Chappell Roan Opens Up About Struggles With Skyrocketing Fame
“I was just like, this is really weird and really hard. In the past, honestly, eight weeks, my entire life has changed.” Pop star Chappell Roan, 26, said this when she sat down with SNL actor Bowen Yang via Zoom for Interview Magazine back in June.
It has been another eight weeks since the interview, and the singer has found even more success: her 2023 debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, has just reached a new high on the Billboard 200—at #2, just behind Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.
Roan’s Spotify monthly listeners have jumped from one million to 40 million since she opened for Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour Tour in February 2024. When asked about the stress of seemingly instant success, she replied, “I don’t know anyone who’s going through this, personally. The biggest thing has been getting recognized, and just feeling not myself. And touring, it’s all-consuming.”
Roan signed with a music label in 2015 and released her first single in 2017. Since then, she has been dropped by her label and launched multiple singles before her song Good Luck, Babe! finally broke through the Billboard Hot 100 at #77 in April 2024. The runaway hit has been streamed over 500 million times on Spotify, and the music video has been viewed 23 million times on YouTube.
“I’ve never given a f*** about the charts or being on the radio,” Roan said. “But it’s so crazy how industry people are taking me more seriously than before. I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this the whole time, b****.’”
She continued, “Like, my career doesn’t mean anything more now that I have a charting album and song. If anything, I’m just like, ‘F*** you guys for not seeing what actually matters.’ A chart is so fleeting. Everyone leaves the charts.”
Roan also compared chart performance to being a valedictorian in high school: “I’m just like, ‘This is giving valedictorian.’ But everyone graduates. The valedictorian doesn’t really matter, and that’s kind of what I feel like right now.”
Chappell Roan’s Plea to Fans
Just a few hours after the interview was published, Roan took to TikTok to share her feelings about being harassed in public and her personal life being dissected online.
“I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it okay, that doesn’t make it normal. That doesn’t mean that I want it, that doesn’t mean that I like it.”
She also pled to fans interacting with her in person: “I don’t give a f*** if you think it’s selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That’s not normal. That’s weird. It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online and you listen to the art they make. That’s f******* weird! I’m allowed to say no to creepy behavior.”
