Pop superstar Chappell Roan on Sunday won the Grammy for Best New Artist, besting stiff competition including from fellow artists of the moment Sabrina Carpenter and Shaboozey.
The honor caps a year in which Roan went from struggling artist to music’s It girl.
The 26-year-old used her acceptance speech to put the recording industry on notice to treat struggling artists with more respect and offer better social protections.
“I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” she said to applause.
She recounted how difficult it was to be dropped by her label with “zero job experience,” and then to find a job as the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation.
“It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized,” she said.
“Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees,” she said. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
Festival breakthrough
Born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz on February 19, 1998 in small-town Missouri, the artist took to singing and piano at a young age, and began gaining attention for videos she uploaded to YouTube in her teens.
She moved to Los Angeles and back home again to support herself as a barista before finally coming into her own with singles like “Pink Pony Club” and “Naked in Manhattan,” which found renewed fame upon release of her debut studio album.
That record, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” came out to widespread acclaim, with a number of publications including it in their lists of the year’s top releases
The bold, vulnerable album explores themes of sexuality, heartbreak and yearning with a pop-forward, dance-heavy beat, while also showcasing her impressive vocals that one critic characterized as “singing in cursive.”
The album lived mostly underground for several months after its release, before exuberant performances from Roan including at major festivals saw her burst to the forefront of pop.
Her artistic persona is part of the appeal: Her aesthetics frequently draw from the world of drag, coupling heavy makeup with camp costumery.
Songs like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Hot to Go!” went viral, with the former becoming her first Top 10 hit.
Roan has been outspoken about her support of queer and trans rights as well as her public support of the Palestinian people, and has also spoken out about the psychological toll of her massive fame.
