, and she is likely to be nominated in many categories at the Grammys, including Best New Artist. This album is definitely a must-listen, especially if you want to understand what the hype around Chappell Roan is all about.
