CoSign is an accolade we use to put our stamp of approval on an up-and-coming artist or group who is poised for the big time. For June 2023, we’re highlighting LA-based pop star Chappell Roan and her debut LP, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
There are plenty of ways to mark the “arrival” of a musical artist these days: viral success or a performance on Saturday Night Live, a Coachella debut or a Harry Styles cosign. But not often does a talent arrive in the most dramatic and unabashed fashion, asserting their identity with a shout of, “I am here, and I am the one you’ve been waiting for.” Kaleigh Rose Amstutz made just such a proclamation with her 2020 single as Chappell Roan, “Pink Pony Club.”
The song, which already serves as a beloved “cult classic” for Roan’s legion of fans, epitomizes her journey from shy, midwestern princess to proud, bombastic pop star. She addresses her disapproving, conservative mother as she justifies her move to Los Angeles: “I heard there’s a special place/ Where boys and girls can be queens every single day,” she sings, working up to her liberation in real time. She gives voice to her mom’s concerns, launching into a theatrical chorus with, “I know she’s gonna scream/ God, what have you done?/ You’re a pink pony girl and you dance at the club,” But instantly retorts, “Oh mama, I’m just having fun/ On the stage in my heels is where I belong.”
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With “Pink Pony Club,” Amstutz completed her transformation into Chappell Roan, embracing the pop idol she’s created for herself. As the song’s lyrics suggests, however, it’s been a long process to assume this identity, and it has required her to search inward. “The version of myself now was birthed out of necessity,” she tells Consequence at the Gold Diggers recording studio in Los Angeles, “because when you start uncovering ‘inner child’ work, every day or every session of therapy is like, ‘Oh my God, I did not know I was like that because of what happened in my childhood.’ So I feel like Chappell Roan is a project that is dedicated to my younger self that never felt the space to be this version of myself.”
Opening up that space has given a wider breadth to the young pop star’s career. “Pink Pony Club” marked the beginning of a fruitful period of collaboration with songwriter and producer Dan Nigro, with whom she would spend the next few years crafting her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (out September 22nd). Throughout this era, via word of mouth in queer communities and the Los Angeles music scene, Chappell Roan has become your favorite pop star’s favorite pop star, toured alongside Olivia Rodrigo and Fletcher (with more dates with Rodrigo scheduled for next year; get tickets here), and assumed the role, as Roan says, of a “mini queer icon.”
A great deal of Roan’s reinvention comes in the fact that she’s embraced her queer identity, and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is indebted to these discoveries. This results in Roan not just leaning into the exaggerated camp language of big budget diva pop, but re-appropriating things from her past of which she was previously taught to be ashamed. “The whole mood is kind of a satirical ‘fuck you’ to my upbringing as this oppressed girl who feels like she can’t be anything more than a wife or a mother, or can’t be anything more than something pretty to look at who should be smiling all the time,” she says. “The mood board is kind of like this bratty, in-your-face, lewd, lyrical, gaudy girl. It’s kind of like white trash-meets-thrift store pop star.”
She goes on to mention her “tramp stamp” tattoo, which reads “princess” on her lower back. “This is actually a very meaningful tattoo, because it was the tattoo that was made fun of the most by my community growing up,” says Roan. “It represents ‘trashy’ and ‘whore,’ just all of the negative, misogynistic things that women get. But the ‘princess’ aspect of it comes from me always feeling pressure to uphold a standard of being ladylike and a good Christian girl that never makes mistakes, to be appealing but not overly sexual… There are just so many rules, so getting a tramp stamp that said ‘princess’ was kind of like, ‘fuck you!'”
Roan’s insistence on presenting herself in such a bold and unabashed way is an opportunity to transcend the labels that our culture prescribes to women; in doing so, she creates pop music so confident that it’s borderline unhinged, a maximalist vision that throws ecstasy and sorrow into a blender to make a bright pink smoothie, sweet as it is sour. This is exemplified on one of the album’s bombastic singles, “Femininomenon.”
“That one is very much the rise and fall of a Midwest princess,” she says of the song. “I’m literally talking about a time where I wanted to be a wife, serving my husband, and getting everything I want, like, ‘I’m marrying my high school sweetheart,’ et cetera. And then it’s like, ‘Well, he can’t even fulfill you in multiple ways. So, I need a woman, basically to get the job done.'”
As for the definition of “femininomenon?” While Roan first answers that it represents a “divine femininity” that can be wholly empowering, she then clarifies succinctly: “It’s just about being a bad bitch and knowing that there is nothing else in the world that can come close to that.”
Both on and off stage, Roan is heavily inspired by drag performers — taking cues from their outfits, makeup, and bawdy candor and even inviting local queens to open her “Naked in North America” tour earlier this year. “Drag is probably the main inspiration for this whole project, because it’s so fun,” Roan says. “There’s nothing more exciting than watching a drag show, and seeing the outfits, and the campiness, and oh, the drama.” Having drag performers as show openers is particularly loaded in various American cities in 2023, as Roan notes that they are “randomly villainized.” “You’d be surprised, a lot of people that come to my concerts have never been to a drag show or even know their town has drag,” she says. “That’s what was probably the most fulfilling aspect, drag being kind of front and center.”
Much of the time, drag is known as a way for men to perform femininity in an exaggerated fashion, but for an already femme-presenting person to dress in drag adds another layer of complexity and liberation. “I remember going to Disney World when I was like six or seven and seeing Princess Jasmine for the first time and being like, ‘Oh my God, that is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, I can’t believe she’s real.’ And that’s how I feel whenever I see drag queens,” says Roan. “They’re just so inspiring because they are who they are. And they make me feel that I can be who I am. So, in every aspect of drag, it’s just so fun to incorporate it, with styling, with makeup, with how I perform, with how I dance — with everything.”
This added layer of authenticity via an exaggerated performance of gender and sexuality is a huge aspect of why Roan has become so beloved in the queer community. For her shows this year, Roan prescribed a theme for each performance, and attendees arrived dressed accordingly. It’s a way for Roan to feel connected to the community she’s attempting to foster, and create a safe space in the process. “I just try to create two hours of another world, where no one’s gonna judge you for what you’re wearing, you’re gonna meet other queer people, other really sweet, fun people. All I can offer is maybe a little bit of solace and peace for a second.”
But “peace and solace” for Chappell Roan does not exactly call for seriousness. Instead, she beckons you to the dance floor for nothing but fun and freedom. “I always call it ‘Slumber Party Pop’ because it’s like a slumber party to me,” says Roan in regards to her shows and overall musical style. “Something always happens when everyone turns the lights off and you’re just all laying there, and then you do the deep talk and someone starts crying. That’s the same vibe as the album — you’re with your girls, and it doesn’t have to obviously be girls, but you’re just with people around you that you feel safe with and comfortable and silly.”
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess Album Artwork
On The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan dresses herself up to let her guard down. She’s doing it for her younger self, and in turn, for thousands of young queer people all over the world. Kaleigh Amstutz is Chappell Roan, yes, but Chappell Roan is also an idea, a safe space for liberation, for being ‘too much’ in a world that repeatedly demands that women and queer folks tame their own identities for the sake of patriarchal assimilation.
“All I can do is my best and fight alongside the people who listen, because I am one of them. I am just a random girl that loves pop music that happens to be able to sing.” The claim is humble, but the idea remains larger than life — a perfect summation of Chappell Roan’s seismic vision.