The Rising Pop Star ‘Chappell Roan’ Debut Album Four Years In The Making
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, known professionally as Chappell Roan, is an American singer and songwriter from Missouri. Working with collaborator Dan Nigro, the majority of her music is inspired by 1980s synth-pop and early 2000s pop hits. Her aesthetic is heavily influenced by drag queens, and her music and performing style have been described as “campy”.
When she was 17 years old, Roan uploaded an original song, “Die Young”, to YouTube. She was signed to Atlantic Records shortly thereafter. In 2017, she released her debut EP, School Nights. Her 2020 single “Pink Pony Club”, a stylistic departure from her early releases, helped Roan’s initial rise to prominence. She was dropped from Atlantic that same year.
Following a short break, she released a series of songs independently in 2022. Her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released through Island Records in 2023. The album was included in several best-albums-of-2023 year-end lists. Although not an immediate commercial success, Midwest Princess garnered a cult following in the months after its release and became regarded as a “sleeper hit” by early 2024. The album’s commercial breakthrough was largely influenced by Roan’s supporting act on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour, her performances at music festivals like Coachella and Governors Ball, and the success of her follow-up single, “Good Luck, Babe!”. By June 2024, Midwest Princess had climbed the charts, peaking within the top ten on the US Billboard 200 as well as in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK. Subsequently, several of its singles entered various charts for the first time since their release.
The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess
Roan had moved back to Los Angeles in October 2020 to continue working on her music independently while working a series of odd jobs, including as a production assistant and working in a donut shop. She then earned a publishing deal with Sony, and by March 2022, was able to work with Dan Nigro again to create and release “Naked in Manhattan.” The song was her first release in two years, her first as an independent artist, and her first to express same-gender attraction. It was described by NPR as a “queer girl bop” with lyrics that are “tender, nostalgic” and “flirty yet uncertain”. Roan also was selected as the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo for performances on Rodrigo’s Sour Tour and for Fletcher on her Girl of My Dreams Tour.
In August 2022, she released a second independent single, “Femininomenon”. Earmilk described the song as “so fun and loud but so intricate” and noted it was different from Roan’s past releases. Roan stated that the song, which was produced by Dan Nigro, was an attempt to “get away with being as ridiculous as I possibly can.” An accompanying self-directed music video featured Roan riding a dirt bike. Roan released another single, “Casual”, in October 2022, which she had begun working on with Dan Nigro in 2020. The song, which criticizes a romantic partner who refuses to commit, was inspired by Roan’s brief relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic that ended with her partner saying they had met someone else. Nigro produced the song, which has a melancholy sound inspired by Mazzy Star and Radiohead.
In February 2023, Roan embarked on the Naked in North America Tour, her debut headlining tour. Each stop on the tour had a theme, with Roan suggesting outfits for fans while making her own camp costumes herself. Inspired by Orville Peck, Roan chose to book drag queens as openers for the tour. Concerts from the tour received positive reviews in The Harvard Crimson and Variety, with Jem Aswad describing it as a concert where “you recognize when a new-ish artist’s career is about to blast off” similar to Lorde in 2013 and Billie Eilish in 2019. In March, 2023, Roan released “Casual”, followed later that year with the release of subsequent singles “Kaleidoscope”, “Red Wine Supernova” and “Hot to Go!”.
On September 22, 2023, Roan released her debut full-length album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and began her second headlining tour, the Midwest Princess Tour.
“Chappell Roan is not afraid to tell you—or, really, sing at you—about how she’s feeling, in vivid detail. On her debut album, the Missouri-born upstart, who has been making waves since the 2017 release of her intense debut single “Good Hurt,” collects tales of debauchery and despair as it chronicles her realization of being queer and coming into her own. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess opens with Roan singing mournfully about a dastardly ex-boyfriend over trembling pianos and starlit choirs; an insistent beat rises up gradually at first, then overtakes the song as she realizes she needs to be part of a “Femininomenon” that demands pleasure and respect from anyone lucky enough to be in her orbit. Left turns like that abound over the next 13 songs. Take the synth-pop “Casual,” which dissects a friends-with-benefits relationship in brutally specific detail, or the euphoric club cut “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” an insouciant dismissal of “hyper mega bummer boys” that opens with a sardonic mini-monologue and closes with a triumphant sing-along. Roan still traffics in ballads, too: “California” grapples with homesickness and frustration, Roan dipping down into her voice’s low reaches, while the plush “Coffee” examines the idea of fully closing the loop with an ex, with the reality of its impossibility closing in as the music swells. There’s a hunger that drives Roan’s music, even in its more introspective moments. It isn’t just sexual, although songs like the smirking poison-pen letter “My Kink Is Karma” and the flirty electro-psych come-on “Red Wine Supernova” show off how Roan’s erotic awakening has helped her whole outlook on life come into sharp relief. Her willingness to take pop in unexpected directions, combined with her frankness about the tangled feelings that arise even when good things seem to be happening, make her debut compulsively listenable.”
The tour, ending in the spring of 2024, traveled across North America and had shows in London, Paris, Berlin, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Amsterdam. Roan donated $1 per ticket sold to the nonprofit For the Gworls and opened each show with drag performers. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was included in several best-albums-of-2023 year-end lists, ranking notably in those by The A.V. Club, TIME, Nylon, Dork, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Vogue. It was also listed as one of Pitchfork’s 22 Best Pop Albums of 2023 and was named Pop Buzz’s Number One Album of 2023.
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