The Midwestern singer-songwriter Chappell Roan has had a phenomenally successful year. Her 2023 debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, has long reached one billion streams on Spotify, and it’s hard to believe that just two years ago, the vast majority of people had never even heard of her.
Although she started making music in 2016, Chappell’s true emergence into the mainstream didn’t start until nearly ten years later in 2024, when she opened for popular singer Olivia Rodrigo during her Guts World Tour. Performances of Chappell’s new single, “Good Luck, Babe!” (2024) at Coachella and other venues later went viral as well, skyrocketing the singer to success seemingly overnight.
The instant fame that’s possible nowadays due to the prevalence of social media comes with its costs. It’s not easy to get used to millions of people suddenly knowing your name, and Chappell Roan has opened up about how she often feels harassed by disrespectful fans stalking her and her family and touching her nonconsensually. She’s even said she “might quit” if the abuse continues.
While Roan’s reactions to the situations she’s been in are understandable, some critics say she is unprofessional for being rude to her fans, who made her successful in the first place. In TikTok videos, Chappell has said that she “[doesn’t] owe” anything to her fans, and many of them are “creepy” towards her.
A more recent controversy sparked when on September 27th, Chappell Roan canceled two of her shows at the All Things Go festival in Maryland on September 28th and 29th with barely 24 hours of notice. While some fans were sympathetic to her prioritizing her own mental health over performing, many were angry about the short notice, considering many vendors don’t allow refunds within that time frame.
It’s unclear as of now how this controversy will impact Chappell, or if she’ll even continue making music at all considering the stress that stems from it. Will her brazen attitude towards disrespectful fans stop their inappropriate actions, or will she crack under the pressure of the adoration (and disdain) of millions?
