Chappell Roan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chappell Roan
Roan performing in 2022
Born	Kayleigh Rose Amstutz (1998-02-19) February 19, 1998 (age 27) Willard, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Singer songwriter
Years active	2014–present
Relatives	Darin Chappell (uncle)
Musical career
Genres	Pop
Labels	Atlantic Island Amusement

Chappell Roan, whose real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, was born on February 19, 1998. She is an American singer and songwriter. She first signed with Atlantic Records and released her first mini-album, School Nights, in 2017. After leaving that label, she released several independent songs. One of these, "Pink Pony Club", helped her become well-known. She also performed as an opening act for Olivia Rodrigo on the Sour Tour and the Guts World Tour.

Roan released her first full album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, in 2023 through Island Records. Critics loved the album, and it quickly became very popular. It was even nominated for Album of the Year at the 67th Grammy Awards, where she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 2024, she released a new song called "Good Luck, Babe!" which became a big hit. It reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Other songs from her first album, like "Hot to Go!", also became popular on various music charts.

Early Life and Music Start

Kayleigh Rose Amstutz was born in Willard, Missouri, on February 19, 1998. She is the oldest of four children. Her mother, Kara, is a veterinarian, and her father, Dwight, works in healthcare. Her uncle is Missouri State Representative Darin Chappell. She has said that her hometown and childhood were very traditional and Christian. She went to church often and spent summers at Christian camps. In an interview, she shared that she sometimes struggled with her upbringing and wanted to explore more.

Roan started playing the piano when she was about 10 or 11 years old. She began taking lessons at age 12. Her first public performance was at age 13, when she sang "The Christmas Song" at her school's talent show and won. Around age 14, she tried out for America's Got Talent but didn't make it. When she was 14 or 15, she started uploading cover songs to YouTube. This caught the attention of different music labels. She began writing her own songs as a teenager. She finished high school a year early. Roan has mentioned missing some typical teenage experiences, like prom and her high school graduation, because of her early music career.

Music Career Journey

2015–2021: Starting with Atlantic Records

Roan began uploading videos to her YouTube channel in 2013. She mostly posted cover songs and some of her own original music. She also performed in her hometown and nearby areas from 2012 to 2015. In November 2014, Roan uploaded her original song "Die Young" to YouTube. She wrote this song at a summer camp, which she said "changed my path forever." She then traveled to New York for music showcases, and in May 2015, she signed with Atlantic Records. In 2016, she chose the stage name Chappell Roan. This name honors her grandfather, Dennis K. Chappell, who passed away that year. It combines his last name with a word from his favorite song, "The Strawberry Roan."

On August 3, 2017, Roan released her first song, "Good Hurt." Critics liked the song, praising her "striking maturity and surprisingly deep vocals." On September 22, 2017, she released her first mini-album, School Nights, through Atlantic Records. In 2017, she also opened for Vance Joy on his Lay It On Me Tour. During this time, Roan lived with her parents in Springfield, Missouri. They would fly with her to Los Angeles or New York City for music events. In 2018, Roan moved to Los Angeles. She has said that this was the first time she felt free to be openly herself. She felt "overwhelmed with complete love and acceptance," which helped her start "writing songs as the real [her]." From January to March 2018, she toured the United States with Declan McKenna.

Roan started working with songwriter and producer Dan Nigro in late 2018. In April 2020, Roan released "Pink Pony Club." She described this song as a big change from her earlier music. Nigro produced the song, and Griffin Stoddard directed its music video.

Roan released two more songs, "Love Me Anyway" and "California," in May 2020. However, her songs were not making enough money for Atlantic Records. So, the label stopped working with Roan in August 2020. Her boyfriend of four years also broke up with her that same week. For the next two years, she worked as a production assistant, barista, and nanny to support herself. In December 2020, USA Today listed "Pink Pony Club" as one of the "10 best songs of 2020." They called it a dance-pop song that "earnestly [celebrates] queer culture, acceptance and chasing your dreams." A year later, Vulture called "Pink Pony Club" "the Song of Summer 2021." By August 2022, the song had been played over 10 million times on Spotify.

In early 2021, Olivia Rodrigo's song "Drivers License" became a huge hit. This meant Dan Nigro, who worked with Roan, focused more on Rodrigo's album Sour. Roan found it hard to find another music partner she liked as much. She briefly moved back to Missouri to work on her music independently while working at a drive-through.

2022–Present: Rising to Fame

Roan moved back to Los Angeles in October 2020 to keep working on her music independently. She took on various jobs, including working as a production assistant and at a donut shop. She then got a music publishing deal with Sony.

Roan performing at the Vogue Theatre in 2022

In August 2022, she released another independent song, "Femininomenon." Earmilk described the song as "so fun and loud but so intricate" and different from her previous work. Roan said the song, produced by Nigro, was her attempt to "get away with being as ridiculous as I possibly can." The music video, which she directed herself, showed Roan riding a dirt bike. Roan also released "Casual," a song she started with Nigro in 2020. This song, also produced by Nigro, talks about a romantic partner who doesn't want to commit. It was inspired by a short relationship Roan had during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February 2023, Roan started her first headline tour, called the Naked in North America Tour. Each show on the tour had a special theme. Roan suggested outfits for her fans and made her own unique costumes. Inspired by Orville Peck, Roan chose to have drag performers open her shows. Concerts from the tour received great reviews. Jem Aswad from Variety said it was a concert where "you recognize when a new-ish artist's career is about to blast off," similar to Lorde in 2013 and Billie Eilish in 2019. In March 2023, Roan released "Casual," followed by "Kaleidoscope," "Red Wine Supernova," and "Hot to Go!" later that year.

On September 22, 2023, Roan released her first full album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. She then started her second headline tour, the Midwest Princess Tour. This tour went across North America and included shows in London, Paris, Berlin, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Amsterdam. Roan donated $1 from each ticket sold to a charity called For the Gworls. She also had drag performers open every show. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was listed as one of the best albums of 2023 by many publications, including Time, Rolling Stone, and Billboard.

Roan opened for Olivia Rodrigo's Guts World Tour in the United States and Canada from February to April 2024. In her first week on the tour, her music streams increased by 32 percent. Also in February, Roan was a musical guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In March, NPR Music released Roan's Tiny Desk Concert performance.

In April 2024, Roan released the song "Good Luck, Babe!" She called it "the first song of the next chapter." The song talks about a woman trying to ignore her romantic feelings for Roan and other women. Billboard praised the song as a "well-deserved breakthrough." It received 7 million streams in its first week and quickly became a top hit on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was Roan's fastest to reach 100 million streams. By August, it reached number six, becoming her first top ten song on the chart. Even though it wasn't on her first album, this song's success helped her album gain worldwide recognition. In June 2024, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess entered the top ten on the Billboard 200 for the first time. By August, the album reached number two.

In April, Roan performed at Coachella. Around this time, her success on Spotify grew, with her monthly listeners increasing by over 500% from February to April. By June 2024, Roan's weekly streams had grown more than twenty times since the start of the year. That same month, Roan shared that she had turned down an invitation from the White House to perform for Pride Month. During the Governors Ball Music Festival, Roan said, "we want liberty, justice and freedom for all. When you do that, that's when I'll come." She mentioned the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and transgender rights. Later, she explained that she thought about going but decided against it. She felt that performing music there might put her and her family's safety at risk.

Roan performed a new song called "Subway" at the Governors Ball Music Festival, showing she is working on a new album. At a concert in June, Roan talked about how fast her popularity was growing. She said, "I think my career is just kind of going really fast and it's really hard to keep up. I'm just being honest, I'm having a hard time today. [...] This is all I've ever wanted—it's just heavy sometimes." After her performance at Lollapalooza in August, she drew the biggest daytime crowd ever seen at the festival.

In September, Roan performed at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards and won Best New Artist. She dedicated her award to people who are unique and express themselves freely. In October 2024, she reached number 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart for the first time. This happened at the same time her first album had its biggest sales week ever. Roan was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on November 2, 2024, where she performed and hinted at a new country-style song called "The Giver." Roan also appeared in the Netflix special A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter in December 2024. In January 2025, Roan was named the winner of the Sound of 2025 poll by the BBC, which predicts rising music stars.

In February 2025 at the 67th Grammy Awards, Roan won her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In her acceptance speech, she asked record labels to provide artists with fair pay and healthcare. She said, "Labels, we got you, but do you got us?" Roan's work was also nominated for other Grammy awards. Her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. Her song "Good Luck, Babe!" was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Artistic Style

Roan writes most of her songs with co-writers, especially her producer, Nigro. Her song "Kaleidoscope" is the only one from her first album that she wrote all by herself. After her first song, "Good Hurt," her style was described as "pop sound [...] infused with a dark and unsettling tone." In 2018, she called her music a mix of natural and electronic sounds, with a pop feel, and "dark pop with ballad undertones." Atwood Magazine said that in her teenage songs, she "brought the hardship and turbulence of our teenaged years to life with a candidness and vividness seldom seen from her peers." Roan describes her music as "kind of the fairytale version of what happened in real life" because her stage character is a bigger, bolder version of herself. In 2024, Billboard called her an "innovative art-pop auteur."

Vocal Abilities

Even when she was just starting, Roan was praised for her singing. In 2014, Troye Sivan and Connor Franta complimented the then-16-year-old Roan's voice. Sivan said he hadn't heard a voice like hers since Adele. Franta called her a "vocally gifted goddess." Despite this, Roan has said she didn't have a "proper" vocal lesson until December 2022. She felt she had been "singing wrong" for 10 years. Constance Grady from Vox described Roan's early vocal style as a popular "indie girl slur" and compared it to "singing in cursive." She noted that "Pink Pony Club" marked the start of Roan's vocal change.

Roan is said to have a soprano vocal range. Kelly Nguyen, writing for the official Grammy Awards site, praised Roan's "near-perfect vocal stability." In a review of Roan's live show at Heaven, a gay club in London, Poppie Platt of The Daily Telegraph praised Roan's "soaring, pitch-perfect high notes," saying each note "shudder[ed] with feeling."

Influences and Look

Roan has said that Kate Bush is a major influence on her music. She also gets ideas from artists like Abbey Watkins, the film The Beguiled, and musicians such as alt-J, Stevie Nicks, Ellie Goulding, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey. In 2023, Roan shared that she listened to Lorde, Del Rey, and Goulding throughout her high school years. She has said that the song "Stay" by Rihanna inspired her to start writing music. In 2023, a Variety article described Roan as "glammy and pop and embracing her femininity and shared Gen-Z generational experiences, and also very queer-positive." Roan has also mentioned Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj as inspirations for how she makes people feel confident with her music. Roan admires Ariana Grande, calling herself "an Arianator." Discovering artists like Katy Perry, Kesha, Britney Spears, and Pink during her teenage years also influenced her to write music and create her stage persona. Roan said she grew up with Christian rock but never truly connected with it, instead being curious about pop music.

Roan's makeup and hair are mainly inspired by drag makeup, including queens like Violet Chachki. Her makeup also takes ideas from Boy George, 1980s punk, and Vivienne Westwood. Roan described her makeup looks for the Coachella festival as if "Paris Hilton and James St. James or Walt Cassidy became one and put on a drag show." Roan is also very inspired by the Club Kids scene. On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Roan said her stage looks are inspired by horror movies, burlesque, and theater. Roan also described her approach to her stage costumes: "I love looking pretty and scary. Or, like, pretty and tacky. Or just not pretty. I love that too. I just think it's just not serious, I love that fans find such deep meanings to things and I'm just like, 'I don't know, I thought I looked hot.' Like, I don't know if it's anything more than that." Roan sees herself as a drag queen with her own stage character. She has said, "I've never fully understood why women shouldn't be allowed to do drag because – yes, I do drag! [...] It feels like they don't like women doing certain things. Another man trying to tell a woman what to do. Just try telling me what to do! I'm a drag queen – whether you like it when women do it or not."

Personal Life

Roan lives in Los Angeles. After her quick rise to fame, Roan often talked about the pressures of being famous. She has spoken out against some fan behaviors that she found "creepy" and "invasive."

Film and TV Appearances

Film

Television

Music Releases

Studio Albums

Mini-Albums (EPs)

Singles

Music Videos

Awards and Nominations

Tours

Chappell Roan performing at First Avenue on The Midwest Princess Tour in 2023.

Headlining Tours

• Naked in North America Tour (2023)
• The Midwest Princess Tour (2023–2024)

Opening for Other Artists

• Vance Joy – Lay It On Me Tour (2017)
• Declan McKenna – What Do You Think About The Car? Tour (2018)
• Olivia Rodrigo – Sour Tour (2022)
• Ben Platt – The Reverie Tour (2022)
• Fletcher – Girl of My Dreams Tour (2022)
• Olivia Rodrigo – Guts World Tour (2024)

Images for kids

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  Roan performing in 2022

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  Roan performing at the Vogue Theatre in 2022

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  Chappell Roan performing at First Avenue on The Midwest Princess Tour in 2023.

See also

In Spanish: Chappell Roan para niños