Chappell Roan has shared her thoughts on her recent success as a pop artist, saying in a new interview that she’s “never given a fuck about the charts”.
Read More: Chappell Roan: the pop supernova who feels like one of the ‘Drag Race’ girls
A recent feature published by Interview Magazine sees Roan in conversation with comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang.
It begins with Yang addressing the whirlwind surge in popularity Roan has enjoyed since the release of debut album ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess‘.
Amidst her ascent to pop stardom, Roan has recently gone public about her discomfort towards the “weird” and “creepy” behaviour exhibited by her fans. She admits to Yang that the continual attention is “really weird and really hard,” due in part to her public image as an openly gay artist making her success “automatically political”.
“I don’t know anyone who’s going through this, personally,” she states. “The biggest thing has been getting recognized, and just feeling not myself. And touring, it’s all-consuming.”
Prior to the release of her debut album, Roan found modest success as an up-and-coming artist, although her popularity in 2024 has added new perspective on how she feels about the music industry.
“I’ve never given a fuck about the charts or being on the radio, but it’s so crazy how industry people are taking me more seriously than before,” she says. “I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this the whole time, bitch.’”
She continues: “My career doesn’t mean anything more now that I have a charting album and song. If anything, I’m just like, ‘Fuck you guys for not seeing what actually matters.’ A chart is so fleeting. Everyone leaves the charts. I’m just like, ‘This is giving valedictorian.’”
However, along the conversation, Roan affirms that the queer fanbase she’s attained from the start has been reassuring while she grows in public stature.
“Me trying to navigate this, I feel very supported,” she says. “Because I’ve never not been myself. I’m really glad the persona that I have, the drag version, is still very much me.”
In NME‘s The Cover feature in February, Roan spoke about the importance of her fans’ support. “The queer community is my main fanbase, so my responsibility is to pay it forward by donating a portion of ticket sales and sales in general [to LGBTQ+ charities] and show up at Pride events,” she says. “Really, I’m here to give back all the energy that the queer community has given to me.”
Chappell Roan. Credit: Kristen Jan Wong for NME
Last Friday (August 30), the manager of the ‘Red Wine Supernova’ singer revealed in an interview that Roan is “busy writing” new music.
Nick Bobesky touched on the slow-burn success of ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’, saying the making of that album was “about continuing to do what we’ve always done, and that’s to have a very clear focus on the world of Chappell Roan.”
The record became Roan’s first UK Number One album almost a year after its release. Her rapid ascent comes in part due to the huge global success of her one-off single ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, as well as the support slot she locked in on Olivia Rodrigo’s huge run of ‘Guts’ tour dates.
The former NME cover star recently announced the cancellation of a handful of her European gigs, sighting “scheduling conflicts”, although her manager noted they were not “stretching things too thin” and not doing “a load” of collaborations.
“It’s part of our core strategy. It’s not: ‘Let’s do everything, let’s maximise every ounce of the success that’s currently happening’, that’s not the point,” he continued: “The word ‘marketing’ in the world of Chappell Roan means something really different than it does to a lot of artists right now.
“She’s not an artist who’s been driven by, ‘How loud can this moment be? How do I reach more people?’ That doesn’t come into it for her. People feel that, which means they feel part of the success, not separate from it – or from her.”
Roan’s remarks about fan behaviour earned her praise from Paramore‘s Hayley Williams, who took to Instagram to say the pop star was “brave”.
“This happens to every woman I know from this business, myself included,” wrote Williams. “Social media has made this worse. I’m really thankful chappell is willing to address it in a real way, in real time. It’s brave and unfortunately necessary.”
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