Music’s Best New Artist, Chappell Roan carries the promise of a disruptive ‘Femininomenon’

Monday morning, when most of my part of the world was bracing to struggle through yet another mundane week of the same cyclical routine, a thousand miles away in Los Angeles, California, the lives of a few artists were changing irrevocably.

If there was one aspect of the 2025 Grammy Awards that made it different from previous years, it was the satisfaction of seeing certain musicians get their long-overdue flowers.

From Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX, who have been hustling in the industry for decades, to Beyoncé, who until now had always been snubbed for a well-deserved Album of the Year award, Sunday night’s ceremony was a long time coming.

Nevertheless, the Grammys, like almost every competition that pits art and artists against each other, were followed by a mix of both informed and entitled opinions from the general public.

Stan Twitter was starting to look like a polarised melting pot of prejudice as the arguments about numbers and innovation quickly devolved into divisive debates about race and gender.

Amidst this debacle, perhaps the only outcome every listener agreed upon was that of the Best New Artist category, for in the past year, only one nominee truly made the kind of waves deserving of such a title.

Twenty-six-year-old Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, better known and beloved as Chappell Roan, accepted her award to resounding applause from the event’s attendees, which included the biggest, most influential names in music. Although many were surprised at the topics she touched upon in her speech, it came as no shock to those who have been keeping up with Chappell since her breakthrough last year.

From being dropped by her label in the middle of Covid-19 to supporting her art on her own and ultimately performing at a festival where 110,000 voices sang the lyrics back to her, Chappell Roan has established herself as a nostalgia-evoking voice with a future-forward attitude.

As her popularity has skyrocketed, Chappell has time and again used her influence to redirect the spotlight from herself to the issues closest to her heart. And she undoubtedly did so on the most significant stage of her career.

Though it wasn’t just her speeches that brought attention to issues such as the exploitative operating practices of music labels or the marginalisation of the transgender community in the US.

The song “Pink Pony Club” that Chappell chose to perform wasn’t the one nominated for Song or Record of the Year. And yet, the implications were hard to miss—an openly queer artist performing a powerful anthem about unashamedly owning her sexuality, in a get-up inspired by trans drag queens, in Trump’s America.

Getting the same people who had elected a president hell-bent on banning a community out of existence to sing along was an even bigger power move on Chappell Roan’s part.

While her Grammys performance had everyone mesmerised, public opinion about Chappell has varied widely ever since “Good Luck! Babe” launched her into stardom.

From ‘diva’ to ‘difficult’ to even more distasteful labels, the singer has faced her fair share of public ire for no other reason than simply refusing to conform and compromise on her boundaries and values.

A few months ago, before the US presidential election, while her peers rallied to endorse the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Chappell refused to do so, citing the candidate’s inadequate treatment of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, an issue the singer has been vocal about.

Before that, at a red carpet event, she brazenly confronted a photographer who made her feel disrespected by yelling at her. When newfound fame started taking a toll on her, Chappell pulled out of performing at a music festival to prioritise her mental health.

In yet another ‘scandal’, she refused to entertain requests for selfies and hugs from fans, calling out people for being ‘creepy’ and ‘entitled’ to her time and attention.

To the average person, having such interactions with fans is standard practice. Some would even consider it the bare minimum a celebrity could do for people who have elevated them to such status and acclaim.

However, Chappell persistently prompts us to think: if we don’t consider it normal to harass, stalk, or heckle a non-famous person, what about a person in the public eye makes them so different that they can no longer be afforded basic human decency?

In any case, the singer is clear about how she expects to be spoken to, stating in a TikTok video:

“I don’t care that it’s normal. I don’t care that this crazy type of behaviour comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK. That doesn’t make it normal. It doesn’t mean I want it. It doesn’t mean that I like it.”

It is particularly this brand of unapologetic selfhood that endears Chappell to even the general corporate worker, especially Gen-Z, who cannot relate to the glamour and shine of her new world but realise how it feels to be treated as a commodity rather than a person. And neither we nor Chappell can condone it any longer.

Perhaps the reason all of us are rooting for Chappell to succeed is that we are living vicariously through her.

This is precisely why her success feels so personal. On Sunday, she reminded us that all of us, even successful celebrities, are victims of inequitable systems, and none of us stand a chance to dismantle them on our own.

When Taylor Swift, arguably the biggest pop star of our time, can get conned out of owning her life’s work by profit-hungry labels and institutions like the Recording Academy can discredit a black artist like Beyoncé’s work for years, then reform is needed from a grassroots level.

Moreover, in an industry that is increasingly becoming saturated with out-of-touch ‘nepo babies’ who cannot fathom relying on their employer for health insurance, it is imperative to have a presence like Chappell, who did not have the cushion of privilege and connections to break her fall in a cutthroat environment.

In 2024 alone, the CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, who also owns equity in major music labels, reached a personal net worth of $6.8 billion—more than the net worths of Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Taylor Swift combined.

Meanwhile, the platform pays artists between $0.003 and $0.004 per single stream. Hopefully, these few figures are enough to destroy any delusions we common folk harbour about music being a lucrative career even in the West. In Chappell Roan’s case, including many others like her, it would be easy to pass off their success as a massive miracle or a wild stroke of luck, if only their talent and relentless hard work weren’t so apparent.

While “Good Luck! Babe” might have worked as a manifestation for Chappell, it remains to be seen whether she will make the music industry a safe space for artists in more ways than one.