Chappell Roan American Singer With 7.7M Instagram Followers

Early life

Chappell Roan was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz on 19 February 1998 in Willard, Missouri. She began playing piano around the age of ten or eleven, and she performed in public for the first time at a school talent show, which she won. She auditioned for America's Got Talent without success, and from her early teens she uploaded cover songs and then original material to YouTube, which attracted the attention of several record labels. She performed around Willard and Springfield from 2012 to 2015 and finished at Willard High School a year early. She also attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts, where she wrote her song "Die Young" during a summer camp.

Career

In November 2014 Roan uploaded "Die Young" under the name Kayleigh Rose, and in May 2015 she signed with Atlantic Records. She took the stage name Chappell Roan in 2016, combining her grandfather's surname with a word from his favourite song. Her first single, "Good Hurt", came out on 3 August 2017, followed by the EP School Nights on 22 September 2017. That year she supported Vance Joy on tour, and in early 2018 she toured the United States with Declan McKenna. She moved to Los Angeles in 2018.

In April 2020 she released "Pink Pony Club", produced by Dan Nigro, which she described as a sharp change of direction from her earlier music. Atlantic dropped her in August 2020. She continued to work independently in Los Angeles while holding a series of odd jobs, and later spent a short time back in Missouri. By March 2022 she had a publishing deal with Sony and released "Naked in Manhattan", her first release as an independent artist, followed by "My Kink Is Karma" and "Femininomenon" that year. She sang backing vocals on three songs by Olivia Rodrigo and was an opening act on Rodrigo's Sour Tour and on Fletcher's Girl of My Dreams Tour.

Her first headlining tour, Naked in North America, began in February 2023. In March 2023 she signed with Amusement Records, a label Nigro created for her, and also partnered with Island Records. Later that year she released "Kaleidoscope", "Red Wine Supernova" and "Hot to Go!". Her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was released on 22 September 2023, and she then began the Midwest Princess Tour, which ran into spring 2024 with dates across North America, Europe and Australia. She opened for Rodrigo's Guts World Tour in the United States and Canada from February to April 2024.

The single "Good Luck, Babe!" was released in April 2024 and later peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, her first top-ten song on that chart. The success of the single helped lift her debut album, which reached number two on the Billboard 200 by August. She performed at Coachella in April 2024 and appeared on Saturday Night Live on 2 November 2024, where she previewed "The Giver". She released that song on 14 March 2025, and in July 2025 she released "The Subway", which she had first performed at the Governors Ball festival in 2024. Her 2025 and 2026 tour was titled Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things. Her music has been described as pop, synth-pop, dance-pop and art pop, and Atlantic Records is among the labels listed against her name.

Recognition

At the 67th Grammy Awards in February 2025, Roan won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Her album was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, and "Good Luck, Babe!" was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. In her acceptance speech she called on record labels to provide artists with a living wage and healthcare. "The Subway" was later nominated at the 68th Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. In September 2024 she won Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards, and in January 2025 she was named the winner of the BBC's Sound of 2025 poll. She is also listed with the Artists to Watch honour for 2024.

Public roles

In October 2025 Roan launched the Midwest Princess Project, a nonprofit organisation that aims to support transgender young people and to protect other LGBTQ+ communities. In June 2024 she said publicly that she had declined an invitation to perform at that year's White House Pride celebration.

Personal life

Roan lives in Los Angeles, California.