Chappell Roan
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz (born February 19, 1998), known professionally as Chappell Roan (/ˌtʃæpəl ˈroʊn/ CHAP-əl ROHN), is an American singer and songwriter from Missouri. Working with long-time collaborator Dan Nigro, her music is inspired by 80s synth pop and early 2000s pop hits. Her aesthetic is heavily influenced by drag queens and her music has been called "campy".
Chappell Roan
- Singer
- songwriter
2017–present
When she was 17 years old, Roan uploaded a song titled "Die Young" to YouTube. In 2017, she signed with Atlantic Records, and released her debut extended play (EP) School Nights. Her 2020 single "Pink Pony Club" helped Roan rise to prominence, and she left the label that same year. After a series of independent releases, her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released through various record labels in 2023.
Early life[edit]
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz was born in Willard, Missouri on February 19, 1998.[1][2] She took the stage name Chappell Roan in honor of her grandfather Dennis K. Chappell, who died of brain cancer in 2016; his favorite song was "The Strawberry Roan" by Curley Fletcher.[3][4] She has expressed dislike for her birth name.[4]
Around age 10-11, Roan began playing the piano.[5] At 13, she performed publicly for the first time, surprising her parents and grandparents by singing and accompanying herself on the piano to her own arrangement of "The Christmas Song" in a Christmas pageant in 2011.[6][7] At 14-15 years old, she began uploading covers of songs to YouTube, drawing attention from various record labels.[8] When she entered her teen years she began songwriting.[5] When she was 17 years old, she uploaded an original song titled "Die Young" to YouTube.[2][9] She subsequently traveled to New York for several musical showcases, which led to her signing with music label Atlantic Records.[10] Roan later described missing many childhood experiences in the "messy" beginning of her music career, including prom and her high school graduation.[3]
Roan lived with her parents in Missouri through 2017, flying with them to Los Angeles or New York City when necessary. She is gay,[11][12] and has stated that she first felt able to live openly as a queer woman when she moved to Los Angeles in 2018.[3]
Career[edit]
2017–2021: Early work[edit]
On August 3, 2017, Roan released her first single, titled "Good Hurt." The song was reviewed favorably in Interview, in which an article praised her "striking maturity and surprisingly deep vocals."[13][9] On September 22, 2017, she released an EP titled School Nights through Atlantic Records.[10] Also in 2017, she supported Vance Joy on their Lay It On Me Tour.[14]
In 2018, Roan moved to Los Angeles from Springfield, Missouri.[2][15] She later described feeling "overwhelmed with complete love and acceptance" after the move, stating that it allowed her to begin "writing songs as the real me."[16] From January to March 2018, she toured the United States with Declan McKenna.[8]
Roan began working with Dan Nigro in early 2020.[17] In April 2020, Roan released "Pink Pony Club." The single was produced by Nigro, and its music video was directed by Griffin Stoddard.[2][15] A year after its release, Vulture described "Pink Pony Club" as "the Song of Summer 2021," calling it a "synthy infectious bangarang."[2] Roan has cited a visit to The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, as the inspiration for the song.[15][16] She told Cherwell that the song was about her desire to become a go-go dancer in Los Angeles, stating, "truthfully, I'm not confident enough to do that, so I wrote a song about it."[4] USA Today ranked the song third on a list of the "10 best songs of 2020"; an accompanying description characterized it as dance-pop that "earnestly [celebrates] queer culture, acceptance and chasing your dreams."[18] By August 2022, the song had been streamed more than 10 million times on Spotify.[4] "Pink Pony Club" was not profitable enough for Atlantic, who dropped Roan from the label in 2020. Her partner of four years broke up with her the same week, and she spent the next two years working as a production assistant as well as a barista and nanny to support herself.[3]
In early 2021, the success of Olivia Rodrigo's song "Drivers License" shifted Dan Nigro's focus from Roan as he worked on Sour with Rodrigo; Roan was unable to find a collaborator whom she liked as much.[3] She then briefly moved back to Missouri to work on her music independently while working in a drive-through.[19]
Chappell Roan discography
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