Chappell Roan, a drag queen created by singer Kayleigh Amstutz”, hit big over the summer with her single “Good Luck, Babe!” that made it to top No. 1 on Billboard’s chart along with her song “Hot To Go” reaching No. 17. Chappell was even able to make her way to the VMA’s, this past month. Both performing and winning the award for ‘Best New Artist’.
However, her rise to fame hasn’t always been so quick and successful. It has taken Chappell years to finally produce a debut album. Coming from what she describes as a “trailer park” in Willard, Missouri. Chappell’s upbringing was very conservative, as she went to church about 3 times a week. Starting from when she performed in her middle school talent show in her hometown is when her family and friends first discovered her talent of singing. Following her signing for a record label with Atlantic Records when she was scouted singing covers of songs on the social media app, YouTube, at age of 17. Knowing that she didn’t want to be performing under the name “Kayleigh Amstutz”, Amstutz went from Kayleigh to the stage name “Chappell Roan”. Combining her grandfather’s name, Dennis Chappell, with his favorite “The Strawberry Roan” by Marty Robbins.
Soon Chappell started flying back and forth between Willard and music studios in L.A. and New York. While in an interview with the Rolling Stone, Chappell expresses how unprepared she felt — “I didn’t know the consequences of how much I had to sacrifice. I didn’t go to my senior year. I didn’t go to prom. I didn’t go to graduation. I missed a lot of what would have been the end of my childhood to do this job” when referring to what she had to give up to commit to her job as a singer. Following her first single “Good Hurt” and her “School Nights” EP (extended play) in 2017. Now looking back on this part of Chappell’s career, she expresses her work to be “really dark, angsty pop that was pretty boring.”
When Chappell decided to separate herself from her conservative hometown in Missouri and live in L.A. full time. She was told that “this city was demonic and Satanists live here,” as Chappell states in an interview with NME. However when she came to West Hollywood, she discovered “that everything I was afraid of wasn’t always true”. It was also in L.A. where Chappell met and started collaborating with Dan Nigro, a music producer and songwriter who will soon help Olivia Rodrigo, another upcoming singer’s breakthrough with the song “Driver’s License”.
The first song, “Pink Pony Club”, Chappell and Nigro collaborated on was released in April 2020. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic taking place, the song’s popularity was scarce.
On episode 149, season 11 of ‘The Tonight Show’ Chappell was able to perform her new song “Good Luck, Babe!” as well as being one of the many featured celebrity interviewees of Jimmy Falon. While in the interview, Falon pointed out a picture of her at a festival, singing “Pink Pony Club” for the first time, with her crowd being only the people walking by. Chappell opens up by saying “I had no money, and I was working at a donut shop.” While describing what her current situation was during the time of the picture taken.
Later when Nigro had to leave Chappell to work more with Olivia Rodrigo on her album “sour”, Chappell’s record label was dropped by Atlantic Records. Causing Chappell to move back to Willard and working for a drive-thru. She wanted to go back to L.A. and return to her music journey. However, if she wasn’t able to make it back to L.A. within a year, Chappell was considering going to college to pursue another career in the medical field.
However, Chappell decided to scratch that plan and move back to L.A. for another attempt on her singing career. This time she continued to work with Nigro, working on her first album “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and several other singles, which helped Chappell get a record deal with Amusement Records. Soon her songs started to kick off, especially on the app TikTok, which Chappell, compared to other artists and singers, uses her media accounts to showcase both her humor and relatability. However, the first time the whole world was able to get a glimpse of Chappell Roan was at the Governors Ball on June, 9th, where Chappell full-on body-painted herself green and dressed up
as the Statue of Liberty. While introducing herself, Chappell states “I’m your favorite artist’s favorite artist.” Referring back to Chappell’s Tonight Show interview, Fallon mentions how when someone would search up ‘Chappell Roan” on the popular search engine, Google, it would state to that person “Did you mean: your favorite artist’s favorite artist”. In response, Chappell laughs and points out that someone from Google must’ve known that she referenced another drag-queen, Sasha Colby.
Since the Governors Ball, Chappell Roan’s audience has skyrocketed. Every-other song on the radio is one of her’s. Chappell went from only a few hundred, to over 45 million monthly listeners. Even when she’s not at her own shows, while opening up for Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour, the stadium is heard screaming to Chappell Roan’s songs. Along with her “Midwest Princess” tour being packed with fans, singing and dancing everywhere she goes. Chappell’s story is living-breathing, proof that not all successes take overnight to happen, in her case, it took almost a whole decade.