CHAPPELL ROAN

Who is Chappell Roan?

Chappell Roan is a pop artist hailing from Missouri, USA who has been earmaked as one of the most promising rising stars of her generation, with a penchant for theatrics that has seen her been compared to fellow trailblazers like Lady Gaga and Kate Bush. 

Originally dropped from her first record deal - where she made music with a more mainstream folk-pop sound - Chappell (whose stage name takes her late grandfather's surname and his favourite song, The Strawberry Roan by Curley Fletcher) re-invented herself with the help of producer Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Sky Ferreira) with a sound and visual identity that riffed as much on John Waters movies and drag bar cabaret as it does 80s New Wave and Lana Del Rey. 

Chappell's debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released in September 2023 but only started gaining public recognition following her stint as a support act on Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS tour - it only charted in the Top 40 of the Official Albums Chart on May 31 2024, for instance.

But every burgeoning superstar needs that one song at the right time that truly sends them stratospheric, and for Chappell that was the wistful sapphic lament Good Luck, Babe! on April 5 2024. Reminiscent as much of early-career Marina & The Diamonds and Kate Bush as it is a medieval renaissance fair, Good Luck, Babe! became Chappell Roan's first UK Top 10 single and one of the Top 10 biggest singles of 2024, placing at Number 8 on the end-of-year Official Singles Chart. Its continued success bolstered discovery of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess into the Top 10 of the Albums Chart, and the kinetic camp of HOT TO GO! in the Top 40 for the first time. 

Following a steady 17-week climb and boosted by a vinyl release, on 9 August 2024 The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess eventually landed at Number 1, cementing a truly spectacular breakthrough year for Chappell Roan. By the end of the year, Official Charts confirmed it to be the UK's biggest debut album of 2024, and the best-selling debut album on vinyl in 2024.

In January 2025 Chappell Roan was named the BBC Sound Of...2025 winner.