If you’ve been on the internet lately, I’m sure you’ve heard the name Chappell Roan being thrown around. If you have not heard the name and have no clue who I am talking about, you are in for a wild ride.
Chappell Roan has always been musically inclined but has not always been loud and proud of it. She states in an interview with MTV that she “was able to sing but was very embarrassed by it.” By her freshman year, she was writing all kinds of songs regarding relationships intertwined with religion.
In 2018, Chappell Roan packed up her bags and moved to Los Angeles, where she was able to fulfill her dreams of living as a female queer musician and go on to become the next face of pop music. After some tough losses in 2021, such as her prior record label dropping her, she moved back to Missouri to work independently on her music.
By 2022, she was back in LA and ready for more.
She released her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in September of 2023. This was a monumental step in the new era of pop music. The album itself consists of 14 unique songs and follows (in Chappell Roans words) “The storyline of a girl who moved from a small conservative town to a city and had an awakening of this world she never knew existed … Which includes queerness, which includes heartbreak, which includes falling in love, which includes the city and clubs, and it’s the world of Chappell Roan.”
A good majority of the songs (HOT TO GO!, My Kink Is Karma and Naked In Manhattan) off the album create an image in a listener’s head of this promiscuous, confident and charming woman; who we publicly know as Chappell Roan. However, in other songs, such as Coffee, Kaleidoscope and Picture You, we see the mastermind that is behind the beautiful Chappell Roan persona, and that is one Kayleigh Rose Amstutz. While we fans know Chappell Roan as Chappell Roan, she is simply an outlet for Kayleigh’s fantasies and dreams. Kayleigh Rose Amstutz really is the person under all that drag-esque makeup, those glitzy bodysuits and those big red curls.
Do not let this character fool you, though. Kayleigh herself is one strong, confident and charming woman by herself. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was listed in several lists of best albums of 2023, including fourth in TIME and 12th in Rolling Stone. The album was also listed as 18th in Pitchfork’s 22 Best Pop Albums of 2023 and was named Pop Buzz’s Number One Album of 2023.
Her music is everything. It is rich, eccentric, captivating, groovy, vulnerable … all the above. It tells an engaging story of one southern-raised girl who is trying to break free from the cycle and become who she truly is destined to be, all while giving listeners a one-on-one therapy sesh. It lures listeners in with its catchy beats, smooth rhythm and divine lyricism. I feel as though I am Eve, and this album is the apple, except instead of death the entire album has been stuck in my head on a loop for the past month.
Chappell Roan’s aesthetic is if drag met Y2K and Bratz Dolls, which makes her my pick for this generation’s pop princess. She is real, she is vulnerable and she did not come to mess around. She is bringing back gay pop one HOT TO GO! dance at a time, and for that alone I am ever so grateful. If you have not listened to The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess yet, I absolutely recommend going to immediately. Stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube — burn it on a CD for all I care. Please, go listen to it and dive into the obsession that is, the enchanting Chappell Roan.